This Pride season, there are more out gay athletes and sports figures than ever before. That also means there are more out gay sports couples!
Kevin Maxen, the first out gay male coach in NFL history, doesn’t take the occasion for granted. He publicly came out last July, meaning he’s celebrating his first Pride as an out gay man.
To kick off June, Maxen shared an adorable photo of his boyfriend and their dog.
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“Today I get to celebrate the start of my first Pride Month, as open and true to myself as I possibly could be,” he begins. “With all the fear and concern regarding LGBTQ inclusion in sports, I was very worried about how I would be welcomed and viewed by my peers, but after publicly coming out before the start of training camp this past summer, the@jaguars proved to me that no matter what, who, or how you identify, you are supported, loved and valued.”
The Jaguars offered Maxen their unequivocal backing, with owner Shad Khan expressing his personal support. “Kevin is a Jacksonville Jaguar through and through, and a key member of our football team and community,”he said at the time. “I look forward to seeing Kevin next week at training camp, and hope that he comes to work each day during camp and through the season feeling confident, free and at peace.”
The Jaguars finished the season with a 9-8 record, their second straight winning campaign. Their success once again proves that football teams can win with out gay players and coaches.
Jacksonville was the first NFL team to post a Pride message over the weekend, which we don’t think was a coincidence…
#DUUUVAL is for everyone 🏳️🌈 pic.twitter.com/ZBDLWnX5d8
— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) June 1, 2024
Since coming out, Maxen has been able to live openly with his boyfriend, Nicholas. He says it’s been one of his greatest joys.
“You still kind of have that hesitation, looking over your shoulder. But you know, he’s been around a lot of the coaches, a lot of the players. He’s been at events, just in a different capacity,” Kevin told Queerty.
He continued, “Just to have that transparency, where he could be a part of it, it meant a lot. It was good, because nothing really changed. I was still Kevin, and he was still Nick. It was business as usual.”
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The Jacksonville Jaguars associate strength coach publicly came out as gay last summer. Now, he’s sharing his story.
Looking back, Kevin says coming out didn’t cause him distress, as he previously feared. Instead, it alleviated his anxiety, and allowed him to be true to himself.
That means posting messages of inspiration… and showing off his cute bf!
“All the worry, the self-doubt, the pressure that I allowed to weigh myself down just based on this idea that I had to be afraid was suddenly lifted when I made the decision to stop listening to the negative, stop feeding into this fear that I was going to be viewed as different, and trust the people who were sharing positive stories, saying how great this was going to be not just for myself but for everyone involved,” Maxen wrote.
He concluded, “In the end, with the courage and sacrifices of those before us, goodness – as it always will – won.”
As a lasting lesson, Kevin says he’s learned most people are good in the world. You just have to look for it.
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For Rob Kearney, the “World’s Strangest Gay,” his husband was vital to his coming out journey. Joey was already out when they started dating, which pushed Rob to live his own truth.
Already a well-known weightlifter, Rob’s announcement reverberated across the strongman world.
“Shortly after the news broke is when a friend of mine was like, ‘Hey, like, I hope you know what you just did.’ I was like, ‘I have no idea what I just did,’” hetold theMyrtle Beach Sun News. “It kind of put me into the spotlight in a different way that I didn’t expect but was also excited to take on that challenge of really using my voice as a platform for LGBTQ+ visibility and underrepresented sports, like strength athletics.”
As the only out gay strongman, Kearney enjoys unapologetically open life. He and Joey shoot hilarious videos with one another, showing that love comes in all sizes.
They kicked off Pride Month with a celebration of their love, along with some adorable beach photos! (Kearney’s beard is appropriately dyed rainbow colors.)
“June is a time to celebrate love, fight for equality and show the world that because of who we love, we do not deserve to be treated as different or treated as less,” he wrote. “This pride month, with all of the [divisiveness] in the country and world, lean into love, lean into understanding and lean into learning about why PRIDE is so important, especially now.”
Kearney knows about the power of making a statement with his image. When he was competing in the World’s Strongest Man event in Florida in 2019, decided to dye his hair in rainbow colors.
It was a bold message issued towards Ron “Don’t Say Gay” DeSantis.
“I really wanted to come in and again just be unapologetic in who I am and not be fearful of being able to be my full self, so I decided to show up with a rainbow mohawk,” Kearney said.
As two bodybuilders, Rob and Joey bond over their love for the gym. For gay sports couples, athletics don’t pull them apart.
They pull them together.
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Rob Kearney, affectionally known as the “World’s Strongest Gay,” won the car walk at his final Strongman competition.
There isn’t a greater example than Kyle Friend and Tim Brewster, two pro beach volleyball players who started as teammates… and then fell in love. While playing together on the ATV Tour, Friend kept asking Brewster to team up, until he finally agreed. Their first tournament together was the 2022 Denver Tour Series, where they finished a respectable seventh.
From there, they kept qualifying for tourneys, steadily improving their ranking. After multiple top-10 finishes, they closed out the summer with four straight top-five finishes, and made the finals.
The pivotal moment in their relationship came while they were eating dinner at the 2022 Torquay Challenge in Australia. That night, Brewster opened up about his affection for Friend, who shared his feelings for his new teammate.
Following that conversation, their partnership expanded beyond the beach, and into every facet of their lives.
Two years later, they have no regrets!
“It’s funny because early on we were like ‘Let’s protect the volleyball. We’re playing such good volleyball, we need to protect that. We need to be OK stepping away from our off the court.’ So naïve,” Brewster said in an interview.
“Looking back on it a year and a half ago, crazy that we were saying that, and now we need to make sure we’re taking care of the off the court first because that’s what’s most important.”
Indeed! With the season in full swing, Tim and Kyle are ready to make June their month!
We are SO ready for this Pride season, which promises to be the sportiest one yet. For the longest time, athletics were on the sidelines of the Pride conversation. Now, they’re right in the center, and there’s plenty of love to go around.
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