In a college football first, HBCU player comes out as gay
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By Jay Valle, NBC News
A Hampton University football player came out publicly as gay, a first for a football player at a historically Black college or university, according to Outsports.com, an LGBTQ sports news site.
Byron Perkins, a Division I defensive back for the Hampton University Pirates, came out as gay in an Instagram story shared Wednesday.
“I’ve decided that I’m going to make a change, and stop running away from myself. I’m gay, let it be known that this is not a ‘decision’ or a ‘choice.’ Yes, this is who I am, this is who I’ve been, and this is who I’m going to be,” Perkins wrote in the story, according to Outsports.com. (Instagram stories are only available for 24 hours, so Perkins’ original story is no longer viewable).
While several Division I football players have come out as gay during their college careers — including the College of Idaho’s Cy Hicks, Amherst College’s Avery Saffold and Kansas State’s Scott Frantz — Perkins is the first to do so at one of the country’s 101 HBCUs, according to both Outsports and Perkins.
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