{"id":240470,"date":"2022-11-16T14:05:48","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T19:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/?p=240470"},"modified":"2022-11-16T14:40:19","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T19:40:19","slug":"isaac-humphries-coming-out-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/culture\/isaac-humphries-coming-out-video-240470","title":{"rendered":"Watch this pro basketball player come out to his teammates in emotional locker room speech"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"is-style-article-kik\">Melbourne United player Isaac Humphries says he wants to show that pro athletes can be openly gay<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Sometimes the hardest conversations can be the most uplifting. That was the case this week, when Australian pro basketball player Isaac Humphries came out as gay to his Melbourne United teammates in an emotional locker room speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve finally come to terms with this about myself, and I don\u2019t want to hide who I am anymore,\u201d he says in a video, which went viral Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the video, Humphries addresses a locker room full of teammates and coaches in what he says is \u201cone of the hardest conversations [he] ever had in [his] life.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He details being in a \u201cdark place\u201d a few years ago and attempting suicide over struggling with being gay and a professional athlete, before finding a community that helped him through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"zxx\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YTMc5bzLKc\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/YTMc5bzLKc<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Isaac Humphries (@IsaacHumphries7) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IsaacHumphries7\/status\/1592644869121404928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">November 15, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBut then came the big question mark of how do I be a basketball player and how do I join a new team when I\u2019ve finally come to terms with this about myself and I don\u2019t want to hide who I am anymore,\u201d he says. \u201cI decided that if I\u2019m going to join a team, I\u2019m going to come out publicly and just make sure people know \u2026 that you can live and you don\u2019t have to hide just because you\u2019re an athlete.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Humphries was born in Australia and spent time in Canada growing up. He joined Melbourne United in July of this year after playing for the NBA\u2019s Atlanta Hawks and several minor league teams.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Humphries becomes the first openly gay player in Autralian pro basketball. There are currently no openly gay players in the U.S.\u2019s NBA. Jason Collins came out following the 2012\u201313 season, but did not play again until 2014. He retired following the 2014 season.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over in football, NFL player Carl Nassib <a href=\"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/culture\/carl-nassib-coming-out-nfl-203394\">came out as gay<\/a> last year, becoming the first gay player on an active NFL roster. He currently plays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cToday Isaac Humphries has decided to demonstrate tremendous courage to make an important announcement to his teammates,\u201d read a post on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Ck_7nx0S3Mg\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Melbourne United Instagram<\/a>. \u201cAs an organization we are very proud of Isaac and look forward to supporting him through this next step in his journey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Humphries says his goal in coming out so publicly is to show that you can be whoever you want to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNo matter who you are and what you do\u2014you can be \u2018Big Ice\u2019 and be gay and you can still be a great basketball player and be gay,\u201d he says. \u201cI just want to be myself. I\u2019ve discovered this is my purpose in life and I\u2019m gonna give it my best go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Humphries\u2019s video circulated widely on social media Tuesday, with other athletes and public figures congratulating him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/paugasol\/status\/1592895411274264578?s=20&#038;t=o1mk7s9MbeN_-7W0P6rb5g\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/matthew_mitcham\/status\/1592835218423136258?s=20&#038;t=o1mk7s9MbeN_-7W0P6rb5g\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/JeffreyaReddick\/status\/1592721297351794689?s=20&#038;t=o1mk7s9MbeN_-7W0P6rb5g\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Beautiful. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/aJPOmxCjrj\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/t.co\/aJPOmxCjrj<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Richard Schiff (@Richard_Schiff) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Richard_Schiff\/status\/1592744122326343681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">November 16, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And as a fun bonus, Humphries is also a musician and has his own version of \u201cO Holy Night\u201d out, in case you want to make the yuletide even more gay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Isaac Humphries - O Holy Night\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b_v5dOPpVmQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-end\">Congrats to Humphries on his coming out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Melbourne United player Isaac Humphries says he wants to show that pro athletes can be openly gay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1177,"featured_media":240473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editorial_slug":"136","_editorial_slug":"136","exclude_from_latest_block":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,2],"contributors":[1933],"topic":[162,136],"clients":[],"series":[],"timeliness":[58],"editorial_format":[24],"type-of-work":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240470"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240470"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240513,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240470\/revisions\/240513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240470"},{"taxonomy":"contributors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributors?post=240470"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=240470"},{"taxonomy":"clients","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/clients?post=240470"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=240470"},{"taxonomy":"timeliness","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/timeliness?post=240470"},{"taxonomy":"editorial_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial_format?post=240470"},{"taxonomy":"type-of-work","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type-of-work?post=240470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}