Sports
Out and embracing it
Catching up with Kirk Walker, first out coach in Division I NCAA
Kirk Walker left Oregon State University as the ‘all-time winningest’ softball coach in the school’s history. (Photo courtesy of Kirk Walker)
When Kirk Walker and his partner Randy Baltimore decided to adopt a child in 2005, the process required the couple to fill out public records, which led to Walker making the important decision to do what no other head coach in Division I NCAA had ever done — come out to his team and the world. (Since his announcement, Sherri Murrell, head women’s basketball coach at Portland State, has also come out.)
“For probably five or six years before I came out, I was definitely in a place where I would not hide it and I wouldn’t lie about it, but I wasn’t necessarily sharing it and it wasn’t a point of conversation,” he says. “It certainly wasn’t something I shared with my team. In fact, my team was a very big turning point for me in terms of being more vocal.”
Walker was in his 11th season as head softball coach with Oregon State University at the time and it was important to him that his players learn he was gay from him, rather than through the news reports that were certain to follow.
FIND MORE OF THE WASHINGTON BLADE SPORTS ISSUE HERE.
Kirk Walker on the field at the University of California at Los Angeles, his current coaching post and alma mater. (Photo courtesy of Kirk Walker)
“I brought up the topic and I shared it with them,” he says. “For the next year or so, I was a little reluctant to do a lot of articles and interviews, because I didn’t want that to be the first thing listed on my resume, that I was the ‘gay coach,’ and that was partly my ego. I wanted my record to stand from my coaching world for who I was.”
Eventually, Walker decided that he was being selfish and that his attitude was diminishing the impact he could have, and proudly wore the label as “the coach who came out.”
Last season, Walker was offered an assistant coaching position for UCLA’s softball program and decided to make the move. He was an alumnus of the school and had previously served as a coach for the Bruins from 1984-1994, helping his alma mater to six NCAA National Championships.
Walker left OSU as the Beavers’ all-time winningest softball coach, with a 594-491 record, and led the team to 10 postseason appearances, including the College World Series in 2006 and the NCAA regionals in 2012.
Somewhat surprisingly, Walker believes he is making a bigger impact with LGBT students in his new role.
“As the role of a head coach, I know I was an example for people and they were respectful and appreciative, but a head coach is someone who is hard to seek out and share personal issues,” he says. “Now, being an assistant, I am in a different role and I certainly see more accessibility to me as a resource.”
In April, Walker, in conjunction with UCLA Athletics and UCLA Recreation, held an event for Athlete Ally, an organization that educates athletes, coaches and fans on issues regarding sexual orientation and sports. UCLA released a “You Can Play” video, which encourages acceptance and tolerance for gay athletes in all levels of athletics, and UCLA head football coach Jim Mora became the first current major college football coach to encourage gay athletes to play for his team.
“Coach Mora is fantastic and has been since I was hired,” Walker says. “I didn’t doubt for one minute that he wouldn’t be on board with the video we were producing and I certainly was very pleased he was so honest about how he felt, and I believe that was very powerful.”
Athletes from throughout the UCLA program — male and female — were on-board and Walker was impressed with the younger generation’s acceptance and support for teammates and individuals who might be LGBT.
Walker was happy that NBA player Jason Collins felt secure enough to come out and doesn’t believe that moments like this are as big a deal as many others do, calling it a safer climate today.
“I think anytime a high-profile person identifies as LGBT, especially in the sports world, it’s important, but I often said that there are many people in the media and the LGBT community who believe the first pro athlete or first football player or first basketball player that came out would be an earth-shattering moment, but I never really ascribed to that,” he says. “I think it’s fantastic, I think it’s great, but I don’t think an event like that means everything has changed.”
So, when contemplating why more athletes aren’t following Collins’ lead, Walker admits part of it is the perception of the public and part the perception of teammates. Still, he thinks the external struggle is the greatest challenge.
“For high-profile athletes, they worry, “Will I still be one of the guys? Will they still value me as a teammate and want me to be part of their family?’ and I think that’s a big roadblock,” Walker says. “I think the dialogue and having more conversations about LGBT athletes, coaches and individuals has created an opportunity in the locker room where there are some vocal people who will stand up and be supportive.”
As the new UCLA softball season is set to get underway, Walker is looking forward to more excitement and success from the team in his role as assistant to coach Kelly Inouye-Perez.
“I have relished the opportunity to be back in that role as an assistant and it’s been great. I have no regrets about making the move at this point in my career,” he says. “My passion in coaching is about changing lives and building individuals into the best person they can be moving into the real world.”
Sports
US wins Olympic gold medal in women’s hockey
Team captain Hilary Knight proposed to girlfriend on Wednesday
The U.S. women’s hockey team on Thursday won a gold medal at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Team USA defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime. The game took place a day after Team USA captain Hilary Knight proposed to her girlfriend, Brittany Bowe, an Olympic speed skater.
Cayla Barnes and Alex Carpenter — Knight’s teammates — are also LGBTQ. They are among the more than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes who are competing in the games.
The Olympics will end on Sunday.
Sports
Attitude! French ice dancers nail ‘Vogue’ routine
Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry strike a pose in memorable Olympics performance
Madonna’s presence is being felt at the Olympic Games in Italy.
Guillaume Cizeron and his rhythm ice dancing partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry of France performed a flawless skate to Madonna’s “Vogue” and “Rescue Me” on Monday.
The duo scored an impressive 90.18 for their effort, the best score of the night.
“We’ve been working hard the whole season to get over 90, so it was nice to see the score on the screen,” Fournier Beaudry told Olympics.com. “But first of all, just coming out off the ice, we were very happy about what we delivered and the pleasure we had out there. With the energy of the crowd, it was really amazing.”
Watch the routine on YouTube here.
Italy
Olympics Pride House ‘really important for the community’
Italy lags behind other European countries in terms of LGBTQ rights
The four Italian advocacy groups behind the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics’ Pride House hope to use the games to highlight the lack of LGBTQ rights in their country.
Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano organized the Pride House that is located in Milan’s MEET Digital Culture Center. The Washington Blade on Feb. 5 interviewed Pride House Project Manager Joseph Naklé.
Naklé in 2020 founded Peacox Basket Milano, Italy’s only LGBTQ basketball team. He also carried the Olympic torch through Milan shortly before he spoke with the Blade. (“Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie last month participated in the torch relay in Feltre, a town in Italy’s Veneto region.)
Naklé said the promotion of LGBTQ rights in Italy is “actually our main objective.”
ILGA-Europe in its Rainbow Map 2025 notes same-sex couples lack full marriage rights in Italy, and the country’s hate crimes law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. Italy does ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, but the country’s nondiscrimination laws do not include gender identity.
ILGA-Europe has made the following recommendations “in order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Italy.”
• Marriage equality for same-sex couples
• Depathologization of trans identities
• Automatic co-parent recognition available for all couples
“We are not really known to be the most openly LGBT-friendly country,” Naklé told the Blade. “That’s why it (Pride House) was really important for the community.”
“We want to use the Olympic games — because there is a big media attention — and we want to use this media attention to raise the voice,” he added.
Naklé noted Pride House will host “talks and roundtables every night” during the games that will focus on a variety of topics that include transgender and nonbinary people in sports and AI. Another will focus on what Naklé described to the Blade as “the importance of political movements now to fight for our rights, especially in places such as Italy or the U.S. where we are going backwards, and not forwards.”
Seven LGBTQ Olympians — Italian swimmer Alex Di Giorgio, Canadian ice dancers Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver, Canadian figure skater Eric Radford, Spanish figure skater Javier Raya, Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson, and Irish field hockey and cricket player Nikki Symmons — are scheduled to participate in Pride House’s Out and Proud event on Feb. 14.
Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood representatives are expected to speak at Pride House on Feb. 21.
The event will include a screening of Mariano Furlani’s documentary about Pride House and LGBTQ inclusion in sports. The MiX International LGBTQ+ Film and Queer Culture Festival will screen later this year in Milan. Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood is also planning to show the film during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Naklé also noted Pride House has launched an initiative that allows LGBTQ sports teams to partner with teams whose members are either migrants from African and Islamic countries or people with disabilities.
“The objective is to show that sports is the bridge between these communities,” he said.
Bisexual US skier wins gold
Naklé spoke with the Blade a day before the games opened. The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will close on Feb. 22.
More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are competing in the games.
Breezy Johnson, an American alpine skier who identifies as bisexual, on Sunday won a gold medal in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, on the same day helped the U.S. win a gold medal in team figure skating.
Glenn said she received threats on social media after she told reporters during a pre-Olympics press conference that LGBTQ Americans are having a “hard time” with the Trump-Vance administration in the White House. The Associated Press notes Glenn wore a Pride pin on her jacket during Sunday’s medal ceremony.
“I was disappointed because I’ve never had so many people wish me harm before, just for being me and speaking about being decent — human rights and decency,” said Glenn, according to the AP. “So that was really disappointing, and I do think it kind of lowered that excitement for this.”
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