Out Utah athletes

Utahhas its share of athletes who have come out as L, G, B, T, Q or plus. Many of them went to BYU and came out after leaving the school. Others were brought into Utah by sports teams. Here, we focus on the stories of five sportsballers and what they are doing today.

and former BYU queer athletes, and has now expanded into queer athletes from many universities and colleges.

She now lives with her partner, Nikki Hiltz, in Flagstaff, Arizona, where she helps run the Pride 5K.

“I got a little closer to becoming the person I needed growing up — someone determined to create a space in running where people can show up as themselves,” she wrote in a blog.

In its three years, the run has grown to 2,000 annual participants and raised over $100,000 for the Trevor Project.

Charlie Siragusa — Beach Volleyball very thing I feared the most. It has been incredibly empowering to see how good things can come when we simply have the courage to be ourselves,” he wrote.

One of his dreams was to break into the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour, which he did, but was defeated in the final round.

Emma Gee Runner

In 2018, track and cross-country runner Emma Gee became the first Division I athlete in Brigham Young University’s then-143-year history to be publicly out when she told her team and administrators she was bisexual. The school’s honor code stated at the time, “one’s stated same-gender attraction is not an issue.” She made national news.

She knew of other LGBTQ athletes at BYU who stayed in the closet to avoid negative attention or, possibly, expulsion. She wondered, though, who student-athletes, especially, could look to as a role model.

“Everyone deserves to look and say someone is like them and feel a sense of normalcy,” she told USA TODAY at the time. “I looked for that, just for one person, for a long time. When I couldn’t find that, I said, ‘Why not me?”

Last year, Gee started the Queer Athlete Podcast, available on Spotify, where she first started interviewing BYU

Rochester, New York beach volleyball player was at Brigham Young University for two years, 2017–19 before transferring to San Diego. While there, he served on BYU’s Student Athlete Diversity and Inclusion Committee, where he says he helped promote “a safe environment for marginalized groups, such as people of color, LGBTQ, and females.”

In 2021, he was named to the 2021 and 2022 U.S. Beach Collegiate National Teams, which consist of 13 of the top male collegiate athletes eligible to train and compete for the USA. He represented Team USA at the World University Championships in Brazil in September, 2022.

He now is a TikTok creator with nearly 100,000 followers and over 3 million likes. He started in October of 2021, wary of putting himself and his sexuality out to the world.

“Surprisingly, it is not even the ‘internet trolls’ that worried me. At the end of the day, those are just strangers,” he wrote in an essay. “What caused me the most anxiety were the real-world consequences of posting on social media. I worried about what the people from my everyday life would think about me being so candid about my sexuality on the internet.”

“I wish I could tell my younger self that one day people would respect me for the

Jack Hessler Snowboarding

When Jack Hessler’s family moved from Boston to Jackson, Wyoming, two things became very real: the ability to snowboard more than he ever had before, and the burgeoning realization that he was gay.

“As I forced myself further and further away from who I really was, snowboarding became my solace. It was my way to quietly express my true identity,” he said in a coming out story for OutSports.

As he got better at snowboarding, he said, he started picking up sponsors, winning contests, and going on film trips with professional teams.

“The deeper I got into the industry, the more snowboarding became my justifi- cation to stay in the closet. Every time I fell or didn’t execute a trick with style, someone would scream, ‘That was so gay,’” he wrote. “Damn bro, that shit hurts. What’s so bad about being gay?”

After years of ruminating, he said, he decided there wasn’t anything wrong with him, but there was something wrong with the world of snowboarding that he loved. He let his dreams of supporting his life through snowboarding die.

“After I came out and received nothing but support from even my most hardcore snowboarder friends, my life as I knew it changed,”” he wrote. “I could finally have real, deep conversations with people again, I could live without fear and I could understand what I wanted in life.”

He returned to snowboarding and based himself in Salt Lake City to start into a career of filmmaking.

2018, the Utah Royals Football Club drafted Proctor, who was one of the best collegiate goalkeepers in the country, from Duke University. But as the season unfolded, a veteran goalkeeper and the collapse of the Boston Breakers that shuffled players throughout the league, led Proctor to decide to leave.

Proctor had been excited to play in Utah.

“I knew I would be relieved to go anywhere, but when I got picked by Utah, I got really excited to be on the first team for their first season — it’s incredible,” Proctor said at the time. “You always think as a little kid that playing pro is never going to happen, but here it is, and I am so excited. I can’t wait to see what it’s like.”

EJ Proctor Soccer

EJ Proctor had a short run in Utah, but one that came with a lot of hype. In early

While at Duke, Proctor had the chance of winning an NCAA championship in her home state ripped from her hands. In 2016, the NCAA announced pulled sports events out of North Carolina over the state’s anti-LGBTQ law that overturned local laws protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination in the workplace, housing, and public accommodations and banned trans people from using the restroom of their gender identity in schools and government buildings. Proctor said she agreed with the decision to pull the event, saying she was “happy that the NCAA is making a stand.” She actually ended up leaving professional soccer altogether after the Royals and started coaching and personal training.

She is currently a physical therapy doctoral candidate back at Duke University.

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Jaxon Smith

Lacrosse

Jaxon Smith, a transgender man who competed in BYU’s Women’s Lacrosse team, came out as transgender before his senior year in 2021 while already in the process of transitioning. He posted a photo with a girl he was dating at the time right after the school removed a section on “homosexual behavior” that had prohibited all forms of same-sex physical intimacy. He was asked to have a meeting with his coach about it. When the coach indicated she needed to speak with administration officials about the situation, he said he made the difficult decision to step down from the team.

“There was a lot of fear and loneliness [before coming out as trangender], and it just puts closeted queer students in a vacuum,” Smith told Gee on the Queer Athlete Podcast. “When I came out, my teammates were super-awesome. They even asked questions about who I was dating.”

With coaches, however, he said it was more like a don’t ask, don’t tell situation.

Smith is now a product marketing manager in Lehi, Utah, and has volunteered as a Lacrosse coach for 5th- and 6th-grade girls.

BYU still uses Smith’s deadname on their athletic bio site.

West Conference after earning a track scholarship at the Air Force Academy, and then transferred to BYU to continue his sport, graduate in political science, and marry a woman to escape his attraction for men, a part of him he hated because of his LDS upbringing.

He came out of the closet on Thursday, Oct. 7, finally believing he is a good man. He said he has never felt so much peace in his life.

He took a coaching job at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, a progressive Catholic school that celebrates diversity among LGBTQ students. He says he felt embraced by the community and felt he found a new home.

After a Coming Out Week at the school, he decided to do just that.

How

Wyatt Warnick Javelin

Raised in Delta, Utah, Wyatt Warnick was a star quarterback for his high school’s football team, a star shortstop for the baseball team, a star point guard on the basketball team, and a star track athlete.

“I used sports as a crutch,” he told George Monson of the Salt Lake Tribune. “It gave me a reason not to date girls.”

He became a top javelin thrower in the Mountain

“This is the first time I’ve felt what I’m feeling,” he told Monson. “I don’t have to worry anymore. No more double life for me. I know there are people out there who won’t and don’t support me, but the amount of love and support I’ve had from so many is amazing.”

One of the first responses to a social media announcement, his LDS mission president told him, “I love you.”

“This isn’t a new chapter in my life,” he said. “It’s a whole new book. I’m learning how to grow and love myself, to live and be happy again.” Q