Former NFL player speaks at UI in support of LGBT rights
Wade Davis, former NFL player and openly gay advocate for the LGBT community, said although he doesn’t look like the kind of guy who would play in the NFL, he fared well during his career.
“I was one of those really skinny guys who could run really, really fast,” Davis said.
Davis was invited by the University of Idaho LGBTQA Office to speak to the university community at the National LGBT History Month keynote event.
Davis publicly came out as gay in 2012, nine years after his career in the NFL ended due to an injury. He said his passion now lies in helping younger generations of the LGBT community through their struggles.
Davis spoke about his time in the NFL. He said the task of convincing everyone around him he was straight was a daily challenge that left him exhausted. Davis said not accepting his sexuality eventually led him to wonder if everything he did was wrong, including the way he walked or ran.
In an effort to convince people he was straight, Davis said he dated a Calvin Klein model for two years. Then, when his college football coach told an NFL scout he was not a “ladies man,” he said it worried him. Davis said he broke up with the girl and started going to parties to casually see more girls.
Davis said convincing others he was straight became a way of life.
“Because I need you to believe me,” he said. “I need you to believe me in order for me to survive.”
Now, many years later, Davis has his own nonprofit organization called YOU Belong, an initiative that offers a series of clinics designed to encourage inclusion and offer training and consulting services to LGBT youth.
Davis travels across the U.S. to talk to LGBT youth who face some of the struggles he faced in his childhood and early on in his football career. He said he tells audiences everywhere the stories of the people he’s met because it resonates with the struggles common to all members of the LGBT community,
Davis told the story of a boy who was homeless at the age of 14 because he was kicked out of his parents’ house after coming out to them. Davis said the boy felt helpless and turned to prostitution to survive on his own.
It was working at the Hetrick-Martin Institute in New York City where Davis met the young man, along with other youth. The Hetrick-Martin Institute is a LGBT organization that caters to youth aged 14 to 24.
“This organization changed my life,” Davis said. “I met the most amazing heroes and heroes you could ever imagine.”
Julia Keleher, director of the LGBTQA Office, said she and her colleagues try to hold an event for the Moscow community to celebrate the commemoration and recognize LGBT individuals who have come out.
“(They) have risked their lives to be out and to advance LGBTQA equality, both in Idaho and the United States, and also all over the world,” Keleher said.
Mary Malone can be reached at [email protected]