How Ryan Russell Is Combating Bisexual Stigma, For The NFL And Fans Alike

By Britni de la Cretaz


For queer athletes and fans alike, the sports world are usually feel closed off and exclusionary because historically, it hasn’t routinely been the most welcoming space for members of the LGBTQ+ community. However slowly, players are starting to put cracks in that facade, and showing people both in locker rooms and in the stands that queer people belong in sports.


On August 29th, NFL veteran and current free agent Ryan Russell came out as bisexual in an essay published by ESPN. The 27-year-old defensive end shared his two objectives for the upcoming season: to prepare it back to the NFL and to do it while living his life openly as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. He wrote about feeling like his “existence slipped between the cracks of two worlds,” and that he felt like he was not straight enough for the straight community and not gay enough for the gay one. He said feeling like he was being “deceitful” by not sharing his identity with the world, and feeling invisible for passing as straight while dating ladies. “I played football — so I put that in the straight column,” he wrote. “I wrote poetry and romance stories — so I put that in the gay column. After awhile, I came to build two worlds.”


the answer to the essay, and by extension, Russell’s truth, was predominantly supportive; he also told TMZ that former coaches and teammates had reached out to cheer him on.


“As someone who is bisexual, it was really heartening [for me] to read his story,” Regina, a 23-year-old from Ottumwa, Iowa, tells MTV News. Even so, Russell’s essay threw her for a loop, if only because she hadn’t heard stories like his broadcast on a national level. “Honestly, As soon as I read the headline, I expected him to be coming out as gay and not bi,” she admitted. “Reading him explicitly identify as such was shocking.”


Statistics propose that about 50 percent of people who are part the LGBTQ+ community identify as bisexual and more than 40 percent of LGBTQ+ people of color identify as bisexual — and those numbers are on the rise. Nevertheless bisexual erasure and invisibility in the queer community and behind often paint bisexuality as an illegitimate identity, or a stop on a path to eventually coming out as gay. A 2016 study noticed that, while advice about gay and lesbian people have undergone a markedly positive shift in recent years, the shift in advice about bisexual people had only gone from “negative to neutral.” The study also noticed that attitudes about bisexual boys were far less positive than attitudes about bisexual women.


“Because of this [dismissal] that bi+ people face, our sexualities are constantly erased, made more ‘digestible’ as being either gay or straight depending on who you're in a relationship with and why masculine or feminine you are,” says J.R. Yussuf, a writer and the creator of the #bisexualmenspeak hashtag.


By speaking directly to the bisexual experience, Russell’s choice to let the world in on his truth makes visible a story that several people have lived although is rarely spoke. Biphobia causes health disparities for bisexual people, putting them at higher risk than gay and straight people for mental health issues, substance abuse issues, physical illnesses, intimate partner violence, and sexual harassment. These risks are heightened for Black bisexual folks, and particularly for Black bisexual boys. A 2018 study noticed that compared with their gay counterparts, Black bisexual gentlemen experienced health disparities and increased risk of intimate partner violence. The study also noticed that Black bisexual boys were far less likely than gay boys to disclose their sexuality, which exacerbated those health disparities due to lack of access to community support and resources.


Slowly, we are seeing this lack of visibility and understanding start to shift. Shows like Schitt’s Creek and Brooklyn Nine-Nine have introduced bisexual characters who aren’t steeped in negative stereotypes. Identically, visibility from people like Russell is an essential step in shattering some of those misconceptions; that he is doing so in the world of sports, where a culture of toxic masculinity is the norm, is even more challenging and significant.


“I was really excited and hopeful once the news first broke,” Yussuf says. “I thought to myself, ‘I know there really are so several bisexual boys in the NFL, in professional sports at large, and this can be a real watershed moment if other players are ready or have a want to reveal another layer of their experience.’”


Only time will tell if that’s true. As Russell notes in his essay, there really are not currently any openly LGBTQ+ players in the NFL, NBA, NHL, or MLB. While there really are several openly gay professional female athletes, men’s sports have been much slower to accept LGBTQ+ players into their ranks. Michael Sam became the opening openly gay player in the NFL once he was drafted by the St. Louis Rams (who right now play in Los Angeles) in 2014, though he was cut before ever playing a down in the league; he has since spoken about how challenging the years following that experience were for him. Other players, like former New England Patriots tackle Ryan O’Callaghan and Wade Davis, who was drafted by the Tennessee Titans, have come out in retirement.


“Ryan… shines a much-needed light on the lack of visibility and support for bisexual athletes,” the non-profit Athlete Ally, whose mission is to end homophoia and transphobia in sports, said in a statement. “By coming out as bisexual, Ryan can support more people understand that sexuality is on a spectrum.”


Yet queer players still have a uphill battle to climb, as evidenced by tweets from former NFL player Larry Johnson, which followed Russell’s announcement and invoked a “effeminite agenda.”


For Davis, who right now serves because the LGBT inclusion consultant for the NFL, those comments underscored the necessary for representation by players in the league, and although Johnson’s tweets are harmful, Davis is glad they’re out there. “Otherwise people would get to mention that this isn't a big deal and whether you believe it’s a big deal or not, there really is a still an idea there really is a ‘gay agenda’ to feminize men,” he told MTV News. “What his tweets unearth is a separate conversation that is happening among male-identified folks who are wrestling with their own ideas of manhood and masculinity. His discomfort says nothing about Ryan Russell and everything about him.”


While Russell’s openness is key for athletes on the field and in the locker room, it’s also essential for fans watching at residence, especially given how the sports world is notorious for being unwelcoming to its LGBTQ+ fans, and stadiums are not exactly referred to as bastions of queer acceptance. Homophobic stunts on the kiss cam continue to persist, and last month, an employee for the Colorado Rockies told a lesbian couple they couldn’t kiss in Coors Field. Despite several professional teams hosting Pride nights, and the NFL launching its own LGBTQ+ affinity group called “NFL Pride” in 2017 and marching in the New York City Pride parade the last two years, several people believe the efforts have remained superficial. People like Davis are working to help change that, although LGBTQ+ fans watching men’s professional sports teams have spent a long time seeing athletes who don’t symbolize them or who actively express beliefs that denigrate people like them.


Simply put, it matters as soon as your preference athletes teaches you who they are. Writer Tamryn Spruill wrote for Swish Appeal last year about how WNBA player Brittney Griner coming out inspired her to do the same — and saved her life whenever she was facing suicidal ideations.


“Seeing these little wins in representation” — like Russell coming out — “is so crucial to me because as someone who is still attempting to come to terms with the [queer] person I’ve figured out I am, it really just makes me feel a little bit better and validated,” James, a 18-year-old from Fresno, California, tells MTV News.


This significance is compounded for Black bisexual boys. Seeing someone who shares their identities reach the heights of the NFL can be “affirming that not only is their sexuality valid and usual in other Black males, however that it does not mean they can't reach a certain level of prominence or success,” Yussuf says.


Davis, also, underscores the importance of Russell coming out as bisexual — or, as Davis prefers to call it, “letting the world in.” “I hope that it creates a more curious conversation” around identity, and the nuances of identity, “especially among people who identify as male,” he says.


Shortly soon after his ESPN piece published, Russell posted a photo to Instagram with his boyfriend, dancer Corey O’Brien, and later shared a love poem. The two have launched a YouTube channel with each other. Even so, Russell told the New York Times that “You’re not going to be hearing me call myself a trailblazer.” He doesn’t have to; his actions will do the talking for him.