March 2, 2022
Watch: Out NFL Player Carl Nassib, Team, Support LGBTQ+ Youth in New Video
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
NFL player Carl Nassib, the NFL's first and only out active player, spoke out in a new video posted by his team, the Las Vegas Raiders, about supporting LGBTQ+ youth. The Raiders also pledged $100,000 to suicide prevention group The Trevor Project.
LGBTQ+ athletics news site Outsports noted that Nassib's remarks were his first public comments since the end of the most recent football season, and that the team's donation to The Trevor Project matched "Nassib's donation when he came out."
Nassib made history when, on June 21, 2021, he came out in a video posted to Instagram.
"That was a really exciting day for me, and I had been wanting to do it for a really long time," Nassib recalled in the March 1 video, going on to say that his coming out was intended to "give a voice to people that needed it the most."
Nassib went on to say, "It was definitely a stressful thing to do, but we were really excited to spread the message of The Trevor Project to bring visibility and representation to the NFL, to the sport – and we did it for the youth, for the kids who are really struggling the most."
Added Nassib: "That's who I'm most passionate about, and to be able to say that I helped them is absolutely incredible."
Nassib gave his team props for their support of The Trevor Project.
"I never expected them to match it," he says in the video. "I think it's really beautiful for them to take that step to support me, to support The Trevor Project. And it's not just writing another check, because it matters who it comes from, and what is meant behind" such a donation.
The video encourages viewers to take action in kind – not just financially, but by showing their support to the LGBTQ+ youth in their own families and social circles.
"Having at least one accepting adult in their life can decrease an LGBTQ young person's risk of suicide by 40%," teammate Alec Ingold said.
Team President Dan Ventrelle made a statement for the occasion, saying, "Diversity, equality, and inclusion are core values of the Las Vegas Raiders, and we appreciate the effort that both Carl and the Trevor Project have put toward advancing these principles."
Watch the video, embedded in the tweet below.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
