Former Major League Baseball Player TJ House Comes Out As Gay
Image: Image: Facebook
Former Major League Baseball player TJ House has announced that he is gay and engaged to boyfriend Ryan Neitzel.
House, Who played for the Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays from 2014 to 2017, made the announcement on Facebook, on December 9.
‘Struggled My Entire Life With Being Comfortable in My Own Skin’
In the post the pitcher explained, “I’ve struggled my entire life with being comfortable in my own skin. I have purposefully distanced myself from people for the sake of trying to protect myself. It’s disheartening how one simple thing can change an individual’s opinion of you in a matter of seconds. It has taken me years to wake up every morning and tell myself that you are loved for you, the one that’s deep down inside that you’ve never truly let out.
“I’ve been loved my whole life for what I did as a career, and it carried me for the longest time. Eventually though, it’s a bandage that covers a wound that needs fresh air to heal. You have to rip it off at some point if you truly want to get better. Shame has kept me quiet all these years, but Love has finally set me free.”
‘Love You See, It’s For Everyone’
Announcing the engagement to Neitzel in the context of the Respect for Marriage Act, he continued, “Today’s passage of the Respect for Marriage Act protects us to have the same rights and opportunities that each of you have. It protects the same benefits. It makes us equal to you.
“It allows Ryan Neitzel and I to come together and create something beautiful. It gives me the confidence to get engaged to the person I love (he said Yes!), to marry them. I have a wonderful fiance, who challenges me daily to become a better person. To live life authentically. One who I never deserved but blessed to have. Love you see, it’s for everyone.”
On December 14, US President Joe Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law.
The law “requires the federal government to recognize a marriage between two individuals if the marriage was valid in the state where it was performed.”
The bill formally ensures that same-sex marriage is legally recognised under the law, mitigating the threat from a conservative Supreme Court, in the wake of the overturning of Roe v Wade.
In June, the US Supreme Court voted 6-3 to strike down the 1973 abortion rights ruling.
