Last year, after publicly coming out in an Instagram Story post, Byron Perkins became the first openly gay football player to play for a Historically Black College or University, and in a new video interview with the We Need to Talk sports show, the Hampton University defensive back is opening up about what made him finally comfortable to come out and be who he is.
@weneedtotalk Byron Perkins made history when he became the first openly gay football player at an HBCU. #beyondlimits #pride #hbcu #football #collegefootball #pridemonth #sportstok
āWhy did I decide to come out?ā he asks at the start of the video. āBecause I donāt deserve to suffer anymore.ā
He hit us all right at home right away, then continued, āI donāt deserve to chain myself to the ideas of society and consider myself invaluable because someone else said so. No.ā
After a brief montage of his football career, Perkins added, āThere are so many more dimensions to who I am as a person than just this one variable. And if this one variable doesnāt sit well with you, quite honestly, I donāt care.ā
You get it, Byron Perkins.
The football player also introduced the world to his boyfriend, JD Dunn, at the beginning of Pride Month ths year, where he wrote in his Instagram Stories that he ādoesnāt know a lotā but he does know he loves his man.
Perkins came out last year, when he said he was destroying the mask that made him an angry person and owning who he is.
āIām gay,ā he wrote on Instagram Stories at the time. āLet it be known that this is not a ādecisionā or a āchoice.ā Yes, this is who I am, this is who Iāve been, and this is who Iām going to be. Simply put, I am who I am.ā
