For 17 years, Erik Braverman has worked for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He currently serves as senior vice president of marketing, community affairs, and broadcasting for the MLB team. Coming out was a game changer in this career. “There was no roadmap for being an out executive in Major League Baseball when I started,” he says. “Once I stopped spending energy on hiding, I had all of it to spend on the work instead.”
A major 2026 accomplishment for Braverman was honoring gay baseball pioneers Glenn Burke and Billy Bean with a permanent display at Dodger Stadium, “the proudest work of my career.” Another 2026 blessing? Welcoming a son with his husband, Jonathan Cottrell.
Braverman is also a businessman; he and Cottrell own Gym Bar in West Hollywood. “Both jobs come down to the same thing: building spaces where people feel like they belong,” he says.
“Those of us who can be visible carry a responsibility to be loud, precisely because so many people can’t be,” he says. “If you’re somewhere that being yourself is dangerous, you don’t owe anyone your visibility — you're not less a part of this community for surviving it. We’ll keep the lights on until you can.” @erik_braverman
