Carl Nassib of the Las Vegas Raiders made history Monday by becoming the first active player in the NFL to come out as gay.
How significant is this moment?
"It’s really historic," Cathy Renna, a spokeswoman for the National LGBTQ Task Force, told KCBS Radio. "Sports are one of the last bastions where homophobia and transphobia can thrive. To have a professional athlete of this caliber come out in a major sports league like the NFL – the NFL and the NHL are really the two that have been lagging – it’s really important, it’s really significant."
Many key figures within the NFL voiced their fervent support for Nassib, including league commissioner Roger Goodell and the Raiders organization.
In addition, an assortment of players publicly backed Nassib, including stars such as Saquon Barkley of the New York Giants and JJ Watt of the Arizona Cardinals.
Renna said this type of support is significant and represents potentially an attitude shift around homosexuality within NFL culture.
"It’s an institutional support that we have not seen before. Peers are changing and listening and understanding," she said.
"We’ve heard the horror stories of what it’s like in some of these locker rooms for some of these players to deal with and be subjected to homophobic or transphobic language and actions all the time," Renna said. "You need to set the tone and set the climate and that message comes from the top and also from ally players who have come along away."
She explained that many players have reflected on their past homophobic attitudes and made necessary changes to how they interact with and around their teammates.
"(Players) may now think if not twice, three times before saying something homophobic to teammates in the locker room because they know they have LGBTQ teammates," she said.
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