{"id":87842,"date":"2017-03-06T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2017-03-06T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=87842"},"modified":"2017-03-01T15:59:36","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T15:59:36","slug":"us-teen-pioneers-as-1st-openly-gay-football-scholarship-recruit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/03\/us-teen-pioneers-as-1st-openly-gay-football-scholarship-recruit\/","title":{"rendered":"US Teen Pioneers as 1st Openly Gay Football Scholarship Recruit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u201cI just don\u2019t see how I could be living an honest, truthful life and have that in the background,\u201d said My-King Johnson.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a>

My-King Johnson will play for Arizona during the next season.
| Photo: Twitter \/ @kingj9943<\/p><\/div>\n

26 Feb 2017 – <\/em>U.S. football has a new trailblazing star, My-King Johnson, the first openly gay<\/a> recruit in major conference college football, as coaches, friends and family show their total support.<\/p>\n

RELATED: NFL Reveals Texas ‘Bathroom Bill’ May Affect Super Bowl Hosting<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Johnson, who will play for the Arizona Wildcats, came out to his friends and family when he was 12 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a very honest person,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cI just don\u2019t see how I could be living an honest, truthful life and have that in the background.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Arizona Daily Star, the 17-year-old was committed to play for California’s UCLA Bruins, but opted for the Wildcats as the would offer him the opportunity to play as a college freshman.<\/p>\n

As a senior in high school, he was the top defensive end in the state of Arizona, playing for Tempe High School.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Johnson has lived with his grandmother in Tempe for the past two years, as his mother moved to Seattle to work as a nurse.<\/p>\n

RELATED: California Students to Learn LGBTI History<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Arizona defensive line coach Vince Amey, Johnson told him about his sexuality and Amey responded saying, “We want you to be a Wildcat.”<\/p>\n

“I said, \u2018Look, you are who you are, I am who I am, and I\u2019m going to coach you the same way. I\u2019m going to treat you the same way,” said Amey.<\/p>\n

His friends and coaches have praised his decision to be open about being a gay Black male football player. \u201cI do feel like when I say that, it can put a target on my back,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cBut whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Princeton player Mason Darrow was the last college football player to come out as gay, which he did in 2015, and Missouri’s Michael Sam is the most famous gay player, but he didn’t make it public until after ending his career.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fsgYC_ah8GQ<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 telesurtv.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI just don\u2019t see how I could be living an honest, truthful life and have that in the background,\u201d said My-King Johnson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sexualities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87842\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}