Sports
Catching up with MLB’s first out gay umpire
Dale Scott keeping busy advocating for LGBT visibility in sports
Former MLB umpire Dale Scott threw out the first pitch at the Orioles’ first official Pride Night last month. (Washington Blade photo by Kevin Majoros)
Dale Scott is making his way through the umpire’s tunnel in Oriole Park at Camden Yards. In a short time, he will throw out the first pitch at the Baltimore Orioles first LGBT Pride Night.
“Hey, I need five minutes,” he says as he darts into the umpire’s prep room in the stadium. In the room, Scott hugs and reunites with his former co-workers, the four MLB umpires who will be working the game that night.
After his appearance on the mound, Scott heads over to the dugout where he has a laugh-filled conversation with Orioles manager Buck Showalter and former MLB player Billy Bean.
The respect and admiration for Scott in the stadium that night reflects how far Major League Baseball has progressed in regard to the LGBT community. As one of 76 MLB umpires, Scott was the only one who was openly gay. He came out in 2014.
In his 3,897th game on April 14, 2017 in Toronto, Scott took a foul ball to the chin area of his mask and suffered a concussion and whiplash. It was his second concussion in eight months and his fourth in five years.
“When I mentioned my neck, they put me in a brace and carried me out on a stretcher,” says Scott. “You know us gays, we like to make an exit.”
Staring at the ceiling in the emergency room with the team doctor at his side, Scott pondered the long-term effects of concussions and began to rethink his original plan to work for two more years. He was put on medical leave through 2017 and after 32 seasons as an MLB umpire, he retired on Jan. 1 of this year.
Scott has been with his partner Michael Rausch for more than 30 years and they married in 2013. Retirement has resulted in a lifestyle change for both of them.
“It’s nice not to be in an airport, hotel or restaurant on a daily basis though we have traveled to Italy and Germany since my retirement,” says Scott. “Mostly I have been doing a lot of nothing.”
Not entirely true as he has already had a busy summer advocating for the LGBT community. In addition to his appearance at Orioles Pride Night, he also threw out the first pitch at the Los Angeles Dodgers Pride Night.
Last month, he rode on MLB’s first float in the New York City Pride Parade along with Billy Bean and deputy baseball commissioner Dan Halem. They were joined on foot by roughly 200 MLB employees. This month he will speak at the National Association of Sports Officials summit in New Orleans.
“For years I had to compartmentalize who I was and what I was. I realized I was in a spotlight and I had to follow their path. I had the built-in excuse of constant travel to explain why I wasn’t dating,” says Scott. “It’s easier to separate when you don’t live in the same town where you work. I knew I was out on an island, but it was easy to navigate.”
He actually was dating and co-habitating with Rausch whom he met a year after his first season in 1986 with MLB. Up until they were married in 2013 by the mayor of Palm Springs, Rausch had his own MLB I.D. card and was on Scott’s insurance as his same-sex domestic partner.
“The player reactions were all positive to my coming out. They just wanted me to get calls, pitches and plays correct,” Scott says. “An Oakland pitching coach approached me and told me it took a lot of courage and guts to come out in this form.”
Scott refers to the possibility of an MLB player coming out as the last bastion. He feels that for the younger generation it just isn’t a big deal.
“It’s going to happen eventually. There will be a big league guy on the roster who comes out and it will be news,” Scott says. “The reaction from the players will be, “can he hit, can he field?’”
Scott’s long list of favorite memories includes working in iconic ballparks, his first playoffs series, the 1998 World Series, his three MLB All-Star games and working his way up to crew chief for MLB.
After a lifetime of officiating in sports starting at age 15, Scott says it is really strange to be in the stands. He isn’t watching much baseball but keeps an eye on highlight reels because he is receiving calls about plays from baseball analysts.
One of his guilty pleasures is watching the University of Oregon Ducks sports teams. As he has always been, he is drawn to watching the mechanics and coverages of the umpires and officials who he refers to as the third team.
“That will never leave me,” says Scott. “I will always be tied to umpires and I will always be on the third team.”
Sports
Attitude! French ice dancers nail ‘Vogue’ routine
Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry strike a pose in memorable Olympics performance
Madonna’s presence is being felt at the Olympic Games in Italy.
Guillaume Cizeron and his rhythm ice dancing partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry of France performed a flawless skate to Madonna’s “Vogue” and “Rescue Me” on Monday.
The duo scored an impressive 90.18 for their effort, the best score of the night.
“We’ve been working hard the whole season to get over 90, so it was nice to see the score on the screen,” Fournier Beaudry told Olympics.com. “But first of all, just coming out off the ice, we were very happy about what we delivered and the pleasure we had out there. With the energy of the crowd, it was really amazing.”
Watch the routine on YouTube here.
Italy
Olympics Pride House ‘really important for the community’
Italy lags behind other European countries in terms of LGBTQ rights
The four Italian advocacy groups behind the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics’ Pride House hope to use the games to highlight the lack of LGBTQ rights in their country.
Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano organized the Pride House that is located in Milan’s MEET Digital Culture Center. The Washington Blade on Feb. 5 interviewed Pride House Project Manager Joseph Naklé.
Naklé in 2020 founded Peacox Basket Milano, Italy’s only LGBTQ basketball team. He also carried the Olympic torch through Milan shortly before he spoke with the Blade. (“Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie last month participated in the torch relay in Feltre, a town in Italy’s Veneto region.)
Naklé said the promotion of LGBTQ rights in Italy is “actually our main objective.”
ILGA-Europe in its Rainbow Map 2025 notes same-sex couples lack full marriage rights in Italy, and the country’s hate crimes law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. Italy does ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, but the country’s nondiscrimination laws do not include gender identity.
ILGA-Europe has made the following recommendations “in order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Italy.”
• Marriage equality for same-sex couples
• Depathologization of trans identities
• Automatic co-parent recognition available for all couples
“We are not really known to be the most openly LGBT-friendly country,” Naklé told the Blade. “That’s why it (Pride House) was really important for the community.”
“We want to use the Olympic games — because there is a big media attention — and we want to use this media attention to raise the voice,” he added.
Naklé noted Pride House will host “talks and roundtables every night” during the games that will focus on a variety of topics that include transgender and nonbinary people in sports and AI. Another will focus on what Naklé described to the Blade as “the importance of political movements now to fight for our rights, especially in places such as Italy or the U.S. where we are going backwards, and not forwards.”
Seven LGBTQ Olympians — Italian swimmer Alex Di Giorgio, Canadian ice dancers Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver, Canadian figure skater Eric Radford, Spanish figure skater Javier Raya, Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson, and Irish field hockey and cricket player Nikki Symmons — are scheduled to participate in Pride House’s Out and Proud event on Feb. 14.
Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood representatives are expected to speak at Pride House on Feb. 21.
The event will include a screening of Mariano Furlani’s documentary about Pride House and LGBTQ inclusion in sports. The MiX International LGBTQ+ Film and Queer Culture Festival will screen later this year in Milan. Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood is also planning to show the film during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Naklé also noted Pride House has launched an initiative that allows LGBTQ sports teams to partner with teams whose members are either migrants from African and Islamic countries or people with disabilities.
“The objective is to show that sports is the bridge between these communities,” he said.
Bisexual US skier wins gold
Naklé spoke with the Blade a day before the games opened. The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will close on Feb. 22.
More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are competing in the games.
Breezy Johnson, an American alpine skier who identifies as bisexual, on Sunday won a gold medal in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, on the same day helped the U.S. win a gold medal in team figure skating.
Glenn said she received threats on social media after she told reporters during a pre-Olympics press conference that LGBTQ Americans are having a “hard time” with the Trump-Vance administration in the White House. The Associated Press notes Glenn wore a Pride pin on her jacket during Sunday’s medal ceremony.
“I was disappointed because I’ve never had so many people wish me harm before, just for being me and speaking about being decent — human rights and decency,” said Glenn, according to the AP. “So that was really disappointing, and I do think it kind of lowered that excitement for this.”
Puerto Rico
Bad Bunny shares Super Bowl stage with Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga
Puerto Rican activist celebrates half time show
Bad Bunny on Sunday shared the stage with Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl halftime show in Santa Clara, Calif.
Martin came out as gay in 2010. Gaga, who headlined the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, is bisexual. Bad Bunny has championed LGBTQ rights in his native Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
“Not only was a sophisticated political statement, but it was a celebration of who we are as Puerto Ricans,” Pedro Julio Serrano, president of the LGBTQ+ Federation of Puerto Rico, told the Washington Blade on Monday. “That includes us as LGBTQ+ people by including a ground-breaking superstar and legend, Ricky Martin singing an anti-colonial anthem and showcasing Young Miko, an up-and-coming star at La Casita. And, of course, having queer icon Lady Gaga sing salsa was the cherry on the top.”
La Casita is a house that Bad Bunny included in his residency in San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, last year. He recreated it during the halftime show.
“His performance brought us together as Puerto Ricans, as Latin Americans, as Americans (from the Americas) and as human beings,” said Serrano. “He embraced his own words by showcasing, through his performance, that the ‘only thing more powerful than hate is love.’”
N.Y. lawmaker vows ‘Pride flag will fly again’ at Stonewall Monument
Attitude! French ice dancers nail ‘Vogue’ routine
Philippines Supreme Court rules same-sex couples can co-own property
Disney’s Gay Days ‘has not been canceled’ despite political challenges
Pride flag removed from Stonewall Monument as Trump targets LGBTQ landmarks
LGBTQ Venezuelans in Colombia uncertain about homeland’s future
D.C. bar Rush facing eviction on charge of failing to pay rent
Blade, Pride House LA announce 2028 Olympics partnership
Calendar: February 6-12
