LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday unveiled a permanent display honoring LGBTQ+ trailblazers and former players for the team Glenn Burke and Billy Bean, who were the first two major leaguers to say they were gay.
A brief ceremony with their families was held on the team’s 13th Pride Night, hours before the Dodgers hosted the Los Angeles Angels in the Freeway Series.
“It’s brave of them in this day and age to spotlight someone in our
community when other organizations are trying to erase us,” said Greg Baker, Bean’s husband.
The families let out audible “aahs” and applauded as a blue curtain dropped on the display under the left-field pavilion near the Dodgers bullpen. Against a swirling rainbow painted on the wall are Burke's No. 3 and Bean's No. 40 framed jerseys, along with a color photo of Burke's baseball card and a black-and-white shot of him in action. Bean's side of the display features two color photos of him. Placards describe their careers and contributions.
“He would be smiling, he would be so happy, he probably would be giving a high-five,” said Joyce Burke Henderson of Vallejo, California, one of Burke's three sisters on hand.
Burke was the first MLB player to come out as gay, announcing it in 1982 after he retired. He played for the Dodgers and Oakland Athletics from 1976 to '79. He and Dodgers teammate Dusty Baker are widely credited with inventing the high-five after they slapped hands on the field in 1977.
Burke Henderson recalled that her brother initially kept his sexuality hidden before reaching a point where “he just didn't care.”
“Nowadays the world is different and we need to conform to what’s going on,” she said. “As long as everybody is safe, they’re healthy, we don’t have the right to tell people how to live their lives. That’s up to them, but just respect that decision.”
Burke died at age 42 in 1995 of AIDS complications.
Four years later, Bean became the second MLB player to reveal that he was gay. Bean did so after he had been retired for four years. Bean was appointed MLB's first ambassador for inclusion in 2014 and later became the league's senior vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion.
Bean was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2023 and died the following year at age 60.
“It never stops being emotional,” said Baker, who got choked up addressing the gathering. “It's so well-deserved. I'm so proud of him.”
Baker has remained close to Bean's family, including his parents Ed and Linda Kovac and three brothers who attended.
Baker said he's not surprised that more professional athletes haven't come out.
"I still think there’s a lot of work to do and I think that work is not necessarily like within the sports community. I think it’s within our community as a whole,” he said. “There's always going to be homophobia, just hopefully there’s going to be less and less of it.”
The families took turns posing in front of the wall and taking their own photos of it.
"We still love him,” Burke Henderson said. “We just appreciate the Dodgers honoring him and Billy Bean, too. We knew Billy Bean. They were both great guys.”
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