Former Blue Jays becomes 3rd MLB player to come out of the closet

TJ House, 33, made his exit in a Facebook post where he announced his engagement to his partner. He is the third Major League Baseball player to come out as gay after retiring.

A former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher made history on Wednesday by coming out as gay on social media amid the enactment of a law in the United States protecting same-sex unions.

“Today’s passage of the Respect for Marriage Act protects us so that we have the same rights and opportunities as each of you. It protects the same benefits. He makes us equal. It allows Ryan Neitzel and I to come together and create something beautiful,” he wrote Thursday.

« Love, you see, is for everyone« , he added.

By coming out with his sexual orientation, House became just the third former Major League Baseball player to do so. Glenn Burke was the first – and only while in business to date – to come out as gay, back in the 1970s.

Billy Bean, vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion for Major League Baseball, was the only other to follow the same path. He made the announcement in an interview in 1999 at the end of his playing career.

TJ House played four seasons in major league baseball, from 2014 and 2017. He spent three seasons with the Chicago White Sox and another with the Toronto Blue Jays, not counting all his years in the minor leagues. He retired in 2020, at the age of 30.