Steve Buckley, Boston Herald Writer, Announces He’s Gay in Column

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Steve Buckley, a longtime sportswriter for the Boston Herald, revealed he’s gay in a column published Thursday.

In a piece titled “Welcome to my coming-out party,” Buckley explained that he had been wanting to write the column for a long time, ever since his mother suggested the idea seven years ago.

“With a vacation lined up for the first week of December, I told her I’d get to it when I returned to Boston — just before Christmas,” he said. Plans changed after she died of a heart attack upon his return from vacation.

“I haven’t been fair to my family, my friends or my co-workers. And I certainly haven’t been fair to myself: For too many years, I’ve been on the sidelines of Boston’s gay community but not in the game — figuratively and literally,” he wrote.

In 2007, Mike Penner, a sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times, came out as a transsexual in a column. He committed suicide in 2009, the New York Daily News reports.

Buckley says such tragedies helped him in his own journey to come out of the closet.

“These tragic events helped guide me to the belief that if more people are able to be honest about who they are, ultimately fewer people will feel such devastating pressure,” said Buckley. “It’s my hope that from now on I’ll be more involved. I’m not really sure what I mean by being ‘involved,’ but this is a start: I’m gay.”