Gay Baseball Player Bryan Ruby Delivered Heartfelt Plea Before Tennessee Pride Vote

Out minor league baseball player and country music singer Bryan Ruby recently delivered a heartfelt plea on Instagram hours before the governing board in Franklin, Tenn., was set to vote on the future of Pride festival in their city.

The vote had attracted publicity in recent days, with vocal opposition against the vote coming from the likes former SNL cast member Victoria Jackson. On Tuesday, however, the governing board voted to authorize a permit for Pride with Franklin Mayor Ken Moore casting the deciding vote.

“It’s important – sometimes life-saving – to allow celebrations of Pride to happen because a lot of us, myself included, grew up with a ton of shame about who we are,” Ruby, 27, said in the video posted to Instagram

Ruby, who is now based in Nashville to focus on his music career, made headlines when he came out in 2021 making him the only out active professional baseball player at the time.

In the video, he explained how ashamed he felt as a child for his sexual identity, and how important Pride can be in affirming a young LGBTQ+ person’s well-being.

“As a kid, I felt for the longest time that there was something wrong with me, and I worked really freaking hard to get over that shame about who I am,” Ruby continued, later adding, “It just feels like a huge insult that my community, who has been working so hard to be outstanding, upstanding citizens in Tennessee, that our home is now been telling people like me that we should be ashamed again about who we are.”

Ruby also revealed he had been scheduled to perform a “non-controversial, family-friendly set of inclusive country music” and that his 501(c)(3) nonprofit, We Are Proud To Be In Baseball, was scheduled to have a booth at the festivities.

Tennessee recently passed a law that criminalized drag shows. A federal court temporarily blocked enforcement of the law while it is challenged in the courts.