CARSON, Calif. – The American sporting world has begun its social progress with the acceptance of openly professional athletes and on Wednesday, the U.S. as a whole made its own move forward thanks to a ruling by the United States Supreme Court.
Robbie Rogers, the first openly gay professional male athlete in a major American sport, was overjoyed by the decision.
“I just have a smile on my face,” Rogers said. “My dad was here [at Galaxy practice] and he was talking about it. I’m far from getting married, but I have friends that have been together for a really long time and now they can get married. Also guys that have been separated for green card reasons and all that stuff. It’s exciting and I’m from California, if I wanted to get married then I’d want it to be here in front of my family, so it’s cool.”
Rogers is well-aware that there are plenty in society who will feel anger over the Supreme Court decision, but he’s seen many come around on the issue —particularly his own mother.
“My mom sent me a text this morning and asked how I feel about this and I said that ‘I feel great mom and I’m really excited about it.’ My mom comes from a really conservative catholic family and she said that she’s so happy for my friends that can now get married,” said Rogers. “Times are changing. My mom is such a loving person, but probably a few years ago, if I had asked her that then she probably would have had no comment.”
The Supreme Court’s ruling left many questions unanswered as there was no complete acceptance of gay marriage, but Rogers was reflective when asked about the progress that society has shown in the past year.
“Things are progressing and things are moving,” said Rogers. “I feel like this has been a pretty special year.”
Rogers also commented on his personal twitter account, which you can see below:
