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Another Steps Out

Kevin Maxen, a strength coach with the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars, has come out as gay, making him apparently the first out male coach in major American men's professional sports.

It's a big deal that Maxen now takes his place in the slow but steady march of American men out of the athletics closet. Or locker.

But I admit being particularly pleased that he's with a football team based in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis has been having his anti-LGBTQ way. All those Jaguar-loving men and boys in the Sunshine State have to come to grips with a homosexual being at the epicenter of that hyper-masculine world. I can hear minds boggling from here.

Maxen has thrown DeSantis for a loss, and in the best way possible, simply by being himself.

He seems well-suited to the task. "As a Black Jew who has dated both men and women, who has been a strength coach at the highest level of professional football, I’ve learned that how I look, what I believe in, and especially who I am physically or emotionally attracted to should not impact the way I or other people view my worth," Maxen told Outsports.

The owner of the Jaguars released a statement emphatically supportive of Maxen. What will DeSantis say? Perhaps, "Florida's school teachers may not talk about Maxen. Or strength. Or the Jaguars. Or football. Or Blacks. Or Jews. Or Florida."