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Billy Bean played major league baseball from 1987 through 1995. He broke into the major leagues with the Detroit Tigers, and tied a major league record with 4 hits in his first major league game. He went on to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the San Diego Padres. Born in Santa Ana, California in 1964. He was a multi-sport star at Santa Ana High School, where he was chosen "athlete of the year" as a senior. He was selected Valedictorian of his graduating class, and went on to become an "All-America" outfielder twice before graduating from Loyola Marymount University in 1986 with a degree in Business Administration.

For nine years, Esera Tuaolo excelled in the N.F.L. as a defensive lineman: he played for five different teams and went to Super Bowl XXXIII with the Atlanta Falcons. He played with some of football's greatest, including Brett Farve, John Randle and Jack Del Rio. He even sang the national anthem in uniform at a nationally televised Monday night game as a rookie and at the 1999 Pro-Bowl.

But as a gay man in the hyper-masculine culture of professional football, Tuaolo was forced to hide his sexuality. The secret crippled him, leading him to drink excessively and contemplate suicide. It also hindered his football achievements, as he felt that if he were too good a player, he would be exposed as a homosexual. He led a double life that deeply depressed him, but which he now looks back on with a new perspective. During this difficult time, he persevered by following his mother's example and maintaining his strong spiritual faith.  

Man On!
Turner Kane

Greg Williams is an upcoming British soccer star whose professional life is going up, while his personal life seems adrift due to his searches for a boyfriend. Following a sexual encounter with his best friend Matt who's to be soon married, Greg can no longer hide his feelings for Matt, but Matt avoids Greg at all costs.

Take Me Out
Richard Greenberg

Darren Lemming is the star center fielder for the champion New York Empires. An extraordinary athlete, he fills both his fans and his teammates with awe at his abilities and his presence on the field and off. When he makes the matter-of-fact announcement that he's gay, he throws his team into turmoil and confusion, while he also emboldens his closeted accountant, Mason Marzac, to come to terms with his own sexuality--and to fully experience the pure joy of watching great athletes play a sport as well as it can be played.

Scrub Match
Bill Eisele

To a mixed-race gay man still smarting from a failed relationship during his final year of college, San Francisco seemed like the best destination for Paul Carter after graduation. A city of ethnic diversity, where his red Afro would be less likely to elicit stares, and where a significant portion of the population was also gay, and far enough away from his father whom Paul felt was disappointed in him. If he could just make it through the sky-high rents, having to rent a room from a woman who constantly suspected him of stealing from her, and if he could only find a great boyfriend, like Twitch, the fellow he met on the basketball courts one night shortly after his arrival, and whom he has been "courting" ever since.

Pins
Jim Provenzano

Acclaimed sports columnist and fiction writer Jim Provenzano's novel PINS tells the story of bigotry in athletics, and one very short boy who stands up to it.

Set in Little Falls, New Jersey in 1993, PINS weaves the classic story of a Catholic saint into a compelling modern life -and near-death- account of Joey Nicci, a fifteen-year-old Italian-American wrestler.

Huddle
Dan Boyle

The game starts with a whistle and ends with triumph-or defeat. Forty minutes of man against man-blocking the rusher, beating the defense downfield, finding the open receiver, reading the offense, picking off the pass, working as a team, racing against the clock, racing against themselves. For the nine gay men of the L.A. Quake, the season of sweat is about to end with a chance to win the West Los Angeles Flag Football Championship. For some, it's a last hurrah; for others, a taste of gridiron glory they've only dreamed about. The Quake has struggled to compete on the field in a "straight" league and struggled off the field with relationships, success (and its pitfalls), aging, and their own concepts of masculinity. And now, it's first down-and-forever, with time running out-and no way to stop it.