Carson Gates ’25 Appears on NBC’s “Today” to Discuss Being Queer in College Sports
Carson Gates ’25, second from right, films B-Roll footage with Byron Perkins, left, and Sedona Prince, second from left.
Carson Gates had been trying to take things one step at a time since he’d landed in Los Angeles, where he’d been flown courtesy of NBC to film an interview for Today.
Only two months earlier, he wrote a piece in Trainwreck Sports and came out as queer. Gates, a rising sophomore pursuing a degree in communications at Chatham University, penned the personal story in response to NHL players’ opposition to wearing LGBTQ pride-themed jerseys during pre-game warmups.
“I was hoping that some people out there would feel welcome knowing there are people like me who are playing the game,” Gates ’25 said of the story.
But he wasn’t expecting himself to soon speak to a national audience about his queer identity, something he was still figuring out himself. Gates said he was thankful he didn’t have to go on television alone.
“It was incredible, because the other two people I did it with – Sedona Prince and Byron Perkins – I knew of them ahead of time,” he said. “They were the coolest, most genuine people I’d ever met. It made me feel so much more comfortable going on camera.”
Prince, who plays basketball with the Oregon Ducks and is known for her large social media following, and Perkins, who attends Hampton University and gained widespread media coverage as the first openly gay football player at a historically Black university, joined Gates for a five-minute segment on Today to discuss the experience of being out of the closet in college sports.
“I haven’t really met too many out people in college sports, and meeting these people was kind of a relief going into everything,” Gates said.
“Everything” included a whirlwind trip in L.A.; Gates estimated he spent more time in the LAX airport than he did in the city. The story, which was filmed earlier this month, premiered on Tuesday.
While in Los Angeles, Gates, who is the editor-in-chief of Chatham’s Communiqué student newspaper, was “totally blown away” by the production value and accommodations at the Universal Studios Lot.
“I took a bunch of videos while I was there to share with our video editor at Communiqué,” he said. “There are so many little things they did that we’ll never get to do. The amount of money on this set was insane.”
Gates takes a selfie on set at the Universal Studios Lot.
The response to his story, he said, has been awesome. “Between my teammates and everything, my family and friends—I’ve had a lot of people reach out.”
Gates decided to publish the piece – an unusually confessional story from a writer whose other articles were usually concerned with analyzing the performance of his hometown Buffalo Sabres – after seeing NHL players refusing to wear pride-themed uniforms.
“They’re worn for 15 minutes before the game starts, and the arena is probably 25 to 40% full during warmups anyways,” Gates said. “It was really heartbreaking to see this happen, and it’s not a new thing for the NHL. Pride night has been going on for the last four or five years.”
The controversy brought back memories of hearing homophobic slurs in hockey locker rooms as a teenager.
“I was really nervous, with the hockey aspect and growing up in that world, I wasn’t sure how it would be perceived,” he said.
But it’s from other hockey players that Gates received some of the warmest replies.
“I think the people we have here on our team, they’ve been super accommodating,” he said of his fellow Cougars. “I didn’t have to worry about them. I don’t know if I could say that about other teams I’ve been on.”
His experience at NBC not only got him excited for what’s next in his athletic and personal journey, but it also left him feeling inspired about his future as a professional journalist.
“Going there to talk about being out in college was an incredible, one-in-a-lifetime experience,” he said, “but seeing all the behind-the-scenes stuff for what I want to do when I leave Chatham was just as good.”
Mick Stinelli is a Writer and Digital Content Specialist at Chatham University. His writing has previously appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and 90.5 WESA, and he has a BA in Broadcast Production and Media Management from Point Park University. Mick, a native of western Pennsylvania, spends his free time watching movies and playing music.