Football player Michael Sam got candid recently in a new interview with Attitude Magazine.
Since he made history as the first openly gay player to be drafted by the NFL, Sam has become a well known public figure who has a stint on Dancing with the Stars and a feature in GQ as one of the 2014 Men of the Year under his belt. Sam was recently interviewed for the cover of the May 2016 issue of the British Attitude Magazine and was featured in a 10-page spread, as well.
In his interview, Sam detailed what it was like to be gay and raised as a Jehovah's Witness, as well as racism within the gay community.
"It’s terrible. People have told me I’m not gay enough, people have told me I’m not black enough. I don’t know what that means," he said, according to Queerty.
On the subject of homophobia in the black community, Sam said, "I think it’s more accepting, actually. There are a lot of black, openly gay people. A lot of people have [gay] friends, cousins, brothers, sisters… They have at least one openly gay person, at least it’s more accepting, that’s my experience. People tell me they have family members who are gay and it doesn’t freak them out and no black person ever freaked out at me, ‘oh you’re gay’. None. There are people who are over religious who go, ‘oh, you’re a fag, you’re going to hell.’"
The May 2016 issue of Attitude Magazine is out and available for download now.