Orlando Cruz

Update to original post:

When Orlando Cruz retired from boxing in 2018, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) ranked him at #4 among featherweights. Also mentioned in this post is Robbie Rogers (soccer), who retired in 2017, and Jason Collins (basketball) who retired in 2014 (Collins died of brain cancer on May 12, 2026, at 47 years old).  

 

 

 

Original post on May 30, 2013:

What with all the recent attention given active professional team sports athletes Jason Collins (basketball) and Robbie Rogers (soccer), professional boxer Orlando Cruz (b. 1981) wants to remind everyone that he came out in 2012, before either Rogers or Collins.

Puerto Rico’s featherweight boxer Cruz has won two fights since coming out last year. As an amateur, he represented Puerto Rico at the 2000 Olympic Games in Australia. Cruz made his professional debut that same year against Alfredo Valdez in Puerto Rico. Cruz was undefeated for nine years, until he lost to Cornelius Lock by a technical knockout in 2009. Cruz is currently ranked at No. 4 among featherweights by the World Boxing Organization (WBO).

On October 4, 2012, Cruz became the first WBO boxer to come out as gay while still active professionally, stating that "I have and will always be a proud Puerto Rican. I have always been and always will be a proud gay man.”

Cruz revealed in his statement that he was tired of hiding who he really was.

"I don't want to hide any of my identities," he said. "I want people to look at me for the human being that I am. I am a professional sportsman who always brings his best to the ring. I want for people to continue to see me for my boxing skills, my character, my sportsmanship. But I also want kids who suffer from bullying to know that you can be whoever you want to be in life, including a professional boxer, that anything is possible, and that who you are or whom you love should not be an impediment to achieving anything in life.”

Cruz said he met with psychologists and others before making the announcement, adding he had the full support of his family, trainer and manager. He praised his mother and sister for their unconditional love and said his father has always backed him. At the time Cruz came out, no active professional team sports player had yet come out as gay. Robbie Rogers (b. 1987) and Jason Collins (1978-2026) have since taken care of that deficiency.

Note: U.S. Virgin Islander Emile Griffith, who told The New York Times in 2005 that he struggled with his sexuality, admitted that he had sexual relations with both men and women. His comments, however, came decades after he ended his 18-year career as a pro boxer. Griffith (1938-2013) was well-known for his 1962 fight against Cuban boxer Benny Paret, who taunted Griffith with gay slurs before their bout (during the weigh-in at Madison Square Garden NYC, Paret patted Griffith’s behind and called him a maricon – Spanish for “faggot”). Griffith knocked him out live on national television, and Paret, who never regained consciousness, died in a hospital 10 days later. Griffith, who retired in 1977, was also a former middleweight champion and a Hall of Famer.

Roberto Velasco

 

Mexico installs openly gay Secretary of State

 

The Mexican Senate confirmed President Claudia Sheinbaum’s nomination of Roberto Velasco Álvarez (b. 1987) as the new Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mexico’s equivalent of Secretary of State. Velasco, who is 38, is the youngest Mexican foreign minister to assume the position and the first openly gay person to head the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He received a congratulatory call from Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, upon assuming office on April 8, 2026.

Velasco took the oath of office with these words: “I assume this responsibility at a time when the international order is undergoing a very profound reconfiguration.”

Velasco holds a Masters Degree in public policy from the University of Chicago and served an internship at Chicago City Hall. In 2013 he earned a law degree from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.

Alan Turing

British mathematician Alan Turing (1912-1954) masterminded cracking the German Enigma code during WW II, thus helping to shorten the war. He is also considered the father of computer science and the modern digital computer, with his invention of the Turing Machine (1936). His work continues to influence the field of artificial intelligence and the application of computer techniques in understanding biological forms and systems. He was a mathematical genius, and he was also homosexual.

While attending a noted independent school in Dorset, sixteen-year-old Turing fell in love with an older male schoolmate, Christopher Morcom, who died unexpectedly of bovine tuberculosis at the age of nineteen. Socially inept, Turing exhibited symptoms of autism, and Morcom had brought him out of his shell. Grief stricken following Morcom's death, Turing spent the next few years studying the question of how the human mind might survive death – Morcom's mind in particular. This research led to the study of quantum-mechanical theory and ultimately to the concept of thinking machines. He went on to study at Cambridge but moved to the U.S., where he earned a doctorate at Princeton (1938). He later became a specialist in the field of cryptanalysis.

For his work for the British government at the top-secret Bletchley Park facility (museum display with Turing's photo shown at right) during WW II, Turing was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1946. Shortly thereafter he became a professor at Cambridge University, where he fell in love with Neville Johnson, a student. Turing was surprisingly open about his sexual orientation, given the mores of the time. In 1952 a young man from Manchester attempted to blackmail Turing for his homosexuality, leading Turing to go to the police to report the attempt at extortion. Instead of deciding to prosecute the extortionist, they arrested Turing on twelve counts of gross indecency. Turing would not deny the charges, taking the stance that he had done nothing wrong. The court disagreed, and Turing's security clearances were withdrawn, putting an end to his brilliant work. To avoid a prison term, Turing agreed to be subjected to experimental hormone treatments designed to curb his homosexual desires. Massive doses of estrogen caused him to grow breasts and become chemically depressed. His life thus ruined, he committed suicide in 1954, by ingesting a cyanide injected apple two weeks before his 42nd birthday. Not until 2009 did the British government issue a formal apology for the way Turing was treated after WW II.

The year 2012 was a centennial celebration of Turing’s life and scientific impact, with a number of major events taking place throughout the year. Most of those were linked to places with special significance in Turing’s life, such as Cambridge, Manchester and Bletchley Park. In 2013, the following year, Queen Elizabeth II issued a posthumous Royal Pardon for Turing. Historians estimate that breaking the Enigma Code shortened the war by more than two years and saved approximately 14 million lives.

In 2014 actor Benedict Cumberbatch portrayed Turing in the film "The Imitation Game", based on Turing's brilliance and heroism in cracking the Enigma Code. Cumberbatch received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance. The film is available on several streaming services. 

Trivia: A blue plaque outside the 4-star luxury Colonnade Hotel in London indicates where Turing was born one hundred fourteen years ago, on June 23, 1912, when the hotel served as a hospital.