The crowd went wild as fans screamed, stomped, and chanted his name. History had just been made in that stadium. Dusty Baker made history. But then his teammate Glenn Burke did something even more historic.
Jumping in the air, Burke ran towards Baker and high-fived him. It was the first time a high-five had been publicly done at a sporting event.
Burke went down in history as the “inventor” of the high-five, forever cementing the iconic gesture as part of our collective swag. But that’s not the only reason Burke is legendary.
Burke was also the first Major League Baseball player to openly come out as gay.
And he had a specific agenda.
Burke’s agenda was unapologetically living his truth and supporting his teammates, even after receiving cruel pushback from the league for his sexuality.
Anti-Blackness targets the Black LGBTQIA+ community by making it seem like they have a harmful “gay agenda.” In reality Black queer culture is rooted in love and realness.
Much of our culture, politics, styles, and “coolness” was born from the Black queer community. Like Burke, as long as you’re authentic you will always be “cool” and don’t need to prove your worth to anyone.