Well, here we go. There it is front page of the NYT today. “This is one of the last industries where the subject is off limits,” said Mr. Welts, who stands now as a true rarity, a man prominently employed in professional men’s team sports, willing to declare his homosexuality. “Nobody’s comfortable in engaging in a conversation.”

Not only are we unwilling to engage in the conversation, millions of incredible athletes are ostracized consistently for who they love. Who they LOVE. Who is anyone to judge who someone else loves? Hard to believe it is 2011. We used to tell races that they had to fall in love and marry ONLY someone from their own race. 

Really? 

When investors blatantly diss female entrepreneurs who are trying to empower young female athletes with comments such as…

“You aren’t the right DNA for us to invest with…”

“If this was easy, women would do it.”

“Are you worried about the lesbian influence in your vivoGS community?” 

You could say that one’s entrepreneurial naivete takes a pretty good bashing. We’re proud of vivoGS. The powers that be at ESPN W and ESPN Rise Girl told me last week how much “we inspired them” when they were putting their own content together to empower this demographic. 

As Teddy says, no regrets. Our vivoAngels, our team, our incredible fan base, our clients all believe in us. We went for the gold. There is only dignity when you give it your all.

You can only regret what you don’t attempt. And I can only hope that the hate that is rampant in our society today will subside as my daughters grow into adults. Why should someone as awesome as Rick Welts have to live in agony, afraid to be who he is?