Hugs of support from football players at University of Nebraska.

When University of Nebraska track and field athlete Jace Anderson found himself alone on a balcony at a campus party last year with three football players he described as “gigantic human beings,” he was nervous. He became even more nervous when one of the players asked him indirectly if he was gay.

Anderson, 20, was just coming to terms with his sexual orientation and slowly telling people around him.