HEROES

LGBT athletes in college sports more than ever before.

On Sept. 2, Kansas State lineman Scott Frantz is likely to become the first out LGBT athlete to compete in a Football Bowl Subdivision game. The Wildcats open the season at home against Central Arkansas at 7 p.m. ET. He will likely beat defensive end My-King Johnson by just a few hours for that distinction. Johnson’s Arizona team kicks off its season against Northern Arizona at 10 p.m. ET that same Saturday. (As of this writing, it’s possible Johnson will redshirt this season.) In the last six months, Frantz and Johnson have received significant attention for coming out publicly, and they are part of a massive increase in publicly out LGBT Division I athletes.

HEROES

Escaping ISIS – a gay man’s story.

Fadi Salim was terrified he wouldn’t make it out of Syria alive. Salim was freezing cold, filled with dread and thought he could be captured and sent back to Syria or shot by Turkish soldiers patrolling the inhospitable terrain on the border. His friend had been hurled off a rooftop in Syria’s ISIS-controlled Raqqa. His chances for survival –  after deserting the army and fleeing Syria – were slim.

HEROES

How did Pride Nights at ever happen at MLB games?

Brent Minor, executive director of Team DC—an organization that promotes LGBT sports participation in the Washington area—remembers feeling pessimistic about the first-ever Washington Nationals Night Out. It was 2005, and his organization “totally emptied [its] treasury” to buy 200 tickets for LGBT fans. “We thought, ‘Okay, we’re going to lose our shirts,’” Minor says.

5 THINGS TO KNOW

Is this the end of LGBT churches?

As the worship service came to a close at the Metropolitan Community Church of Corpus Christi, Texas, July 30, so too did the official presence of the longest running LGBT-accepting Christian church in the city. Some 35 years after the church opened its doors in this conservative community and offered a haven to queer people, leaders earlier this month announced the doors here would close, that the congregation would disband, and worship materials from altar candles to clerical robes would be made available to other MCC locations.

5 THINGS TO KNOW

Gay hero Gloria Estefan to be honored at National LGBTQ Task Force Gala.

Two weeks after learning she would be a 2017 recipient of a Kennedy Center honor in December, pop star Gloria Estefan will be honored in October at the 2017 National LGBTQ Task Force Gala. Estefan, the task force said, earned the National Leadership Award for her work to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people.

HEROES

More than just a gay synagogue.

At Congregation Sha’ar Zahav in San Francisco, Rabbi Mychal Copeland leads Shabbat services with a rainbow tallit around her shoulders. The synagogue newsletter is called “The Jewish Gaily Forward.” But the shul that has been known since its 1977 founding as San Francisco’s gay synagogue is now reaching out to a broader community and de-emphasizing its identity as an LGBT-specific congregation.

5 THINGS TO KNOW

“What Would You Do” takes on transgender harassment.

How would you react to seeing a clothing store employee discriminating against a transgender woman simply for shopping there? That instance of transphobia is exactly what a recent episode of ABC’s What Would You Do? sets out to answer, setting up the situation and seeing how regular, unscripted people would do when faced with the confrontation.