Fox News Reporter Credits Charles Barkley’s Support of Gay Athletes For Giving Him the Courage to Come Out 10 Years Ago
On May 19, 2011, New York sports talk host Jared Max signed off of his local ESPN radio morning show by informing the audience he was gay.
“Are we ready to have our sports information delivered by someone who’s gay?” Max asked listeners 10 years ago, before telling them, “I am gay.” Ten years later, Max is able to answer that same question with a resounding “yes.”
“Before I came out, I think I was failing,” Max recently told Alex Reimer — who is also a gay sports radio host and journalist — on The Sports Kiki podcast.
“All of a sudden, becoming a talk show host wasn’t working,” Max continued. “But once I was honest with the audience about who I am, I realized, ‘Okay, now I can talk and I can react at work.’”
Now, Max is a sports reporter for Fox News Headlines 24/7 on SiriusXM, also contributing to Fox News and Fox Business. “I never wanted to be the gay sportscaster,” he told Reimer. “That scared the living daylights out of me.”
Playing a big role in helping Max overcome that fear was NBA Hall-of-Famer Charles Barkley. Ten years ago, Barkley spoke to 106.7 The Fan in Washington D.C. about having gay teammates.
“First of all, every player has played with gay guys,” Barkley told 106.7 The Fan 10 years ago.
“It bothers me when I hear these reporters and jocks get on TV and say: ‘Oh, no guy can come out in a team sport. These guys would go crazy.’ First of all, quit telling me what I think. I’d rather have a gay guy who can play than a straight guy who can’t play,” Barkley added.
Barkley’s comments to 106.7 The Fan were published by The Washington Post just two days before Max made the decision to come out publicly to his New York sports radio audience. After reading Barkley’s comments, Max decided it was time to come out publicly — having told his family he was gay 16 years prior. As he began the segment on ESPN radio in New York, Max first read and discussed Barkley’s recent comments on-air.
“People don’t always realize, but sometimes you can make an innocuous comment that can harm somebody.” Max said, before explaining you can similarly make an innocuous comment that can change somebody’s life without realizing it, the way Barkley did for him.
“The hardest part is just mentally flipping the switch, so just do it,” Max said of the decision to come out. “I still wish that I had not had issues with it that kept me from not doing it earlier because that’s that many years of my life that I denied myself true existence.”
