LOS ANGELES — During their annual Pride Night celebration on Friday, the Los Angeles Dodgers revealed a lasting tribute to two pioneering LGBTQ+ athletes, Glenn Burke and Billy Bean, who made history as the first Major League Baseball players to publicly acknowledge being gay.
The unveiling ceremony included family members of both former players and took place on the team’s 13th Pride Night, just before the Dodgers faced off against the Los Angeles Angels in their crosstown rivalry matchup.
“It’s brave of them in this day and age to spotlight someone in our community when other organizations are trying to erase us,” said Greg Baker, Bean’s husband.
Family members gasped with delight and clapped as organizers pulled away a blue covering to reveal the memorial beneath the left-field stands close to the team’s bullpen area. The tribute features both players’ uniform numbers — Burke’s No. 3 and Bean’s No. 40 — displayed on framed jerseys against a colorful rainbow backdrop. Burke’s section includes a colored image of his baseball card plus an action shot in black and white, while Bean’s portion shows two color photographs. Information panels detail their playing careers and lasting impact on the sport.
“He would be smiling, he would be so happy, he probably would be giving a high-five,” said Joyce Burke Henderson of Vallejo, California, one of Burke’s three sisters present at the event.
Burke broke barriers in 1982 when he became the first MLB athlete to reveal his homosexuality, making the announcement following his retirement. His professional career spanned from 1976 to 1979 with the Dodgers and Oakland Athletics. Burke and former Dodgers player Dusty Baker are commonly recognized for creating the high-five celebration after their hand-slapping gesture during a 1977 game.
Burke Henderson remembered how her brother initially concealed his sexual orientation before eventually deciding “he just didn’t care.”
“Nowadays the world is different and we need to conform to what’s going on,” she said. “As long as everybody is safe, they’re healthy, we don’t have the right to tell people how to live their lives. That’s up to them, but just respect that decision.”
Burke passed away in 1995 at 42 years old due to complications from AIDS.
Bean followed Burke’s example four years later, becoming the second major league player to disclose his homosexuality after retiring from professional baseball for four years. In 2014, Bean received an appointment as MLB’s inaugural ambassador for inclusion and eventually advanced to serve as the league’s senior vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion.
Bean received a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia in 2023 and died the next year at 60 years old.
“It never stops being emotional,” said Baker, who became visibly moved while speaking to attendees. “It’s so well-deserved. I’m so proud of him.”
Baker continues maintaining relationships with Bean’s relatives, including his mother and father Ed and Linda Kovac and three siblings who were present.
Baker expressed little surprise that more professional athletes haven’t publicly come out.
“I still think there’s a lot of work to do and I think that work is not necessarily like within the sports community. I think it’s within our community as a whole,” he said. “There’s always going to be homophobia, just hopefully there’s going to be less and less of it.”
Family members alternated taking pictures in front of the memorial wall and capturing their own photographs of the display.
“We still love him,” Burke Henderson said. “We just appreciate the Dodgers honoring him and Billy Bean, too. We knew Billy Bean. They were both great guys.”
