Rick Welts, president and chief operating officer of the NBA's Golden State Warriors, is openly gay.

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Welts came out when the Kobe Bryant epithet caused a stir.

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While his disclosure has been received positively for the most part, Welts says is apprehensive about his future and feels that he is in uncharted territory.

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Jones, 27, was supposed to check on Alfredo and Rheyna that same day in response to reports from neighbors of abuse that had left the children with welts and bruises.

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The most prominent sports executive to come out so far, Mr. Welts, 59, said he stayed closeted to protect his team's image and silently suffered whenever peers cracked jokes about homosexuals.

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Rick Welts was CEO and president of the Phoenix Suns a National Basketball Association team when he revealed last year that he was gay, and knows what it is like to hide in a conservative environment.

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There he was, my handsome brother, walking toward us, seemingly unchanged, until he came close enough for my mother to hug him, and I saw him wince and back away his arm was covered in soft-looking welts.

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"The last thing anyone in a position like mine wants to do is negatively impact the company they work every day to promote, " said Mr. Welts, now president and chief operating officer of the Golden State Warriors.

WSJ: A Silence Hangs Over Gay CEOs

The Phoenix Suns' CEO Rick Welts, who has since resigned for personal reasons, had just come out in public, revealing that he was gay. (Welts is now president and chief operating officer for the Golden State Warriors.) Unfortunately, on the same day that Hill was taping his public service announcement, Laker star Kobe Bryant was caught on camera shouting a gay slur at a referee.

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