Cyd Zeigler Jr. is a commentator and author in the field of sexuality and sports. Zeigler co-founded ''

Outsports ''Outsports'' is a sports news website concerned with LGBT issues and personalities in amateur and professional sports. The company was founded in 1999 by Cyd Zeigler, Jr. and Jim Buzinski. ''The Outsports Revolution'' (Alyson Publications), by ...

'' and the

National Gay Flag Football League National Gay Flag Football League (NGFFL) is a nonprofit LGBT flag football league, currently comprising 200 teams in 22 leagues in the United States and Canada. History The NGFFL was founded by Jim Buzinski and Cyd Zeigler in 2002. Teams c ...

. He had a featured part in the documentary ''

F(l)ag Football ''F(l)ag Football'' is a 2015 American documentary film on the National 🏳️‍🌈 Flag Football League directed by Seth Greenleaf. It documents the training of players on the NGFFL's New York Warriors team as they prepare for the 🏳️� ...

'' (2015).

Early life and education

Zeigler was born in

Harwich, Massachusetts Harwich ( ) is a New England town on Cape Cod, in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, Barnstable County in the state of Massachusetts in the United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census it had a population of 13,440. Harwich exper ...

, and lived there through high school. He was a track and field athlete and led his high school track team in scoring three consecutive years. Zeigler graduated from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

(B.A., Communication), where he founded

Theta Delta Chi Theta Delta Chi () is a social fraternity that was founded in 1847 at Union College, New York, United States. While nicknames differ from institution to institution, the most common nicknames for the fraternity are TDX, Thete, Theta Delt, and Thump ...

fraternity, was on the Stanford Men's Ultimate (Frisbee) Team, and was a contributor to the

Stanford Review ''The Stanford Review'' (also known as ''The Review'') is a student-run newspaper that serves Stanford University in Stanford, California. It was founded in 1987 by Peter Thiel and Norman Book. History In 1987, after around 500 students partic ...

newspaper.

Career

He is a former sports editor for ''Genre'' Magazine, former associate editor for the ''

New York Blade ''The New York Blade'' was a free weekly newspaper focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues in New York City, New York. The ''Blade'' was a member of the National Gay Newspaper Guild, and contained news, entertainment, cla ...

'', and has written for ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'',

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

, ''

New York Press ''New York Press'' was a free alternative weekly in New York City, which was published from 1988 to 2011. The ''Press'' strove to create a rivalry with the ''Village Voice''. ''Press'' editors claimed to have tried to hire away writer Nat Hento ...

'' and ''Out'' Magazine. He has appeared on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio is an American sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports division and iHeartMedia, parent company ...

, and

as well as contributing to ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'',

Logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. In 1999, Zeigler and Jim Buzinski founded ''

''. They co-authored ''The Outsports Revolution: Truth & Myth in the World of Gay Sports''. In 2002, Buzinski and Zeigler founded the

. Zeigler is credited with breaking the story of

John Amaechi John Uzoma Ekwugha Amaechi , Order of the British Empire, OBE (; born 26 November 1970) is a British-American psychologist, consultant and former professional basketball player. He played college basketball at Vanderbilt Commodores men's baske ...

coming out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

of the closet in February 2007. Amaechi had contacted Zeigler months before, and Zeigler connected Amaechi with the publicist

Howard Bragman Howard Bragman (born February 24, 1956) is an American crisis manager, public relations practitioner, writer and lecturer. He is often seen as a "PR Guru." Bragman currently serves as Chairman of LaBrea Media, a crisis management company he founde ...

, who had assisted other gay athletes in coming out. Zeigler has also broken national stories including the coming out of then-NFL prospect

Michael Sam Michael Alan Sam Jr. (born January 7, 1990) is an American professional football defensive lineman for the Barcelona Dragons in the European League of Football. A defensive end, Sam played college football for the Missouri Tigers and was d ...

, the late gay brother of NFL Hall of Famer

Michael Irvin Michael Jerome Irvin (born March 5, 1966) is an American sports commentator and former professional football wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). In 2007, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame ...

, transgender Div. 1 NCAA athlete

Kye Allums Kye Allums (born October 23, 1989) is a former college basketball player for the George Washington University women's team who in 2010 came out as a trans man, becoming the first openly transgender NCAA Division I college athlete. Allums is a tr ...

, openly gay football players Wade Davis and

Alan Gendreau Alan Scott Gendreau (born May 27, 1989) is an American former college football player for the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders. The placekicker was openly gay to his teammates. He ended his college career as the leading scorer in Sun Belt Confere ...

, and a racial headline by ESPN in reference to Jeremy Lin. Zeigler is featured in the 2015 documentary, ''

''. He has been inducted into the LGBTQ Journalists Hall of Fame by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

Personal life

Zeigler presently lives in Los Angeles with his husband, Dan Pinar, a dentist. He previously lived in New York City where he was a research editor for a global financial services firm. He was previously a development executive for

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

, focusing on their movie and music franchises before leaving in 2001.

Works

* * *

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Personal biography
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zeigler, Cyd 1973 births Gay sportsmen American gay writers American LGBT sportspeople Living people People from Harwich, Massachusetts American sportsmen Stanford University alumni LGBT people from Massachusetts 20th-century American journalists American male journalists 21st-century American journalists American online publication editors Sportswriters from Massachusetts 21st-century American LGBT people