StarTribune Reporter Chris Hine makes list of 100 most influential LGBTQ+ people in sports
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Sports news site Outsports has put out a list of the 100 most influential LGBTQ people in the world of sports, and StarTribune Timberwolves Reporter Chris Hine has made the cut.
Hine garnered attention in 2016 for calling out the Atlanta Falcons and for asking about players' sexuality during the NFL's scouting combine. Not much later, he publicly spoke out about the use of an anti-gay slur by a then Chicago Blackhawks player.
He joined All Things Considered Friday to talk about the honor and his career as a publicly out sports reporter.
Click play on the audio player above to hear the conversation, or read a transcript of it below. Both have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
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How do you feel about being part of this list?
It's a very nice honor. It's nice to know that people who are in a similar industry recognize your achievements and the things that you've had to go through in your career — and the mental anguish you sometimes feel before you come out — to get to this point. So I really appreciate it from them.
Going back in time to 2016, you wrote a piece about the way the Falcons were asking about player sexuality during the scouting process. That was also the moment that you came out publicly. Walk us through why you decided to speak out about it and in such a personal way.
In my personal life, I had come out in 2009 or 2010, so I had been openly gay in my personal life for about seven years or so. But I never thought I would be out as a sports writer because I always feared retribution. Because it's sports. It's not traditionally, overly welcome to LGBTQ+ people and so I didn't want to jeopardize my career. But as the years went on and I got more comfortable kind of living in my own skin, I finally just had the urge to want to say something about that when it happened in 2016.
So these discussions are happening more frequently now. What do you hope you can bring to these discussions?
I just hope that, honestly, my presence as an NBA reporter is something that speaks to people. When I first came out in 2016, I got a very nice email from somebody who was a college student at the time who was gay and was struggling with their sexuality. And what I wrote then meant a lot to them because they, too, were kind of struggling with the same things I was, which was, they didn't know if they could have a career in sports writing and also be openly gay at the same time. And so them seeing what I wrote was very inspirational to them and that really touched me.
So Chris, we can't let you go without actually talking sports here. You're currently reporting on the Timberwolves for the StarTribune. The Timberwolves have made some moves this offseason, acquiring second round draft picks, extending Naz Reid’s contract and waving Taurean Prince. What do you make of all of this as we look ahead to next season?
They are trying to run it back to the roster that they built a year ago with this two big man experiment of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert playing together. They ended up not really playing together for a significant portion of the season because Towns was injured, so they're trying to run it back. They're trying to fill as many pieces as they can around them. I think right now they're going to be filling out the end of their bench as free agency opens up here because they have their starting lineup and the first key reserves all locked under contract. So the team you saw at the end of the season last year is going to be largely the team that takes the floor for their opening night in October, with maybe a few tweaks toward the end of the bench.