I swallowed hard around the lump in my throat. As Drew continued sharing bits and pieces of Cody’s story, I noticed I wasn’t alone in trying to keep hold of my emotions. More than a few women reached for napkins to blot their teary eyes and even some of the men had to clear their throats so they could breathe. Then it hit me. The majority of the men in the room were either baseball players Eric and Drew had met along the way or they were somehow connected to the sport. They lived and died by the game, and Drew made them see something many of them hadn’t considered before. He asked them to imagine what it would have been like to be forced out of doing something they loved, simply because of who they were. As he continued speaking, he made them consider what life would have been like if their passion had been ripped away. He made what Cody, what every gay athlete faced, very, very real.
The room erupted into applause as Drew pulled Cody in front of the microphone. He seemed shell-shocked, standing up there with so many eyes focused on him, waiting to hear what he had to say.
“Thanks, Drew.” He’d been standing too close to the microphone and another shrill screech of feedback echoed through the room. He cleared his throat and closed his eyes, likely trying to figure out what he wanted to say. When he opened his eyes and looked out over the crowd again, it was as though he’d just realized how many professional athletes were sharing this moment. He looked to Drew. “Wow, I need you to come over here and pinch me.”
“This is no dream, kid, it’s your life!” someone yelled from the back of the room, causing everyone to break down into laughter once again. When it didn’t die off as quickly as it had when Drew was speaking, Drew shoved his fingers into the corners of his mouth and whistled loud enough they likely heard it in Chicago.
“Yeah, tell me that a thousand times and I still won’t believe you,” Cody called back. He scrubbed his hands through his hair, leaving him looking slightly disheveled, exactly the way a teen who had it all should look.
And compared to the beginning of fall, he did. He had parental figures who pushed him to be his best even when that wasn’t the same as being the best. He lived in a huge house on Lake Michigan rather than a crappy cot at Pot of Gold. He was on the honor roll and had signed his letter of acceptance to Marquette so he could stay close to home. Cody had been upset about wasting Drew’s time to guarantee his scholarship in Minnesota, but I think everyone was happier knowing he wasn’t running out of state for school.
“Drew asked me if I’d mind getting up here to share my story,” Cody let everyone know once it quieted down. “The truth is, I was your all-American kid. I grew up in an upper-class family and my parents were willing to do anything to support my dream of playing basketball. Unfortunately, there were strings attached. Big, heavy strings. I had to stay the epitome of all the stereotypes. When my dad asked me why I wasn’t getting into trouble with one of the cheerleaders, I always told him I was trying to keep my grades up so I had my choice of where I wanted to go to college.
“Unfortunately, the truth came out at the beginning of the second semester of my junior year. I won’t go into the details, but let’s just say I’d finally found someone who understood me. Who liked me just the way I was.” Even from a distance, I could see the subtle sadness overcoming Cody. He hadn’t talked much about the day everyone found out he was gay, but it seemed there was more to it than any of us, except possibly Drew, realized. “We let our guard down one day after school and our coach happened to walk in. No matter how much we pleaded with him, he said he had to tell our parents.”
Murmurs built around the room. That delighted me, not because of Cody’s pain, but because everyone here seemed outraged by what they knew was coming.
“When I got home, my Dad met me at the front door with one duffel bag,” he shared. “I wasn’t even allowed to set foot inside the house. I was called a disgrace and told I was dead to them. Even then, I’d convinced myself it’d be okay because Jeff’s parents were much more accepting than my own.
“Unfortunately, when they’d confronted him, he played it off as a misunderstanding and swore that I’d instigated everything. His father wasn’t upset that I was gay, only that I’d tried to coerce Jeff into doing something he didn’t want to do. And that’s when I hit rock bottom.”
He took a step back from the podium and Drew was instantly at his side with an arm draped over his shoulder. Drew whispered something to him and Cody nodded. Drew stepped back at the same time Cody moved back to the podium.
“I’d lost everything. I had no home, no family, my boyfriend had denied the love he swore he felt for me. It felt like the end of the line,” Cody continued. I couldn’t begin to imagine how painful that was. “I dropped out of school rather than face everyone. I gave up. And I spent the next few months wondering where my next meal would come from, what was to become of me, and sometimes, whether I’d live through to see the next day. But then, something amazing happened…”
He paused, whether for dramatic effect or because of how hard the story was to tell, and then continued. “One morning, I woke up and there was a guy standing above me. Okay, so at first I was scared shitless, but then he handed me a paper sack. Inside, there was a sandwich, a bag of chips, an apple, a banana, and a bottle of water. There was also a note. It said ‘There’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.’ and it had the address for the center where I met Bryce and Drew.
“That day changed my life. I was terrified when I walked inside, thinking I’d face the same judgment I’d been running from. Then, the guy at the front desk welcomed me and invited me to eat lunch with him. That night, I slept in a real bed and didn’t have to worry about my bag being gone when I woke up.”
This was the type of marketing you couldn’t pay for. Cody was raw and real, and everyone in the room felt his pain as if it were their own. “In a single word, that center became my hope. It became a symbol of everything I’d forgotten I wanted. And I thought I’d stay there until I left for college. That’s what I’d been told.” Cody shrugged. “But just like the time before, that hope was yanked away from me one Monday morning. I felt myself spiraling downward, but this time, I picked up the phone and called Drew. By the time we got home from him picking me up at school that day, all of this had been started. And for once, I know that I have two things everyone wants in life: security and hope.”
My fingers dug into Eric’s forearm. He looked over to me and I could see his eyes glistening. “That’s it,” I whispered to him.
“What are you talking about?” He responded. A few people glanced in our direction but quickly turned back to Cody.
“Secured Hope.” Two simple words that changed everything. It was what everyone who walked through the doors needed. They needed security and hope in an uncertain world.
“You’re right, it’s perfect,” Eric agreed. He took my hand and led me toward the edge of the room, where Drew and Cody were swarmed by people wanting to talk to him about his experience. I nodded to Drew, letting him know that we were headed outside. “So tell me, did you ever think this is what would have come from your first trip out here?”
“No, but I’m not surprised,” I admitted. “My mom always told me there was strength in numbers, I just didn’t realize how true that was.”
“Come on, let’s go home,” Eric said, reaching for the keys in his pocket. “You can text them on the way, maybe see if Cody would like to go to the hotel with Drew’s parents for the night.”