During the 2021 baseball season, Bryan Ruby ’19 became the only active professional baseball player to come out as gay, and his story was featured in USA Today as well as 100+ media outlets around the world including CBS, Yahoo, Bleacher Report, and Teen Vogue. Bryan is returning to Vassar to share his inspirational and uplifting story about how he was able to get a job in professional sports and the societal, cultural, team, and career implications that influenced his decision to be openly gay in baseball.

Campus community only, please.

In 2022, Bryan will be the subject of a feature-length documentary directed by Emmy award-winning filmmaker Clay Westervelt, which will focus on his trailblazing path through the traditionalist worlds of baseball and country music. It will also chronicle the founding of his first-of-its kind charity, Proud To Be In Baseball, which supports and encourages LGBTQ youth in the sport.

Bryan Ruby is a trailblazing professional baseball player and rising country music songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. Only 26 years old, Bryan has already played in 6 countries overseas as well as Independent Pro Baseball in the US. Most recently, Bryan hit .326 in the Guatemala Professional Winter League for the Guatemala City Lobos, and .335 in the Mavericks Independent League (2021) for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes. Bryan graduated from Vassar College in 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies. While at Vassar, Bryan was a First Team All-Conference selection at Vassar College, where he received awards for Leadership and Character.

As a songwriter, Bryan has penned hits that have appeared on the Texas Country Top 50 chart and the iTunes Country Top 25 Chart (#16), and songs he has written have been featured in both Huffington Post and People Magazine. He won Season 7 of the talent-search competition Nashville Rising Song, and in 2021, 12 songs written by Bryan were released by country and pop music recording artists.

Sponsored by the Career Development Office, Vassar Athletics’ RISE Program, LGBTQ Center