Since his story went public, Walker has heard from many other gay and lesbian coaches, who have found an inspiration in his story. That's when I started to feel like this wasn't going to be a big deal.' 'Two or three weeks later, we had an alumni game, and all the parents were around, and the parents were all excited by the adoption as well, so it was obvious the kids had talked to them about it and there were no ramifications. 'I wasn't completely surprised by it, and it was kind of a nice thing that it really wasn't a big deal, but deep down I felt I may get ramifications later,' Walker said. Their collective response, he said, was, 'Oh, that's great, now tell us about the baby.' They wanted to know everything about the process of Walker and his partner adopting a baby, and did not ask a single question about his sexual orientation. 'I told them my partner and I were adopting and the information was on a website,' Walker recalled about what he said to his players at the September 2005 meeting.

He came out in public in 2007 in an interview with Outsports. Walker did not want his players to find out secondhand, so he told them. That changed in 2005 when he and his partner, Randy Baltimore, were in the process of adopting their daughter. Walker was comfortably out to those who mattered in his life and not yet ready to take the step of going public.

He was one of our first readers and we kept in touch with him regularly via email. Softball, 2007: Oregon State softball coach Kirk Walker was no stranger to Outsports. Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history.

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