Rick Welts just broke another barrier for the LGBTQ community in sports.
Last Friday, he married his longtime partner Todd Gage at San Francisco City Hall, becoming the first known professional men’s sports executive to marry his same-sex partner.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed pronounced Welts and Gage “spouses for life,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Heather Knight, making the marriage official.
Knight reports that everyone from NBA commissioner Adam Silver to former Warrior Kevin Durant reached out to Welts to congratulate him on the big day.
Welts, a longtime exec in the NBA’s league offices, was working as president of the Suns when he met Gage, a Southwest flight attendant, on a plane.
“He was -F,” Gage told Knight, who detailed their romance in her piece.
In , Welts resigned from the Suns and moved to Northern California to be closer to Gage. He had lost a prior relationship over a lack of visibility, and did not want to go down that path again.
Within a month, he was announced as the Warriors’ president and COO, offering him a chance at maintaining both his romantic and professional lives.
All he’s done since is help oversee one of the most successful turnarounds in NBA history and move the Warriors across the Bay into one of the most stunning venues in American sports albeit one that many East Bay residents resent.
Finally, his professional success is matched with a romantic one, made official in the company of Gage’s two children, Welts’ sister and niece, and the couple’s longtime friend, Breed.
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