In 2021, country singer and pro baseball player for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes came out as gay in a ground-breaking interview. He made history as the only active pro baseball player ever to come out.
This Christmas season, he has released “Christmas With You,” a song and video dedicated to his boyfriend.
Both professional sports and country music are known to be hostile towards LGBTQ+ people. As such, a video dedicated to a gay relationship is no small thing. Ruby continues to blaze trails by openly expressing who he is in both of his arenas.
“I don’t wanna sing carols, hang stockings by the fire,” Ruby sings in “Christmas With You.”
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“If I said I wanna go shopping, I’d be a stone-cold liar. I don’t care about decorating or all the holiday food. All I wanna do is spend my Christmas with you.”
In a statement, Ruby explained why the song is special. “Between music and baseball, I spend most of the year on the road, so getting to come home for Christmas is always a high point. I wanted to paint that picture with this song.”
The video is simple and features Ruby playing instruments and singing in a recording studio surrounded by Christmas decorations. At one point, it zooms in on a rainbow heart-shaped Christmas ornament that says, “Love.”
When he came out, Ruby acknowledged that he’s on a minor league team and “not a hot-shot prospect” in baseball. But he wanted to come out to make it easier for other professional athletes in the future.
“I want to help create a world where future generations of baseball players don’t have to sacrifice authenticity or who they really are to play the game they love.”
“I kept thinking about the little 14-year-old me, who was scared because I’m a baseball player who loved country music,” Ruby told USA TODAY Sports. “Those are worlds where people like me are told they can’t belong.”
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