by hanz enyeart
In honor of the Major League Baseball season kicking off this month, we bring you the uncanny queer origin of one of the world’s most ubiquitous hand gestures.
It’s the last day of the 1977 Major League Baseball season. In the sixth inning, leftfielder Dusty Baker sets a new record as he hits a home run off Houston Astros pitcher J. R. Richard. It’s Baker’s 30th home run of the season, giving the Los Angeles Dodgers the prestige of being the first team ever to have four hitters with 30 home runs in a single season. It is a wildly triumphant moment that provides much promise as the Dodgers head to the playoffs. Rushing to congratulate his teammate, Glenn Burke, the next batter on deck, throws his hand enthusiastically into the air. Following his impulse, Baker reaches up and slaps Burke’s palm. Seemingly inconsequential, this celebratory move was the genesis of the “high five,” an unmistakable symbol of victory and achievement around the world today.
Burke, one half of this high-five duo, was an outfielder for the Dodgers that coaches once described as the next Willie Mays. Though not out publicly, his teammates knew that he was gay. “We loved having Glenn around,” Baker remembered. “He was a hell of a ballplayer, and a big part of our team.”
To his teammates, Burke was the soul of the Dodgers clubhouse. But to manager Tommy Lasorda, he was a problem. Lasorda’s son, Tommy Jr., was gay and becoming close friends with Burke. This didn’t sit well with Lasorda, who was in complete denial about his son’s sexuality. He, in turn, traded Burke to the Oakland Athletics, a controversial move that infuriated the rest of the team.
Burke received little playing time with the Athletics, and was eventually demoted to a minor league team in Utah. Unhappy with the treatment that he was receiving, Burke quit professional sports altogether at age 27. “I had finally gotten to the point where it was more important to be myself than a baseball player,” Burke said.
A beloved resident of San Francisco’s Castro District, Burke channeled his energies into more inclusive sports leagues. As a powerhouse competitor in the national Gay Games, he racked up several medals in both track and basketball. He also played in the Gay Softball League, taking his team to the Gay World Series in the summer of 1982. With the precedent of being the first openly gay professional athlete, Burke introduced the high five to others in his league, turning it into a symbol of gay pride that celebrated LGBTQ+ people’s rightful place in organized sports.
“He was absolutely a hero,” said Jack McGowan, sports editor for the gay periodical San Francisco Sentinel. “It was not so much that he was masculine, but that he was superbly athletic, and we were proud because he showed the world that we could be gay and be gifted athletes.”
Things took an unfortunate turn in 1987 when Burke was permanently injured in a car accident. Unable to play sports and left with chronic pain, he found himself spiraling into drug addiction. In the early 1990s, he was diagnosed with HIV. As his health declined, the Oakland Athletics and the Association of Professional Baseball Players of America began supporting him financially. Sadly, Burke died two years after his diagnosis due to complications related to AIDS.
Though his life ended tragically, Burke’s legacy lives on as interest in his story continues to grow. He is still only one of three out gay players in the history of Major League Baseball. He was among the first inductees into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame in 2013. Two years later, the Oakland Athletics honored him as part of the Athletics Pride Night, with Burke’s brother throwing the ceremonial first pitch. As of 2021, the team has officially renamed the annual event the Glenn Burke Pride Night. It was an official fundraiser for the Oakland LGBTQ+ Center’s Glenn Burke Clinic.
More than anything, Burke wanted his life to be an inspiration for others breaking barriers in professional athletics. “In his dying days,” sports biographer Andrew Maraniss recalled, “he said that he hoped his experience would make it easier for gay players in the future.”
Hanz Enyeart is a queer Jewish educator and storyteller living in Hillcrest in San Diego, California.