New Orleans Saints player Khalen Saunders is actively working to make football more inclusive by launching an LGBTQ+-friendly youth football camp.
The 28-year-old Super Bowl champion announced the initiative at the 2025 GLAAD Media Awards and discussed it further on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football.
“Being an ally is more than just saying that I support, but it’s also [about] showing up,” Scary Mommy reported Saunders said. “Being in the NFL, it’s very male dominant and heterosexual dominant, and it feels as if there’s not really a space for the LGBTQ community.”
Who is Khalen Saunders partnering with for this initiative?
Saunders said he is proud to partner with GLAAD and the NFL Pride Football Combine as part of his Original Element Foundation to make football more inclusive. His brother, Kameron Saunders, is gay and a backup dancer for Taylor Swift.
“These are people who feel like they have to be hidden,” Saunders said. “They might love the sport, the NFL, or football in general, but they kind of shy away from it just because of orientations, or all these other kind of outside things,” Saunders said on the show.
RK Russell will also participate
RK Russell, a former Dallas Cowboys player who came out as bisexual in 2019, will be part of Saunders’ camp.
“Being an ally is more than just saying I support, but it’s also showing up,” Saunders said.
“That’s my goal to continue to spread positive energy around that because football is for everybody,” Saunders said.
The camp begins in July.
