“During the recruiting process, a number of schools didn’t want me because I’m gay,” Gordon told USA Today Sports. “To me, that’s blatant homophobia. At the end of the day, no coaches will ever admit that they don’t want me because I’m gay and there’s baggage that comes with the attention.
“Honestly, it caught me off-guard. It really hurt. It had me stressing, crying. I was starting to lose hope. I felt like I was being treated like an outsider, like I didn’t belong in the NCAA. I couldn’t believe it because I’m a good player and they were looking at the opposite—something that doesn’t mean anything with my (sexuality). … ‘Nah, not the gay guy.’”
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Gordon assured that his decision to transfer was based on basketball and had nothing to do with his sexual orientation. He admitted that he received a great deal of support from UMass after publicly coming out last April.
“I wasn’t happy with my role there,” Gordon said. “It really had nothing to do with my sexuality or anything like that. Everything was great at UMass. There were no issues. We showered together and I don’t look at my teammates like that. … At the beginning were they uncomfortable? Yeah. But they were real with me, expressed concern and we dealt with it. That made us better friends, better teammates.”
Gordon averaged 9.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists over his two seasons at UMass after originally transferring from Western Kentucky after his freshman season. He will be eligible to play immediately at Seton Hall as a graduate transfer.
