Now that we have established which in-groups and reference groups he is a part of, we can now discuss why it seems important that he comes out to the public that he is gay. The first reason would be not all people support gays. Take the Westboro Baptist Church for example. They are an in-group of their own. They hate anyone who is gay and who supports gay people. They think that God hates gays and march around protesting this. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but these people verbally attack gay people and their supporters. Considering this, why would anyone want to publicly come out that they are gay when there are people out there that are hateful to them. Michael Sam wants to show people he is okay with who he is because there is nothing wrong with him. He is a child of God just like everyone else.
A second matter would be how his teammates would treat him. He plays on a team full of men. These men might