This profile is part of Queerty’s 2024 Out For Good series, recognizing public figures who’ve had the courage to come out and make a difference in the past year, in celebration of National Coming Out Day on October 11.

Name: Trey Cunningham, 26

Bio: From his school years through his college career at Florida State, Cunningham has been writing his name all over track and field leaderboards. A 24-time state champion in his native Alabama, the high-hurdler established his greatness in the track world with authority during his senior season for FSU in 2022. 

At that year’s Indoor Championships, he took first place in the 60-meter hurdles with a personal-best 7.38 seconds, the second-fastest time in NCAA history. At the Outdoor Championships, Cunningham matched himself. He tied the second-fastest time in NCAA history in the 100-meter hurdles, finishing in just 13 seconds. 

“Me and coach got a word for the year and it was ‘fruition,’” he said after his victory, “I’ve been here now for five years and I’ve only been to the outdoor championships once because I’ve been injured… and then some bad luck. Bad luck meaning I was born in the greatest hurdle era ever. So we just trusted what we can do and got it done.”

For his efforts, Cunningham earned college track and field’s highest honor: the Bowerman Award. He was also named the 2022 Amateur Athlete of the Year by the Alabama Sports Writers Association. 

Perhaps nothing sums up Cunningham’s dominance better than this: his performance convinced Alabama sportswriters to give an award to an athlete from Florida State!

Coming Out: After graduation, Cunningham continued his track and field career and was ranked No. 11 in the world in the 110-meter high hurdles in 2024. But most track and field fans didn’t know he was gay. 

That is, until Cunningham came out in the pages of the New York Times. In the story by Times reporter Rory Smith, Cunningham confesses that he mostly ignored his sexuality when he was coming of age in high school. 

As he describes it, his Southern hometown was “rural, conservative, quite religious: the sort of place where you did not want to be the gay kid at school.”

While he was tearing up the track at FSU, Cunningham also grew comfortable with who he was. 

“It took me a while to know it felt right,” he remembered.

Eventually, Cunningham began coming out to his family and close friends in 2020. In the beginning, he found himself wrecked with nerves, to the point where he was covered in sweat before even dialing the phone. 

It took a while for Cunningham’s parents to accept that he was gay. 

“They had expectations for their little boy, for what his life would be like, and that’s OK,” he said. “I gave them a 5-year grace period. I had to take my time. They could take theirs too.”

Cunningham’s friends, however, came through with unconditional support and assurances. “I was really lucky to have a group of people who did not care,” he noted.

Five years later, Cunningham used his profile to share his truth publicly. The very next day, he won the Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix 110-meter hurdles.

Not a bad way to finish your first day as a publicly out gay athlete.

Olympic Dreams: Cunningham’s next goal is another big one: to join Team LGBTQ+ at the Summer Olympics.

“The Olympics are the next thing I have to conquer. I haven’t done it yet,” Cunningham said in a World Athletics Instagram video, “I was fourth last time I tried out (in 2021) and missed the team by less than a second. Just the blink of an eye. I feel it’s one thing I’ve gotta knock off the list before I die.”

Unfortunately, Cunningham experienced a setback this year, finishing 9th in the Men’s 110m Hurdles final at the 2024 Olympic Trials.

“My World Championship experience proves that making the US team is harder than the Final at the Olympics. And seeing other countries have times that qualified lower than me, it is kinda disheartening. But I do love flinging myself at solid objects. They’re also known as hurdles. So I got back on the horse,” he reflected in a post-race interview a few weeks later.

Or as he put it more succinctly in an Insta post: “Not done yet.”

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