His business card is packed: scientist, author, public speaker and anti-bullying advocate.
It also could, and should, say pioneer.
After all, Andrew Goldstein was an openly gay lacrosse player who earned All-American honors on the field and the praise of ESPN off the field just for being out.
Goldstein came out to his family, friends and lacrosse teammates at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., as a sophomore in 2003.
In 2005, ESPN tagged Goldstein as "the most accomplished male, team-sport athlete in North America to be openly gay during his playing career," and in 2006 Goldstein was named to the OUT 100. Plus, he received a prestigious 2006 GLAAD Media Award.
"It's been amazing," he said. "I was very excited to have the opportunity to share my experience, my coming-out [story], and I knew that I connected with a lot of people. When I came out, I knew it was a powerful opportunity to say that we exist [in sports].
"Sure, I didn't really feel too comfortable [being an advocate] right after coming out; I was just doing as much as I felt comfortable doing. Still, it brings me so much joy to share my story, provide some education to people and see the incredible impact it can have."
Goldstein, now 30, was a two-time All-American goalie at Dartmouth who then played professionally for the Long Island Lizards of Major League Lacrosse.
"Ten years ago, you'd hear certain [anti-gay] words on a daily basis, and if your teammates actually knew you were gay, they might not be supportive; they might not want to talk to you, or maybe they might not want you on the team. That's a powerful fear and something I faced [before coming out]—and when people aren't able to express their true selves, they aren't able to be their best," Goldstein said. "As I always say, when people come out, it's the perfect time for them.
"For me, the setting [when coming out], there was no precedent for it. I was pretty frightened about the possibility of being outed on my team; that always was a deep fear of mine.
I knew for a long time that I was gay, but didn't always know that there were other openly gay people and they were pretty cool people."
But as Goldstein fell in love off the field, his play on the field excelled. He was the team MVP in 2003.
"I finally got to the point where I no longer thought my teammates would reject me if they knew the truth," he said. "I just reached a point and said to myself, 'Screw it.' I didn't care what anyone was going to say about me; I just want to be myself. The experience [of coming out] was surprisingly [favorable], or maybe not based on what we've seen on the grander scale. My coming-out was pretty seamless. My teammates gave me unwavering support and that was pretty incredible, given the words that I'd heard on a regular basis [before coming out], though [those non-personal anti-gay remarks] clearly were not an accurate representation of how they truly felt. That's a message I've tried to share with others."
Goldstein, who now lives in Los Angeles, has left the lacrosse pitch and now gets his sports fix from hockey, the sport he played as an East Coast youngster. His dad and sister also played hockey.
"I'm still involved with the fight for equality and education, along with the power and danger of homophobia in sports," said Goldstein, who is associated with GForce Sports and the You Can Play Project. He often talks to teens and at high schools about gay-related issues.
"It's pretty cool getting to speak to students and faculty, to explain to them the power of their words," he said.
Eight years ago, Goldstein moved from Boston to Los Angeles for graduate school, to pursue a Ph.D. in molecular biology at UCLA. His focus was studying prostate cancer. "I'm really passionate about understanding how we get cancer," he said.
In late May, Goldstein and his husband, Jamie T. Duneier, released their first book, Ten Ways To Rescue Your Soul.
The two have been together for five years and, in 2012, they got a domestic partnership in California. They had a commitment ceremony last July in Connecticut.
"I never tried to be anything; I never wanted to be a hero, a role model or a pioneer. I just wanted to be one example of someone being themselves, doing their thing—and my thing was being a lacrosse player," Goldstein said. "To this day, I still continue to receive messages [of support for being out.]. At the time, the outpouring of support from people all around the world [for coming out] was amazing. To know that, just being a lacrosse player, had an impact on countless random people, countless random families … what could be a greater feeling than that.
"And every person who comes out impacts so many people around them."
Goldstein is a member of the inaugural class of inductees for the National Gay & Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame, it was announced in mid-June. The National Gay & Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame, a 501(c)(3) organization based in Chicago, was established to honor individuals and organizations whose achievements and efforts have enhanced the fields of sports and athletics for the gay and lesbian community.
The induction of the first honorees will be Aug. 2, at the Center on Halsted in conjunction with Out at Wrigley Aug. 3.
"There's this incredible gift that we have as gay people, that we're forced to realize from an early age, that it doesn't matter what anyone thinks of us, that the only way to really, really be alive as a gay person is to say 'I love myself enough to be true to I know who I am and if you don't like it, it's not going to affect how I behave; that's your problem.' That's an incredible gift that will guide your entire life, [and] to know early on that it doesn't matter what others thinks of you, that you have to really love yourself," Goldstein said. "The best team, regardless of the sport, is the team in which everyone feels OK to be themselves, and everyone supports one another unconditionally."
The Denver Outlaws became the first Major League Lacrosse team to partner with the You Can Play Project in an effort to erase homophobia in sports. Representing the Outlaws in a 30-second video are MLL Defensive Player of the Year Lee Zink, MLL All-Star Jesse Schwartzman and Matt Bocklet.
The video is at http://youcanplayproject.org/videos/entry/you-can-play-denver-outlaws.
