SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Golden State Warriors President Rick Welts still will have a reason to celebrate if his team doesn’t win the NBA championship: he’s been named as the celebrity grand marshal of San Francisco’s gay pride parade.
The San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Pride Celebration Committee announced June 15 that it had selected the 58-year-old sports executive for the honor previously enjoyed by such notables as singer Cyndi Lauper, actor Cheyenne Jackson and transgender activist Chaz Bono.
Welts was president of the Phoenix Suns when he came out publicly in 2011 via a front-page article in The New York Times. He joined the Warriors later that year.
Welts said in a statement that the parade gives him an opportunity “to shine light on the contributions the LGBT community makes to sports, every day, all over the world.”
