American Gladiators' First Out Contestant

American Gladiators will feature its first openly gay male contestant in the show’s 20 year history. Sean Heatherington, who hails from West Hollywood, Calif. will run, spar, and joust his way on NBC tonight (8PM ET). If you’ve never seen the original show in the early 1990s or its latest incarnation, American Gladiators pit big and buff men and women contestants against each other. The contestants also wage war against the Gladiators -- who are even bigger and buffer -- and come with names like Crush, Steel, Justice and Tor.

Not only is Sean the show’s first openly gay contestant, he’s got one heck of a back story. Until recently he was the quintessential couch potato. As a young gay male he grew up afraid of sports and took comfort in food. But in 2003 he overcame his fears of the gym and lost 100 pounds!

Sean’s story is not unique. There are many young gay men and women who feel like they can’t be athletes or are afraid to try because of their sexual orientation. So it’s exciting that tonight NBC will show millions of Americans, gay and straight, that LGBT people are incredible athletes and can rock the Gladiator arena.

For those in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area, head down to the Abbey in West Hollywood for a viewing party from 7 – 9 PM. The viewing party benefits Lifeworks mentoring, www.lifeworksmentoring.org.