Billy Bean (born 1964) is a former major league baseball player who made news in 1999 after declaring himself gay.
Bean was a marginal outfielder who had only 487 at bats with a .226 batting average in a career that lasted from 1987 through 1995 (1987-89, 93-95; Tigers, Dodgers, Padres). After declaring himself gay, Bean went on to write a book, "Going the Other Way: Lessons from a life in and out of a Major League Baseball". Bean is the second major league baseball player to admit his homosexuality; former Dodger Glenn Burke, who died of AIDS in 1995, is the only other ex-player to have acknowledged his homosexuality.
