Every March, tens of thousands of people from around the globe flock to Austin, Texas, to learn and connect over panels, parties and tacos at South by Southwest's interactive, film and music conferences. America Tonight's SXDiaries Q&A series highlights interesting and inspiring figures at SXSW.

Conner Mertens’ story has played a significant role at the intersection of sports and LGBT rights. In January 2014, the kicker for Willamette, a Division III program in Salem, Oregon, became the first active college football player at any level to publicly announce his bisexuality. Today, Mertens continues to be a force in helping young athletes going through similar experiences before coming out. His story is one of several featured in "Out to Win," a new documentary chronicling the history of LGBT participation in American sports.

In an interview with America Tonight at the South by Southwest festival, Mertens discussed Michael Sam, fakeness and what it will take for sexual orientation to become a nonissue in college football. Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

You’ve touched on how growing up in southeast Washington state isn’t the most LGBT-friendly place in the world. What was it like growing up there? Did it push you away from coming to terms with your sexual orientation?

I never felt in danger. I was just never, ever, ever comfortable. I was fortunate enough that my school was never big on bullying, but there were certain things that were swept under the rug and nobody ever mentioned them. I’m sure there’s a better phrase for it, but I call it secondary bullying. It was more the language and the gender norms, the stereotypical “Don’t be a faggot.” Every single word was another nail in the coffin and forced me further and further into the closet.

I pushed it so far away from me that I completely ignored that part of my life. I have amazing friends and family back home. When I look back, I learned to stay away from comments sections on any article in general. [Laughs.] The most disgusting and horrible things I heard were comments sections on local news articles from my town. That was the disappointing thing for me growing up there.

In your Fox Sports interview, you said you'd been concerned about being stuck in fakeness for the rest of your life. What’s it like to be stuck in that kind of fakeness?