Boston Herald sports columnist Steve Buckley announced in his column on Thursday that he's gay.

In an eloquent and touching piece titled Welcome to my Coming-Out Party, Buckley gives his mother credit for the decision.

“Just over seven years ago, before Thanksgiving, we were getting into the car outside of a CVS when mother said, 'I think you should go ahead and do that story you've been talking about.'”

“'Really?'”

“'Yes,' she said. 'Just go ahead and do it. And then we'll have a party.'”

“She was talking about the story in which I would say that I am gay.”

Buckley goes on to say he's put off the news long enough.

“I haven't been fair to my family, my friends, or co-workers. And I certainly haven't been fair to myself. For too many years I've been on the sidelines of Boston's gay community but not in the game – figuratively and literally, as I feel I would have had a pretty good career in the (gay) Beantown Softball League.”

Comments left by readers in the online edition of the story ran mostly positive.