Similarly, in 2004, when acclaimed golfer Rosie Jones came out publicly her announcment was greeted with support rather than derision. Jones, who has won more than a dozen LPGA titles and more than $7,000,000 in winnings over a long career, simultaneously announced her lesbianism and an endorsement deal with Olivia, the lesbian and gay travel company.

In 2005 WNBA basketball superstar Sheryl Swoopes announced publicly that she is a lesbian. As with Jones, Swoopes took this bold step with the support of her league and an endorsement deal with Olivia. Perhaps most tellingly in terms of a trend toward greater acceptance of lesbian professional athletes, she also had the support of her principal sponsor, footwear giant Nike.

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Gay Games

Gay and lesbian athletes have also responded to discrimination within the sporting world by creating their own venue, the Gay Games. Community softball and soccer teams have long been places for lesbians to meet and gather, and the Gay Games created an international network for these teams.

Begun in 1982, the sports and cultural festival has recurred every four years in locations as varied as Vancouver, British Columbia, New York City, and Amsterdam, attracting over 10,000 participants, about one third of them lesbians. The 2002 games were held in Sydney, Australia; the 2006 event, once scheduled for Montreal, will be held in Chicago.

The International Gay Rodeo Association, a thriving group with more than thirty affiliates across the United States and in two Canadian provinces, celebrates both the cultural heritage of the rural West and the glbtq identities of its participants.

While sports, at least on the major competitive level, may be the final closet for gay men, there have nevertheless been a number of gay male elite athletes.

Fears and misconceptions about transgendered and intersexed athletes abound.

Lesbian poet and novelist Rita Mae Brown, best known for the highly successful Rubyfruit Jungle, resists neat categorization.

Despite all her triumphs, Mildred "Babe" Didrikson, one of the greatest women athletes in history, was taunted by charges of "mannishness" and "unnaturalness."

Frontrunners is an international confederation of gay, lesbian, transgendered, and gay-friendly runners, joggers, power walkers, strollers, rollerbladers, and sometimes bicyclists of all abilities.

A quadrennial sporting and cultural event designed for the glbtq community, the Gay Games has become a lucrative attraction for host cities.

Golfer Rosie Jones enjoyed great success both as an amateur and a professional; since her public coming out in 2004 she has helped increase glbtq visibility in sports.

Having helped transform the world of professional tennis, Billie Jean King denied her lesbianism in the 1980s, but in 2000 became the first openly lesbian coach of an Olympic team.

One of the few elite glbtq athletes to come out publicly while still competing, Amélie Mauresmo has held the number one ranking of the Women's Tennis Association.

One of the greatest tennis players in history, Martina Navratilova has become an outspoken supporter of gay and lesbian rights.

The first world Outgames, held in Montreal in the summer of 2006, inaugurated what promises to be a quadrennial athletic and cultural event that combines the pursuit of athletic excellence with the joyous celebration of community.

In 2005 basketball star and three-time Olympic champion Sheryl Swoopes publicly came out as a lesbian and acknowledged her committed relationship with another woman.

Diane Whipple, the coach of the women's lacrosse team at Saint Mary's College in California, was killed in a dog-mauling; the response of her partner helped establish the right of same-sex partners to equal treatment with heterosexuals.