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Lesbians and athletics have
been identified with each other since long before the 1969 Stonewall
Rebellion alerted mainstream straight America that there was a large
queer minority in its midst. Despite that long history, many
Lesbians in
Sports continue to face homophobia and other obstacles today. |
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 Bodybuilding
includes many lesbians and gay men both as athletes and consumers of
the physical culture and entertainment products the sport sponsors. The
important role of lesbians and gay men in the sport is more often
denied than recognized. |
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Rita Mae Brown
(b. 1944) is a lesbian poet and novelist best known for the highly
successful novel Rubyfruit Jungle. Her novel Sudden Death,
which looks at life within the women's tennis circuit, was inspired by
her relationship with tennis star
Martina Navratilova. |
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 Mildred "Babe"
Didrikson (1911-1956) was one of the greatest women athletes in
history. Despite all of her triumphs, she was taunted by
charges of "mannishness" and "unnaturalness." |
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 Frontrunners is an
international confederation of gay, lesbian, transgendered, and
gay-friendly runners, joggers, power walkers, strollers, rollerbladers,
and sometimes bicyclists of all abilities. The group takes its name
from novelist
Patricia Nell
Warren's The Front Runner.
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The
Gay Games
is a
quadrennial sporting and cultural event designed for the glbtq
community that has become a lucrative attraction for host cities. |
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Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943)
who lived her lesbianism openly and proudly, is best known for The
Well of Loneliness, arguably the most important lesbian novel ever
written. Stephen, the protagonist in The Well, exhibited her
lesbianism by engaging in traditionally masculine activities including
sports. |
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 Rosie Jones (b. 1959) is a successful amateur and professional golfer who scored thirteen victories on the LPGA tour from 1987 to 2003. Since coming out in 2004, she has helped increase glbtq visibility in sports. |
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 Billie Jean King
(b.1943)
helped transform the world of professional tennis. She denied her
lesbianism in the 1980s, but in 2000 became the first openly lesbian
coach of an Olympic team. |
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Lesbian Sports
Literature is a surprisingly small
literary genre. Despite the high representation of lesbians in women's
sports, sports and sportswomen have played a minor role in lesbian
literature. |
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 Amélie Mauresmo (b. 1979) is the first professional tennis player since Martina Navratilova to come out publicly as a lesbian, and one of the few elite athletes to come out while still competing. She has almost twenty tournament titles to her credit. |
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 Martina Navratilova
(b. 1956)
is one of the greatest tennis players in history and has become an
outspoken supporter of lesbian and gay rights. |
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 The Outgames brought together more than half a million glbtq people and allies when they were first held in Montreal in 2006. Even though the Outgames were born of controversy and lost millions of dollars at the Montreal event, evidence suggests that their future is bright. |
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 Patty Sheehan (b. 1956) is a Hall of Fame golfer who continues to excel on the LPGA Legends tour. Sheehan came out as a lesbian in 1998 at the height of her career. |
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 Sheryl Swoopes (b. 1971) is a basketball star and three-time Olympic champion who publicly came out as a lesbian and acknowledged her committed relationship with another woman in 2005. |
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Diane Whipple (1968-2001), the coach of the women's lacrosse team at Saint Mary's College in California, was killed in a dog-mauling in 2001. In response, her partner, Sharon Smith, helped establish the right of same-sex partners to equal treatment with heterosexuals. |
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