Celebrating LGBTQ sports history

[CellarDweller]

Celebrating LGBTQ sports history: Out gay athlete trailblazers

By Cyd Zeigler

Before many of the publicly out gay male athletes we recognize today, there were three male athletes who came out between the late ‘70s and mid ‘90s who helped blaze a trail for those who would come after them.

In the United States, Major League Baseball player Glenn Burke was out to his teammates with both the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland Athletics before retiring from the sport.  Justin Fashanu came out publicly in England's Premier League years before his career came to an end in a very sad suicide.

Professional rugby player Ian Roberts came out publicly in Australia in a culture that has trailed behind that of the United States in acceptance to gay athletes and issues like same-sex marriage.  

All three of these men balked the trend and shared their true identities as gay men either with teammates and team management or publicly. All of them continued to have a career despite the public or powerful men in their sport knowing they were gay.

https://www.outsports.com/2020/10/3/2149...ailblazers

[CellarDweller]

Celebrating LGBTQ sports history: Kye Allums

By Dawn Ennis Oct 2, 2020


Not many people noticed a slight change on the George Washington University website earlier this year. It concerned a player on the school’s women’s basketball team named Kay-Kay Allums. Just a couple letters were taken away, a Y was moved and an E was added to form the player’s new name: Kye Allums. To most people it was meaningless, but to Allums the change was the most significant of his lifetime.

“A name is just a bunch of letters, but the letters make up a word and the words that make up my name have so many more emotions behind them,” Allums said. “My old name, that’s just not me. When I hear Kye, everything feels okay, everything is right.”

For the last 20 years, Kay-Kay Allums had appeared to the world as female. He was born with the anatomy that other women have. His mom tried to dress him in only the most feminine clothes. But inside was a man waiting to burst out of the female body he was born in.

On Nov. 13, Kye Allums will introduce himself to the NCAA basketball world at the Best Buy Classic in Minneapolis in a game against the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. When he steps foot on the court, Allums will be the first publicly transgender person to play NCAA Div. 1 college basketball.

Allums grew up in the small town of Hugo, Minn., a half hour north of Minneapolis. Head coach Mike Bozeman scheduled the tournament appearance as a homecoming for him, long before he transitioned to male. The junior guard’s inaugural game identifying as a man will also be the first time he has played in front of his hometown crowd. While Allums is making a change now, most of his family and friends will recognize him as the same old Kye.

https://www.outsports.com/2020/10/2/2149...vision-one

[CellarDweller]

Celebrating LGBTQ sports history: Corey Johnson’s story

By Dawn Ennis Oct 5, 2020


In April 2000, New England-based Bay Windows printed the story of Masconomet (Mass.) High School football player Corey Johnson. Written by Peter Cassels, the story was a shocker: A high school football player who came out to his team… and lived to tell about it. Not only did he survive, he thrived on the team as his teammates embraced Johnson as they had for years before. Outsports quickly picked up on the story as did others; Weeks later, on April 30, 2000, the New York Times published a front-page story by Robert Lipsyte entitled, “Icon Recast: Support for a Gay Athlete.”

It was Lipsyte’s article on the eve of the Millennium March on Washington that catapulted Johnson to national prominence. Lipsyte had been tipped on the story by Cassels. Lipsyte said he got the story on the New York Times page A1 because Johnson was speaking at the Millennium March that weekend — it was the news peg he needed to land the story on the paper’s front page. The next day, Johnson joined hundreds of thousands of people in Washington, D.C. to demand equality for gay people.

https://www.outsports.com/2020/10/5/2150...or-council

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Celebrating LGBTQ sports history: Fallon Fox is the first transgender MMA fighter

By Dawn Ennis Oct 6, 2020


Coming out fully on their own terms and timetable isn’t a luxury shared by every LGBTQ athlete. It’s an unfortunate truth that retired MMA fighter Fallon Fox knows all too well. She was a budding octagon technician with two first round stoppage wins under her belt in March 2013. But the devastating knee she used to finish off Ericka Newsome at CFA 10 quickly gave way to a larger, more life-changing impact.

On March 5, 2013, three days after defeating Newsome, Fox came out as transgender after a reporter began investigating her gender identity and past. “Maybe someone would guess that I’m trans. Maybe they would know me from my life before I transitioned. I’ve been waiting for that phone call to happen. And Saturday night, it happened.”

The news threw Fox’s ability to fight into question despite being years removed from her transition. More importantly for Fox, it forced her to confront the harsh reality that the people around her that helped build her into a talented fighter might view her differently. “These past six years, people have seen me as a woman, not a transsexual,” she said. “People in the gym, people I train with, it’s been great, it’s been awesome.  I’m just a woman to them.  I don’t want that to go away.  It’s unfortunate that it has to.”  Here’s how it began....


https://www.outsports.com/2020/10/6/2150...ma-fighter

[CellarDweller]

Celebrating LGBTQ sports history: Esera Tuaolo comes out as gay

By Dawn Ennis Oct 5, 2020

Today, Outsports co-founder Jim Buzinski looks backs at that time in 2002 when Esera Tuaolo revealed his truth, through a television interview.

The coming out of Esera Tuaolo, who played nine seasons in the NFL, shattered stereotypes. Here was a big (6-3, 300 pounds), tough defensive lineman who excelled in the trenches announcing he was gay. His public coming out occurred on HBOs “Real Sports” and generated a national debate about gays in sports. 


https://www.outsports.com/2020/10/7/2150...y-athletes

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Celebrating LGBTQ sports history: Derrick Gordon finds his freedom

By Dawn Ennis Oct 5, 2020


https://www.outsports.com/2020/10/8/2150...ay-athlete

[ceez]

I'm not sure if they did a story on Jason Collins but he was a NBA player that decided to come out his last year.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.si.com/...nba-player

Surprisingly a team still picked him up, the NBA seems to be more progressive then the other sports organizations,  I remember when Michael Sam came out before he was drafted to the NFL and it didn't go so well. He fell farther in the draft because of it and was harrassed his first year then decided to quit.