In recent years, professional sport has seen a surge in the acceptance of athletes who identify in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ+) community. However, there are still many challenges that we face. There are countless LGBTQ+ athletes around the world and a large percentage of these have been hugely successful in everything they have done.
Below, I’m going to explore just a few of the powerful ladies that have changed the outlook in sport, and the future of life forever.
Nilla Fischer
Nilla is a very well-known and respected football player across the globe, and is regarded as one of Sweden’s greatest ever players. Her strong spirit and tenacious tackling ability is something that is widely appreciated in the world of sport.
Her passion does not stop on the football field though, as Fischer has always been very committed to gender equality and gay rights. Her main aim is to help towards preventing all forms of discrimination within the world of sport. This includes homophobia, sexism and racism, all of which are issues that are still prevalent to this day. In addition, Fischer was named Sweden’s LGBTQ Person of the Year in 2014 as recognition for her endless support and passion.
Alex Blackwell
Blackwell was only the second international cricketer to ‘come out’ during her career. She found her voice when she became involved with Athlete Ally, a non-profit organisation that promotes LGBTQ+ inclusion within sport. She holds the opinion that many gay female sports players do not come out due to their fear of stereotyping. Her work is very powerful and she believes that ‘athletes who are gay, or perceived to be gay, are just not asked about their love lives by reporters in the same way as obvious heterosexuals, so these conversations just don’t take place.’
Megan Rapinoe
Not only a legend on the football field, but also in the LGBT community for her endless efforts to improve our position and acceptance within football. In 2012 Rapinoe revealed her sexuality to the world, coming out as a very proud lesbian. Rapinoe stated: “I just felt like I was leaving something out and omitting something, and not being 100% truthful. Even though I never lied about anything.”
Since her announcement, Rapinoe has been a strong advocate for a number of LGBTQ+ organisations with the hope that she can be a figure for others to look up to and ask for support from. Young people around the world see her as a wonderful role model, thanks to her endless efforts to end homophobia in sport.
Lilly Parr
In 1921, The FA banned women’s football on affiliated grounds in England as a result of it attracting larger crowds than the men’s game. Parr was a professional footballer at the age of 14, after taking a munitions assembly job at Dick, Kerr & Co, where she then joined their football team. Parr was the cause of the crowds; she played football with both men and women, and reportedly shot the ball harder than any man they had come across. When the women’s league was banned in England, Parr and her team travelled around the United States to play exhibition games. She lived openly gay as a player in a time when it was seen as a sin to be gay, making her one of the most respectable and incredible ladies in the history of football and sport.
Billie Jean King
A respectable bow is owed to Billie Jean King. Regarded as one of the most successful tennis players of all time, King won six Wimbledon singles championships and four US Open title during her illustrious career and was ranked as world number one for five years. One of her most memorable contests was when King thrashed ex-champion Bobby Riggs, a self-proclaimed “chauvinist pig”, in 1973. If King did not win that day, then it was suggested that women would have been set back by 50 years, possibly hindering women’s sport forever.
In 1981 King was outed by her ex-husband, in a time when homophobia was the norm. Since that day, King has continuously campaigned for gay rights and in 1990 she was listed as one of the 100 most important Americans of the 20th century.
Here are some other honourable ladies that should also be mentioned:
- Sheryl Swoopes, basketball
- Nicola Adams, boxing
- Ireen Wust, speed Skater
- Diana Nyad, swimming
- Abby Wambach, soccer
This article originally appeared on Alicia's blog Raising the Bar 98.
