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Loading ...How many out lesbian athletes in Beijing? 10.
SOCCER OVERTAKES SOFTBALL AS WORLD’S MOST LESBIAN SPORT
Today, Aug. 8, 2008, the luckiest day in China, marks the official launch of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The world of sports, though stereotypically filled with dykes, is in actuality rather homophobic; there have rarely been more than a handful of openly gay and lesbian athletes in any Olympics. But this year, due to my unexpected obsession with the Olympics (I chalk it up to its location, which I spent years studying in grad school, and don’t get me started on the often inaccurate and even imperialist Western media coverage of China) — wait a sec, where was I?
Oh yeah: I have uncovered 10 — 10! — out lesbian/bisexual athletes from around the world for us to watch Aug. 8–24. By “out” I mean women who have said something on the record about their sexual orientation; sure, there’s plenty of gossip online about many, many female athletes, but these precious 10 (so far!) are the ones who have stepped up and said, “Yes, I am.” If I’ve missed someone, please let us know!Vicky Galindo (USA, Softball)
Photo credit: Robert Laberge/Getty Images
The 24-year-old second baseman just came out as bisexual in the Aug. 26th issue of the Advocate, where she also revealed that she is currently single. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she played on their softball team. Find out more about her here.
Lauren Lappin (USA, Softball)
Photo credit: Robert Laberge/Getty Image
Catcher Lauren Lappin, 24, told the Advocate that she credits teammate Galindo with inspiring her to come out herself. Lappin played softball at Stanford and was an alternate on the 2004 U.S. national team. Find out more about her here.
Natasha Kai (USA, Soccer)
Photo credit: Grant Halverson/Getty Images
As Outsports just noted, the 24-year-old Hawaiian off-handedly came out in a June interview with NBCOlympics.com when she mentioned breaking up with her girlfriend. She’s a forward on the U.S. women’s national team, and yes, she has 19 tattoos. Here’s her official bio.
Victoria “Vickan” Svensson (Sweden, Soccer)
Photo credit: Liu Jin/AFP/Getty Images
The 31-year-old team captain and forward recently talked to Swedish newspaper Expressen about her sexual orientation (thanks to Bente for the link). This is Svensson’s third Olympics; you can visit her website here (in Swedish).
Rennae Stubbs (Australia, Tennis)
Photo credit: Robert Prezioso/Getty Images
Beijing will be the fourth Olympics for women’s doubles player Rennae Stubbs, 37. Being out isn’t new to her, either; in fact she used to date her former doubles partner, Lisa Raymond. In 2006 she told Australian newspaper The Age:
I always say to my friends, “Wouldn’t it be great if everybody who was gay said they were? If we said: February 21, or whatever, this is the coming out day. So, if you are, you have to come out to everybody you know.” It would be phenomenal. And it would be nice if everybody could just accept that it’s not a choice, this is who you are. … I don’t hide who I am any more. Everyone in the tennis world pretty much knows who’s gay and who’s not; the only reason I would like it spoken about publicly more is that I wish everybody would realise that, “See all those people you admire? Out of 10 of them, four are gay, and I just want you to know that your child can still idolise them.”
Read her official bio here.
Next page: Norway and Germany
Actually, there were several Inner Mongolians on the Chinese wrestling, judo and field hockey teams, and the basketball teams also have had them in the past. The boxing team had two Uighurs and a Kazakh.
Davi-May Said: August 10th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
“It is so cool to know that dykes are everywhere and everything.”
Yeah, because fags certainly aren’t everywhere like on Queer Eye For the Straight Guy, Project Runway, Brokeback Mountain, Out magazine, 90% of the Advocate magazine, gay.com, most hair salons, interior decorating shops, etc. etc. etc.
Forgot Gro Hammerseng and Katja Nyberg. Partners and teammates on Norway’s women’s handball team.
You missed one: Cuty Matthew Mitcham
It is so cool to know that dykes are everywhere and everything.
Don’t imagine there will be a single Inner Mongolian, Tibetan or East Turkestani (Uighur) athlete amongst the mostly all Han Chinese Olympic teams of China. (Han is the main Chinese ethnicity amonst those that consider themselves Chinese and speak Chinese)
The Chinese government is concerned with harmony over human rights, so that means people in Beijing are not allowed to rent to Tibetans, Turkestanis (Turkic speaking Uighurs from Xinjiang province in China’s Northwest) etc, not allowed to give work to Tibetans etc in Beijing and must fire them, etc. No ethnic minorities from the provinces allowed in Beijing during the Olympics.
Harsh and brutal crackdowns on Tibetans in Tibet for their uprising against Chinese rule in the time of the Olympics.
The Chinese brutalized the Tibetans during the Chinese invasion of Tibet and have worked to crush and destroy Tibetan culture even more ruthlessly right now when the Tibetans rose up against Chinese rule at the time of the Olympics.
Beijing has not curbed its severe air pollution causing hardship for the athletes’ needs for healthy air and Beijing does not deserve being awarded the Olympics for China’s many human rights abuses against its own Han group, against the Tibetans, and various others of the national group native to China in addition for failing to provide a suitably clean environment for the Olympics.
Joseph Singer Said So, where are the guys?*************
Well, I am really going to go out on a limb here and suggest that possibly 99.9 percent of them are really deep in the closet.
So, where are the guys?