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Writer's pictureOikonomos Nexus
Apr 2, 20224 min read

Queer people in sports: Their Assets Changing the Playing Field



In celebrating Pride Month, what is the best way to commemorate the occasion by learning about queer athletes who achieved heights of success in sports and advocating for the LGBTQ+ community? Since sports have become more diverse, queer athletes are steadily gaining respect and recognition in sports. First, in acquiring knowledge of the definition of queer, a “person whose sexual orientation or gender identity falls outside the heterosexual mainstream or the gender binary.” All the lesbians, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are about this because their sexual orientation and gender identity cater outside the traditional male-female binary and different-sex attractions. Further, if you are leaning towards gender-neutral, non-binary, agender, genderfluid, pansexual, asexual, solo sexual, and the like, the Q in LGBTQ caters to it.


In terms of sports and the game that bonds people, the LGBTQIA+ still struggles in the field of sports through progress in many avenues of the area has been made. Some of the notable figures of the LGBTQIA+ community in 2020 helped spearhead better treatment and standards within the sporting community for the LGBTQIA+ community. First among these figures is Megan Rapinoe, the captain of the US Women Women Women’s National Soccer team, achieving many awards such as an Olympic gold medalist and 2-time World Cup winner. She publicly came out in the year 2012 identifying herself as gay. She is outspoken in advocating the LGBTQIA+ plus the gender and racial inequalities in sports.

Second among these people is Billie Jean King, one of the greatest tennis players to touch the sport. Aside from the fame, she outed as a lesbian in 1981; she worked for well-known gender equality and LGBTQIA+ rights activists. In the 2017 NBC news, she tells an unbelievable story on how her team wanted her to hide her sexuality, but she refused since it was vital for her to tell the truth. Third is Sue Bird, a four-time Olympic gold medal winner who won multiple WNBA, NCAA, and Euroleague championships. Sue Bird told how she and Megan Rapinoe were dating in 2016 and that in 2017 she publicly came out about her sexuality in an ESPNW feature. Considering this in 2018 during the Seattle Times in 2018, she stresses the importance of coming out publicly or in general, making it a norm in the contemporary setting. Fourth is Orlando Cruz, that came out in 2012, making him the first openly gay professional boxer in history.


In his interview with the Associated Press, he outed he states how he wanted to be true to himself. He wants to become the best role model for kids who might be interested in boxing as a sport and a professional career. Last but not least is Tom Daley, a British diver who won a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics, the year after he outed and told the world that he was dating a man. In speaking to The Times in 2015 on the topic of labels on sexuality, he said that his generation should not be labeled and that sexuality is a more fluid thing, plus identifying him as a queer as mentioned above. Also, he is vocal with the anti-LGBTQIA+ laws that oppress and criminalizes LGBT+ causing inequality and how that one day every athlete can compete in the commonwealth no matter what sexuality or gender orientation.


In the context of the Philippine setting, we have our queer queen in sports, the recent Olympic Athlete Margielyn Didal, who competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She is a Filipina Skateboarder who was publicly outed as a member of the LGBTQ+. Margielyn Didal is exceptionally outspoken about her sexuality and how her friends and family support her for who she is and respects her goals and dreams in the fields she chooses. This kind of healthy upbringing and understanding makes athletes the caliber of who they are in expressing their talents. These figures who are not afraid to speak for who they are makes queer people in sports changers of the playing field, fighting for equality and battling themselves for who they are.


Still, progress is to be made, but talks and people pushing and fighting to make a dream come true of extracting the hate and turning it into support is healthy for all the sporting community and the children who are viewers and future of each sport. In general, it is humanely, and equal to give rights to other people since the inequality and oppression is there, full acceptance for the cause, so if the SOGIE Bill in our country could become a law, it would help not only the people in sports or the LGBTQ+ community but all the Filipinos in totality.


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Written by: Leo Llanita

Layout and Design by: Dan Kurt Buenaventura


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