Athletes Deliver a Pride Month to Remember
BY MATT TRACY
The wide-scale attacks on
trans girls and women
on playing fi elds across
the country made this
year’s Pride Month a crucial one
for the sports world — and a diverse
slate of queer athletes made
the most of it with a series of unexpected
gains that shattered historic
barriers.
Entering the month, queer athletes
were contending with more
adversity than ever in an alreadyhostile
atmosphere that has kept
many professional athletes in the
closet, targeted Black athletes with
a racism and sexism, and dehumanized
trans girls, women, and
some non-binary athletes. It is diffi
cult to convey the scope of the
damage infl icted during the stateby
state effort to ban trans athletes
from sports, but there is no
doubt that the transphobic talking
points have infi ltrated the mainstream
sports landscape: Just in
recent days, retired NFL legend
Brett Favre said it is “not fair” for
trans women to compete in the
Olympics — and he still has an
audience ready and willing to cling
to his words.
Trans athletes are looking to
prove him wrong. In one of many
victories for the community during
Pride Month, New Zealand weightlifter
Laurel Hubbard etched her
place in history when she was
named to the nation’s roster for the
Tokyo Olympics. And in case Favre
is wondering — she’s playing by
the rules.
Another athlete heading to Tokyo
is out queer sprinter Sha’Carri
Richardson, who breezed past the
competition in the women’s 100m
Olympic trials in Oregon on June
19. LGBTQ representation — especially
for Black women — is important
in a track and fi eld environment
where out lesbian South
African Olympic gold medalist
Caster Semenya has faced years
of racism and invasive sex testing.
One of the most refreshing moments
of Richardson’s victory was
when she said her girlfriend inspired
her to dye her hair orange.
The gains during Pride Month
also included some of the more
Washington Spirit forward Kumi Yokoyama came out as trans during Pride Month.
attention-grabbing highlights,
such as the coming out of Raiders
defensive end Carl Nassib — who
became the NFL’s fi rst out active
player on June 21. The impact
of Nassib’s announcement was
felt immediately when the NFL
launched a new video campaign
voicing explicit support of the LGBTQ
community.
The news about Nassib sparked
public discussions among former
players such as hall of famer Bruce
Smith, who said he played with as
many as two gay teammates during
his time with the Buffalo Bills. Another
hall of famer, Warren Moon,
said “several” teammates from his
days with the Houston Oilers never
were comfortable enough to go
public.”
Nassib also demonstrated the
importance of acceptance when
he shared that he was only able to
come out with the support of his
teammates, family, and friends.
His coming out marked a major
step forward for a hyper-masculine
sports league that has seen two
other out players in the last seven
years — Michael Sam and RK Russell
— but neither played a snap in
a regular season game after coming
out. Nassib will look to cross
that hurdle in September.
P E R S P E C T I V E : L E T T E R F R O M T HE E D I T O R
Another highlight of the month
came with the release of a documentary,
“Against the Current,”
chronicling the remarkable journey
of transgender Icelandic kayaker
Veiga Grétarsdóttir. Grétarsdóttir
successfully completed a
2,000-kilometer adventure in a
kayak by downing a whopping
7,000 calories per day so she could
row for eight hours per day.
Coming out stories also spread to
the soccer universe. Kumi Yokoyama,
a trans man who plays for the
Washington Spirit and serves on
Japan’s national team, came out
in June after stating that the accepting
environments surrounding
them helped make it easier to
come out. Like Nassib, Yokoyama
further proved how much acceptance
can make a difference.
Individual athletes paved the
way during Pride Month, but professional
sports also collectively
joined in with Pride Night events
across the country. Most MLB
teams scheduled Pride nights —
and despite some fl aws, every year
seems to bring improvements from
previous years.
In Queens, the Mets hosted a
Pride Night doubleheader that
was far too submerged in corporate
rainbows and slogans, but it
WILLIAM PURNELL-USA TODAY SPORTS
was indeed a step up from previous
years. For the fi rst time, the
Mets offered the fi rst 12,000 fans a
free Pride T-shirt featuring a Mets
logo in rainbow colors — and the
Mets have, by far, the most pro-
LGBTQ roster in history. Pitchers
Marcus Stroman, Taijuan Walker,
and Trevor May posted on social
media to show their support for
the LGBTQ community. Their bold
stands shouldn’t be a big deal, but
they are — and those players deserve
praise.
Across town, the Yankees continued
a positive Stonewall Scholars
program in which they distribute
fi ve $10,000 scholarships to one
LGBTQ student in every borough.
The Yankees have rightfully taken
criticism for failing to host an actual
Pride game, but they bring the
scholars to Yankee Stadium for a
pre-game ceremony.
The encouraging developments
during Pride Month — combined
with the Biden administration’s
steps to stand up for trans studentathletes
— could not have come at
a better time for the queer sports
world. There is a long road ahead,
but the steps forward should be
celebrated during an era when the
community has been bombarded
with bad news.
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