LGBT Olympians

LGBT Olympians are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) athletes who have competed at the Olympic Games, and the Paralympics. Most have been closeted about their sexuality or gender identity while in Olympic competition, instead coming out after their Games. Thus a small percentage of Olympians are on record as being LGBT. Additionally, as LGBT rights, such as same-sex marriage, have been enacted, more have been comfortable revealing this aspect of who they are, and the public more accepting of them. Very few athletes before the 1969 Stonewall Riots, the start of the modern LGBT movement, would be known, or discuss, being LGBT. Such things were often made known as a result of a scandal, or after their death, if at all.

Marc Naimark of the Federation of Gay Games called the lack of openly gay athletes a symptom, not the problem, of the Olympic Games.^[1] He said the International Olympic Committee should pressure countries to repeal anti-gay laws the same way it once excluded South Africa for its apartheid system of racial segregation, and "more recently, succeeded in getting all competing nations to include female athletes on their teams in London."^[1]

Despite the small number of LGBT Olympians, there have been other multi-sport events, such as the Gay Games and World OutGames, which are specifically organized and oriented towards the participation of LGBT people.

Note that this list does not include Olympians known to be intersex, a list of whom can be found in List of intersex people.

Background on sexual orientation and labels

The historical concept and definition of sexual orientation varies and has changed greatly over time; for example the word "gay" wasn't used to describe sexual orientation until the mid 20th century. A number of different classification schemes have been used to describe sexual orientation since the mid-19th century, and scholars have often defined the term "sexual orientation" in divergent ways. Indeed, several studies have found that much of the research about sexual orientation has failed to define the term at all, making it difficult to reconcile the results of different studies.^[2][3][4] However, most definitions include a psychological component (such as the direction of an individual's erotic desire) and/or a behavioural component (which focuses on the sex of the individual's sexual partner/s). Some prefer to simply follow an individual's self-definition or identity. See homosexuality and bisexuality for criteria that have traditionally denoted lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people.

The high prevalence of people from the West on the list may be due to societal attitudes toward homosexuality. The Pew Research Center's 2003 Global Attitudes Survey found that "[p]eople in Africa and the Middle East strongly object to societal acceptance of homosexuality. Opinion in Europe is split between West and East. Majorities in every Western European nation surveyed say homosexuality should be accepted by society, while most Russians, Poles and Ukrainians disagree. Americans are divided – a thin majority (51 percent) believes homosexuality should be accepted, while 42 percent disagree."^[5] Attitude towards homosexuality in Latin American countries have increasingly been more legally tolerant, but the traditional society and culture in even major countries like Mexico and Brazil have nevertheless remained rather unaccepting and taboo about the subject.^[6][7]

LGBT athletes at the Olympic Games

Relatively few openly LGBT athletes have competed in the Olympic Games, and there has never been a gay man who has publicly come out before or during the Winter Olympics.^[8] Out of the 104 openly gay and lesbian participants in the Summer Olympics, 53% have won a medal. Cyd Zeigler, Jr. reasoned that this could be the result of the relieved focus and lack of "burden" an athlete would have after coming out, that "high-level athletes" are more likely to feel secure in coming out as their careers have been established, or their performance was mere coincidence and had no correlation with their sexual orientation at all.^[9]

2008 Summer Olympics

In the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, only 12 athletes out of the 10,708 participants were openly gay, lesbian or bisexual, including:

• Matthew Mitcham (Australia, diving)
• Judith Arndt (Germany, cycling)
• Imke Duplitzer (Germany, fencing)
• Gro Hammerseng (Norway, handball)
• Katja Nyberg (Norway, handball)
• Natasha Kai (U.S., soccer)
• Lauren Lappin (U.S., softball)
• Victoria Sandell Svensson (Sweden, soccer)
• Rennae Stubbs (Australia, tennis)
• Linda Bresonik (Germany, soccer)
• Vicky Galindo (U.S., softball, bisexual)
• Tzipora Obziler (Israel, tennis)

Of them, only one of them, Matthew Mitcham (who also won a gold medal), was male.^[10] Mitcham gained media coverage in Australia as reporters thought he was the first Australian to compete in the Olympics as an openly gay person at the time. However, Mathew Helm, the Australian diver who won the silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the men's 10m platform, had publicly announced he was gay before the Olympics began.^[11][12] Other notable gay Australian Olympians include Ji Wallace, who competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal in the inaugural trampoline event; however, he came out after the Games.^[13]

2010 Winter Olympics

Of the thousands of participating in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, only six athletes, all women, were openly lesbian or bisexual:^[14]

• Renate Groenewold (Netherlands, speed skating)
• Sanne van Kerkhof (Netherlands, speed skating)
• Ireen Wust (Netherlands, speed skating, and van Kerkhof’s girlfriend)
• Vibeke Skofterud (Norway, cross-country skiing)
• Sarah Vaillancourt (Canada, hockey)
• Erika Holst (Sweden, hockey)

2012 Summer Olympics

The organizers of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London were the first in Olympic history to include a commitment to diversity in its bid, making it the most gay-friendly games to date.^[15] The organizers publicly supported pro-LGBT concerns during the lead-up to the Games, such as during Pride London 2010, when special pins featuring the Games' emblem and a rainbow flag were sold as part of a wider range celebrating various aspects of diversity. LOCOG chief executive Paul Deighton stated that "Our vision is as bold as it is simple – to use the power of the Games to inspire change. We want to reach out to all parts of the community and connect them with London 2012."^[16]

A slightly larger number of LGBT athletes competed at London in 2012, with 23 out of more than 10,000 competitors, and only three gay men.^[1] Outsports co-founder Jim Buzinski considered it to be an "absurdly low number," and considered that in comparison to the arts, politics or business worlds, "sports is still the final closet in society."^[1]

2014 Winter Olympics

At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, seven openly gay women competed:^[8]

• Belle Brockhoff (Australia, snowboarding)
• Anastasia Bucsis (Canada, speed skating)
• Daniela Iraschko-Stolz (Austria, ski jumping)
• Barbara Jezeršek (Slovenia, cross-country skiing)
• Cheryl Maas (Netherlands,snowboarding)
• Sanne van Kerkhof (Netherlands, speed skating)
• Ireen Wüst (Netherlands, speed skating)

Russia's stance on LGBT rights were a major storyline of these Games. In 2012, a Russian court blocked the establishment of a Pride House in Sochi for the games because it would "contradict" public morality, and in June 2013, Russia became the topic of international criticism after it passed a law banning the distribution of "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations" to minors. The propaganda law was characterized as an attempt to suppress LGBT culture, with some arguing that the law was so broad and vague that it banned the public display of LGBT symbols like the rainbow flag. The laws were also criticized for increasing the level of homophobic violence in the country.^{[17][18][19][20]}

Pride House

Pride Houses are a dedicated temporary location designed to play host to LGBT athletes, volunteers and visitors attending the Olympics, Paralympics or other international sporting event in the host city. The first attempt to organize a Pride house was for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.^[21] The first was organized for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.^[22] During the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Vancouver and Whistler Pride Houses served as venues for LGBT sportspeople, coaches, visitors and their friends, families and supporters, and became the first Pride Houses at an Olympics.^[22][23] Although both Pride Houses offered information and support services to LGBT athletes and attendees, the Whistler location in Pan Pacific Village Centre had a "celebratory theme", while the Vancouver venue emphasised education about Vancouver's LGBT community and, for non-Canadian athletes, information about immigration to and asylum in Canada, including "legal resources" from Egale Canada and the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (IGLA).^[23][24]

An attempt to obtain a Pride House at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia was struck down by the Ministry of Justice, which refused to approve the registration of the NGO set up to organize the Pride House. The ban was upheld by Krasnodar Krai Judge Svetlana Mordovina on the basis of the Pride House inciting "propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientation which can undermine the security of the Russian society and the state, provoke social-religious hatred, which is the feature of the extremist character of the activity".^[25]

As it became clear that no Pride House could take place in Sochi, a number of leading LGBT sports organisations got together to promote the idea of cities elsewhere hosting their own Pride Houses during the Sochi Olympics. Pride House Toronto, which is to be the largest Pride House ever and due to be held during the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, was already very advanced with its plans for a series of events during the Sochi Olympics highlighting the anti-LGBT laws and LGBT rights in general. In addition to Pride House Toronto, a group led by Pride Sports UK will host other Pride Houses of which Manchester will be the largest. Vancouver (Whistler), Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, Chicago, Cleveland, Toronto, Montreal, Philadelphia, Glasgow, Manchester, London, Copenhagen, Paris, Brussels, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Wellington, São Paulo, and Brasilia have also expressed interest.^[26][27]

LGBT-oriented multi-sport events

Alongside the Olympics proper, several major multi-sport athletics competitions have been organized with a specific focus on LGBT athletes, such as the Gay Games and World OutGames. The Gay Games were first held in 1982 as the Gay Olympics; as the brainchild of former Olympian Tom Waddell, its goals were to promote the spirit of inclusion and participation, as well as to promote the pursuit of personal growth. The 1994 edition in New York City (which marked the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots) surpassed the size of the 1992 Summer Olympics with 10,864 athletes, in comparison to Barcelona's 9,356.^[28][29] Similarly, in Europe, the European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation organizes the EuroGames.

The World Outgames, as organized by the Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association, were first held in 2006 following a dispute between the Federation of Gay Games and the organizing committee of the 2006 Gay Games, which were initially awarded to Montreal (the 2006 Gay Games would instead be held in Chicago). With over 8,000 participants, the inaugural World OutGames were the largest international sporting event to be held in Montreal since the 1976 Summer Olympics.^[30]

List of LGBT Olympians

The following is a list of LGBT sportspeople who have competed at the Olympics. This includes athletes who competed while not being publicly known as LGBT at that time.

See also

• Coming out
• Dora Ratjen
• Gender verification in sports
• Homosexuality in football
• Homosexuality in sports
• List of LGBT sportspeople
• Principle 6 campaign

References

External links

• Olympic Pride: The History of LGBT Participation in the Olympics an overview by each Olympic Game.
• LGBT Olympians, as of 20 July 2012, includes country, sport and games attended, medals won, and other information.