Historical Timeline of Selected Events in LGBT History
By Pat Griffin
Published: October 3, 2008
Before 1960 • 1920-25 - Bill Tilden was United States Tennis Champion and dominated tennis in that era. He was arrested on morals charges in the 1940’s for sexual “misconduct” with teen-aged boys and shunned by the tennis world as a result
• 1932-1956 - Babe Didkrikson Zaharias is considered by many to be the greatest female athlete of all time. She won Olympic gold medals in track & field in 1932, competed in softball, baseball, tennis and was a founder of the LPGA which she dominated in the 1950’s. Babe was vilified early in her career for her “masculine” appearance and, though she married a professional wrestler, her female companion, Betty Dodds, was at her side when she died of cancer in 1956.
1970’s • 1972 Title IX passed
• 1974 – Patricia Nell Warren’s book, The Front Runner, is published – A gay love story between a gay coach and a runner on his team
• 1975 - Dave Kopay, a retired NFL player, comes out and in 1977 writes “The Dave Kopay Story” about his experience in the NFL
• 1975 – The Washington Post publishes a four part series on “homosexual” men and women athletes
• 1977 - Rene Richards, a transsexual woman tennis player, wins a lawsuit against the United States Tennis Association because she was barred from competing as a woman in the 1976 US Open.
• 1977 - The LPGA, in response the Richards lawsuit, changes their eligibility statement to read that only “females at birth” are eligible to compete in LPGA events
• 1979 -Betty Hicks, a founder of the LPGA, writes a positive article about lesbians in golf in Christopher Street magazine
1980’s • 1980 – Rene Portland hired as women’s basketball coach at Penn State University
• 1981 - Billie Jean King is outed by her ex-lover, Marilyn Barnett’s “galimony” suit. BJK loses many of her endorsements despite denying she is a lesbian
• 1981- Martina Navratilova comes out in an article in the New York Daily News.
• 1982 – New Agenda for Women in Sport Conference – leaders decline to use the word “lesbian” in action proposals emerging from the conference
• 1982 – Tom Waddell, a 6th place finisher in the 1968 Olympic decathlon, founds first Gay Games in San Francisco. USOC successfully sues to prevent the games being called “Gay Olympics.”
• 1984 – Rene Richards book “Second Serve” comes out
• 1985 – Chicago Sun Times article about lesbians in sport – Rene Portland quoted, “I will not have it (lesbianism) on my teams.”
• 1986 – Second Gay Games in San Francisco
• 1981-89 - Rivalry between Martina and Chris Evert – Martina can’t get endorsements despite her success on the tennis court. Hana Mandilikova calls her a “man.”
• 1987 – Jerry Smith, Washington Redskins (1965-77) dies of AIDS. Smith never came out, but Dave Kopay writes in his book that Jerry Smith was his first love.
• National Enquirer sensationalized cover story about predatory lesbians on the women’s professional tennis tour
• 1988 – Dave Pallone, a National League umpire, is fired because of false charges that he is involved in a gay teenaged sex ring. According to Pallone, the owners wanted him fired because he is gay.
• 1988 – Justin Fasteau, top British football (soccer) player comes out. First team sport athlete to come out while still an active player. He commits suicide later that year
• 1989 – Bob Paris, who won the Mr. America and Mr. Universe titles in 1983, comes out as a gay man
1990’s • 1990 – Third Gay Games in Vancouver, BC - Largest sporting event in the world that year
• 1991 – Philadelphia Enquirer article about Rene Portland’s anti-lesbian policy – Marks shift in media coverage: Homophobia is the problem and Portland’s policy is wrong
• 1991 – Martina Navratilova is sued for “galimony” by ex-lover Judy Nelson.
• 1992 - Roy Simmons, NFL player from 1979-83, reveals he is gay
• 1992 – Martina Navratilova speaks at the National March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Rights
• 1993 – Glenn Burke, former outfielder with the LA Dodgers and Oakland A’s, who ended his baseball career in 1979, comes out publicly. He died of AIDS complications in 1995.
• 1994 - Fourth Gay Games in New York City was the largest athletic competition in history with 11,000 participants
• 1994 – Greg Louganis, Olympic gold medal diving champion comes out at the Gay Games in New York City.
• 1994 – Missy Giove, an openly lesbian mountain biker, wins her first world championship.
• 1995 – Ian Roberts, one of Australia’s most popular rugby players, poses nude for a gay magazine and comes out. He is the first major Australian athlete to come out.
• 1995 – CBS golf commentator Ben Wright is fired for making on-air negative comments about lesbian golfers and the physiological limitations women golfers have because of their breasts
• 1996 – Muffin Spencer Devlin, an 18 year veteran on the LPGA tour, comes out as a lesbian in Sports Illustrated and The Advocate
• 1996 – Rudy Galindo, the national figure skating champion reveals that he is gay
• 1996 – David Pichler and Patrick Jeffrey, two openly gay divers compete in the Atlanta Olympics
• 1998 – Mike Muska, a gay man and former collegiate track and field coach, is named the athletic director at Oberlin College becoming the first openly gay male ever in that position
• 1998 – Brian Orser, former world champion figure skater and Olympic silver medalist, comes out as a gay man in a palimony suit filed by an ex-lover
• 1998 – Gay Games V in Amsterdam
• 1998 – Pat Griffin’s Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homophobia in Sport is published. The first book to explore homophobia in women’s sports
• 1998 – Dan Woog’s Gay Jocks is published. First of two books describing the experiences of gay men in sport
• 1999 - Amelie Mauresmo , a top ranked French tennis player, comes out as a lesbian and says being out about her female partner improves her game
• 1998 – LPGA Hall of Famer, Patty Sheehan, comes out as a lesbian in Golf World magazine
2000’s • 2000 – The Women’s Sports Foundation initiates The Project to Eliminate Homophobia in Sport, In 2005 renamed It Takes A Team! Education Campaign for LGBT Issues in Sport, with fund raising support from Martina Navratilova. It Takes A Team creates and disseminates education resources for addressing LGBT issues in sport
• 2002 - The National Center for Lesbian Rights initiates the Homophobia in Sports Project to provide legal and advocacy support for athletes and coaches discriminated against on the basis of the sexual orientation or gender identity
• 2002 – Gay Games VI in Sydney, Australia
• 2002 – University of Florida softball starting catcher on the softball team Andrea Zimbardi settles a suit against the school charging that she was dismissed from the team because she is a lesbian. The suit restores one year of eligibility and requires coaches at Uof F to undergo training on LGB issues in sport
• 2003 – University of Pennsylvania founds the first student-athlete group focused on eliminating homophobia in athletics
• 2003 – Outsports.com, a web site for discussion and news about gay and lesbian issues in sport, is initated by Cyd Zeigler and Jim Budzinski
• 2003 - The Gay and Lesbian Athletic Foundation holds the first national conference on lesbian and gay issues in sport in Boston, MA
• 2003 – the NCAA initiates “sexual orientation issues in sports” training available to member schools at no cost
• 2004 – The International Olympic Committee announces the Stockholm Agreement, a policy that establishes criteria under which transsexual athletes can compete in the Olympic Games in their preferred gender
• 2004 – The Australian and European women’s golf associations rule that Mianne Bagger, a transsexual woman, can compete in their events
• 2004 LPGA Hall of Famer, Rosie Jones, comes out as a lesbian in and letter to the New York Times and reveals that she will be a spokesperson for Olivia, a lesbian vacation and travel company
• 2005 – The United States Golf Association adopts the IOC policy governing the participation of transsexual athletes in their events
• 2005 – USA Track & Field adopts the IOC policy governing the participation of transsexual athletes in their events
• 2005 – Sheryl Swoopes, WNBA MVP and Champion, Olympic Champion comes out as a lesbian in ESPN The Magazine
• 2005 - A former Penn State women’s basketball player, Jennifer Harris, files a lawsuit against Penn State University and coach Rene Portland charging that she was dismissed from the team for her perceived sexual orientation. Harris is represented by the NCLR
• 2005 – Martina Navratilova announces that she will be a spokesperson for Olivia, a lesbian travel and vacation company. Martina remarks that it is the first time she got an endorsement because she is a lesbian
• 2006 - Gay Games VII in Chicago and the first Out Games in Montreal compete for participants
• 2006 First OutGames in Montreal
• 2007 – John Amaechi, an ex-NBA player, comes out and promotes his book, Man in the Middle. He is the first ex-NBA player to come out
• 2007 – Penn State agrees to confidential settlement of the lawsuit with ex-basketball player, Jennifer Harris. A month later, coach Rene Portland resigns
• 2007 – NCAA Executive Director, Myles Brand, publicly states that discrimination based on sexual orientation in collegiate sport must be addressed
• 2007 – GLAAD initiates a Sports Media Project and hires the first director, Ted Rybka, to monitor media coverage of LGBT issues in sport
• 2008 – The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association enacts the first state-wide policy governing the participation of transgender athletes in high school sports
• 2008 – Eleven openly gay, lesbian and bisexual Olympians win a total of seven medals at the Beijing Games, including a gold medal in diving won by Australian Matthew Mitcham, the only openly gay man competing in the games