After Atalanta

How long have you been covering women's basketball?  The weirdness around Azzi Fudd being drafted to the Wings and thus rejoining her girlfriend, Paige Bueckers, is perplexing. The commentators at the draft and the press room afterwards did not mention the relationship, rather they asked Fudd about being back with her teammate.  How was this not discussed beforehand? Was Fudd prepped? It is clear Dallas was not prepped. A team rep at the press conference with Fudd, who was asked about her romantic relationship with Bueckers, shut down that questioning, leaving Fudd with an odd expression on her face. Hope folks figure this out soon--it is not as if they haven't had over a year to prepare.  Also, we should remember that these are 20-somethings.  The Coach of UConn Speaking of the past year...UConn had a stellar season before losing to South Carolina in the tournament semifinals. Will the season be remembered or will it be the loss--which was marked by atrocious behavi...

  This perhaps make me an outsider in the LGBTQ+ community. Even before the concept of rainbow-washing was a thing, I was not especially drawn to companies/entities that displayed a rainbow flag. How did I know if it was genuine? What did the display of the flag even mean in terms of actions taken (or not); what did support/allyship look like?  And so, I am not particularly disturbed that some players for the Tampa Bay Rays chose not to wear rainbow patches and rainbow logo hats during their recent Pride Night. Five players said it conflicted with their religious beliefs . While, yes, their discourse of conflict with beliefs and not judging/being welcoming is contradictory, that is not new when it comes to this issue.  The patch/hat was an opt-in for players. Now we know more about the five players who chose not to participate. They don't support LGBT rights because they feel it conflicts with their religion. Ok.  I am more interested in what the players who chose to...

I just thought I would put that out there. Many of the articles I have read and radio reports I have heard about this "protest delegation" state that President Obama is choosing to send openly out athletes including Billie Jean King and Brian Boitano. Cahow's name is frequently left off the list despite the fact that she has been an activist for gay rights and inclusionary practices and attitudes in sport. Boitano came out publicly a few weeks ago. Cahow, a hockey player, has been out and part of this conversation for years. I imagine the rationale some might offer to the erasure of Cahow in the media is because she is not nearly as well-known among the American public as King and Boitano. And this would be true. But this "truth" speaks to the ongoing issues with the visibility of women's sports, especially sports that are viewed as more masculine, like ice hockey. But Cahow's resume is impressive. When media reports of the delegation mention King and ...

Russia don't care. Russia just keeps on planning its Olympics. It don't care that more and more heads of state are opting not to come to the opening ceremonies in Sochi in February.  Taking a cue from the infamous honey badger, Russian officials are claiming indifference regarding the news the leaders from the US, France, and England, among others, will not be coming to the Olympics as a form of protest against Russia's human rights record, namely (but not entirely) its anti-gay "propaganda" laws. (The US has some other issues with the country as well. I think the controversy over gay people in and coming to Russia has provided an easy out for US leaders and diplomats.) So instead the US is sending a delegation that includes three out gay people! Cunning? Passive aggressive? Brilliant? Don't matter. Honey badger...I mean Russia don't care. Unless they are a little less honey badger-esque than they are letting on.

It was a pretty gay-focused week in sports. Here's what happened:  Rutgers fired head men's basketball coach, Tim Rice, after ESPN got hold of a video--which then went viral--of Coach Rice engaged in conduct unbecoming of a coach, and that was according to New Jersey governor Chris Christie. In addition to physical abuse, Rice dished out a heavy dose of emotional abuse in the form of homonegative and misogynistic slurs. The Outside the Lines story can be found here . Glad this made news but a few ahem moments that were the topic of discussion in boot camp this morning in between pop squats, long-strider jumping jacks and rainbow deadlifts. First, Rutgers knew about this behavior last fall when they fined and gave Rice a three-game suspension. The power of a viral video...We tell young people--especially intercollegiate athletes to be careful about social media; maybe college athletics administrators should take their own advice. Oh my, I just learned that Rutgers AD is no...

Sure the celebrity world often mixes famous athletes and famous actors, but this feature on AfterEllen.com--in honor/response (??) to the Superbowl--is a little puzzling. Play Like a Girl: The Top 20 Female Athletes on Screen features actresses who play athletes. Here is the rationale: While the Super Bowl is one of the most-watched sporting events in the world (I said “one of,” don’t get mad at me fans of that other football), plenty of female athlete characters have had us glues [sic] to the screen – both large and small. So to balance out, I guess, those men in tight pants playing actual sports, AfterEllen opted to remind us of how women can act out athletics. It's somewhat tragic actually. You don't want to highlight actual female athletes who we should be paying attention to? Perhaps try to correct the huge disparities of coverage between men's and women's sports. And for the record, I am not saying that these female actors are not athletic or even athletes in thei...

Not my own--most of the time anyway. But all this neoliberal, neo-queer stuff is really confusing. Especially in the context of the Olympics. So according to Pat Griffin , the person I go to for such information, there are only 4 out athletes at these Winter Olympics (all women), plus Johnny Weir who sometimes epitomizes these neoliberal, neo-queer discussions for me. But four! That number is quite low. So we enter the "it's the 21st century and I don't need to be out; I am who I am" kind of discussion countered by the idea that that's just baloney (articulate, eh?) and queer people are making themselves more invisible in this age of increasing visibility and controversy over issues of sexuality. But this latter argument is hard to put on someone like Weir, who will not discuss his sexuality because it's "private" (though he has no problems with privacy when showing his ass on his Sundance Channel show) but is not at all subtle in his behaviors and c...

...think about Saints player Scott Fujita whose open support of gay rights including an appearance at October's National Equality March. His advocacy has gone nearly unnoticed with the recent Tebow controversy. Also do not forget that women play professional football--and not just in their underwear (a la the Lingerie League). Here's my friend, Bobbi--sorry, Dr. Knapp, who is a former player herself and wrote her dissertation on women's professional football . She reminds us that the early years of the NFL---you know, like, the first thirty--were not profitable for the league. In other words, stop the doomsday talk about women's professional sports!

I saw a very cute, very French movie last night, The Closet . If you want to know the plot, you can google it, I am sure. The point is that one homophobic guy serves as his company's rugby coach. But he is on notice not to engage in anymore gay slurs because of newly out colleague. He gets the no-no when he calls his team sissies, then complains that sissy is not a gay slur--it's just rugby talk. I am not going to beat to this to death--like I said, it was a cute, light movie--but I find that a lot of the problem with homophobia in sport is the language that is perpetuated by coaches and players alike--and that is never called out. I am not saying anything new, of course. But there are other ways to say it and other perspectives and some of those are available this week! SUNY Binghamton kicks off its own gay pride week today and I think its notable that It Takes a Team director Pat Griffin is giving the keynote address. Tomorrow night (Tuesday) Griffin is moderating a panel of ...

I'm not going to go into my "I really do like Dave Zirin, but sometimes..." intro here because, well, that pretty much captures it. A recent Zirin column asks "Which pro athlete will come out of the closet?" It's a curious question because, of course, there are already out professional athletes. Athletes who came out or have come out during the course of their professional careers. There's Billie Jean King (forced out but still) who Zirin invokes in his article as a pioneer for women's rights. She was an out athlete. As was Martina Navritilova. As is Amelie Mauresmo. As is Lisa Raymond. But these are all tennis players, you say. Well, ok so: Vicky Galindo (who plays professionally for the Chiacgo Bandits), Rosie Jones, Sheryl Swoopes, Lauren Lappin, Latasha Byears. But they are all women, you say. Well yes, they are gay women. (Galindo identifies as bisexual.) Gay is not a gender-specific term. The gay liberation movement means gay men and women so...

So there are--don't be shocked now--lesbians who play professional tennis. And they display various levels of lesbionica. Sure we can kind of tell (well some of us anyway) who they are using our super stealth and highly (over?) developed gaydar. Some are out, some are in the closest, some are in some kind of unacknowledged but out state. But there isn't a whole lot of range no matter their status. Most of them retain some version of acceptable femininity wearing skirts, keeping their hair longer, not mentioning girlfriends or putting them in the players' boxes. Sure Martina Navratilova seemed to get more butch as she grew older--but she was still wearing skirts when she retired. She returned to the tour seemingly more comfortable creating her own terms. I am not going to get into the whole "choice" debate here, because that's not the point. The point is the lesbians on the tour do not seem to reflect the range of lesbian performance out here in the real world ...

In case you missed women's beach volleyball--but really, how could you given the near constant coverage?--let me tell you about some of the discussion centered around Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh. The discourse focused on two things: their dominance and their heterosexuality (with the occasional homoerotic turn when their victory "koala hug" from the previous Olympics--acceptable because it's "hot" and temporary). There were segments on each of their respective marriages to other male athletes. There was the lost wedding ring incident when Walsh's ring came off during one of the matches and they had to search the sand for it afterwards (a volunteer found it). And there was the discussion of their post-Olympic lives and impending motherhood. Overall there was a lot of family talk this Olympics. People with kids; athletes with mothers (Debbie Phelps's face is just as recognizable now as her son's size 14 feet); doting husbands and wives; suppo...

Actor Tom Cavanaugh, probably most famous for his eponymous role in Ed, is currently filming a movie about an ex-pofessional hockey player who is gay. This article from the Toronto Star writes about the groundbreaking aspects of the film which focuses not just on the star's homosexuality but that of a young boy whom he and his partner have recently taken guardianship of. The big issue of course is a gay hockey player. No male professional hockey player has ever come out--during or after his career. Cavanaugh said he himself was shocked to read that his character, Eric McNally, is a gay man. But the more shocking aspect to the film, according to those involved, is that the NHL and the Toronto Maple Leafs agreed to let the team name and logo be used in the film. Some filming will even take place at the end of a Maple Leafs practice session. I agree with the general sentiment that this is pretty big news. The NHL and Maple Leafs could easily have said no and probably no mainstream p...

Sadly, Amelie Mauresmo lost today's WTA Championships to Justine Henin-Hardenne. She had to fight so hard on her serve and although she was able to break HH a few times it just was not enough. It does not, in my mind, mar in any way her amazing year. And I think that JHH would probably give Mauresmo this win for say perhaps Wimbledon. But what really excited me about the match was the rainbow flag two fans were waving throughout the match on which they had written AMELIE. And what was amazing was that the camera repeatedly panned to it. Hmm...is this the product of Versus, the channel formerly known as OLN, that aired the championships? Not sure but I was excited since the commentators rarely mention her sexuality (which is both good and bad). I am not a huge rainbow flag-waver fan but in the context of women's tennis it seems fairly monumental. The tournament was held in Spain which may have something to do with the presence of the flag in the first place. In most US venues se...

Can I get a whoop whoop for Sheryl Swoopes?! Swoopes came out as gay today and not because she was pressured but because she said she was tired of hiding her relationship with her partner. (Of course the partner is not named but I expect her identity will be revealed shortly.) I was initially wary of the way the article read. Swoopes could be read as being somewhat vague or even exhibiting "apologetic behavior": she says she has not always been gay, that her homosexuality was not the reason for her divorce, that she doesn't want to "throw it in people's faces." This was my initial reaction only because it is not the out and proud and going to get married Rah Rah lesbianism that perhaps many are accustomed to (and afraid of?). But this of course is a good thing, I realized. Swoopes shows us that there are many ways of being gay. She presents the view that is often not voiced: not everyone thinks being gay is an innate characteristic and that just because it...