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A Tremendous Win for the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team

Last week the U.S. Women’s Soccer team settled their six year legal battle with the United States Soccer Association for equal pay. The fight was led in part by team stars Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, and Carli Lloyd, along with 25 of their teammates. This issue has long raged in Women’s sports and finally, due to their perseverance and success on the field, the team won this fight to be paid the same as their male counterparts on the Men’s U.S. Soccer team.

The U.S. Soccer Association agreed to a $24 million dollar settlement, most of which is back pay, which acknowledges the unequal treatment of the Women’s team. They also agreed to equalize pay between the Men’s and Women’s teams in all competitions.

While this a great win for the Women’s Soccer team, it is only a start in equalizing pay in Women’s sports. It does set a good precedent for other sports and associations to build on. There is still a long way to go in equalizing pay, and exposure in Women’s athletics, and in society in general.

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Pride Sports World Quick Review of 2021

Photo by Yann Caradec from Paris, France – Yulimar Rojas

Even with COVID-19 and it’s variants continuing to rage on, sports were back, almost to pre pandemic levels.

There were some amazing accomplishments in 2021 by LGBTQ+ athletes.

Let’s start with the Olympics in Japan. A year late and no fans in the stands, but the athletes competed.

For LGBTQ+ athletes it was a record-breaking year with the number, at least 185, of OUT queer athletes that competed in the games. This is a massive increase from previous Olympic Games.  These athletes won 33 medals, which if they were one big, gay country, they would have finished 7th for the most medals. They represented the LGBTQ+ community worldwide with Pride, from at least 30 different countries, in 34 different sports.

Some of the highlights:

Kellie Harrington the flag bearer for team Ireland won Gold in boxing.

Yulimar Rojas from Venezuela, not only won Gold in the Triple Jump, but smashed a 26-year-old world record in the process.

Emma Zigg a rower from New Zealand, came out of retirement to compete in her fourth Olympics and won her first Gold Medal.

Tom Daley in his fourth Olympics diving for Great Britain, won his first Gold Medal, and added another Bronze to his collection.

The United States won Gold in Women’s Basketball with 5 OUT athletes.

Canada won Gold in Women’s Soccer also with 5 OUT athletes.

Sweden took the silver medal in Women’s Soccer with 4 OUT athletes.

New Zealand won the Gold in Women’s Rugby with 4 OUT athletes.

This is just a few of the amazing performances by LGBTQ+ athletes at the Tokyo Olympics.

Another major breakthrough for LGBTQ+ athletes was Carl Nassib coming out. He is the first NFL player to come out publicly while still playing.

This was a huge step for Nassib and for the LGBTQ+ community. Though he has battled some injuries, he has had a positive impact on the Raiders football team. Within 24 hours of coming out Nassib’s jersey became the #1 selling jersey across the Fanatics network as fans rallied to support him.

The Chicago Sky won their first WNBA Championship in 2021. They featured OUT stars Candace Parker and married couple Allie Quigley and Courtney Vandersloot.

The Washington Spirt also won their first ever NWSL title against steep odds in a season swirling with controversy around their owner. They featured out players Kelly O’Hara, Anna Heilferty, and Kumi Yokoyama who came out as transgender earlier this year.

Cheers to all the LGBTQ+ Athletes out there leading the way for the next generation.

Let’s make 2022 the Gayest in Sport yet!

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LGBTQ Athletes at the Tokyo Summer Olympics

Monument of Olympic Rings, Odaiba Marine Park.
By: Dick Thomas Johnson, CC BY 2.0

The 2020, uh, um, 2021 Summer Olympics in Japan have come and gone. These were unique games in many ways. The delay due to COVID-19, no fans in the stands due to COVID-19, the testing and the restrictions all from the Global Pandemic.

Yet, the games went on and there were many phenomenal performances, including those by openly LGBTQ athletes. According to Outsports there were 183 publicly out athletes that participated in the Tokyo games.

Collectively these LGBTQ athletes earned 33 medals, 11 Gold, 13 Silver, and 9 Bronze. This medal count would have them ranked 7th in the world for total medals, if they were one happy, gay, country. This is more medals than France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Canada, and Brazil. They also finished well ahead of any country that criminalizes homosexuality, the closest were Kenya (10 medals), Jamaica (9 medals), Iran (7 medals).

This was a breakout year for “out” athletes at the Olympics. There was triple the number of out LGBTQ athletes at these games than at the 2016 Rio summer games. This was also the first time out trans athletes competed in the Olympics. These LGBTQ athletes represented 30 different countries in 34 different sports.