The Boston Red Sox on Aug. 12 suspended for two games its all-star outfielder Jarren Duran one day after he shouted an anti-gay slur at a fan who had been heckling him as Duran stood at home plate in the sixth inning of a game against the Houston Astros at Boston’s Fenway Park stadium. 

Multiple news media outlets reported that a microphone at the stadium near where Duran stood picked up him yelling the slur. Most media outlets, including the Washington Post and the New York Times, did not report the exact words he shouted. But CNN reported on its website that Duran told the fan to “shut up you f**king f***ot.”  

According to CNN, after the game ended Duran, 27, issued an apology in a statement released by the Red Sox.

“During tonight’s game, I used a truly horrific word when responding to a fan,” Duran said in the statement. “I feel awful knowing how many people I offended and disappointed. I apologize to the entire Red Sox organization, but more importantly to the entire LGBTQ community,” he said. 

“Our young fans are supposed to be able to look up to me as a role model, but tonight I fell far short of that responsibility,” his statement continues. “I will use this opportunity to educate myself and my teammates and to grow as a person.” 

CNN reports that the Red Sox announced on Aug. 12, the day following the Sunday game, that the team will donate Duran’s two-day salary during the time of his suspension to the LGBTQ organization Federation of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, known as PFLAG. 

“The Red Sox addressed this incident with Jarren immediately following today’s game,” a statement released by the Red Sox says. “We echo Jarren’s apology to our fans, especially the LGBTQ community. We strive to be an organization that welcomes all fans to Fenway Park, and we will continue to educate our employees, players, coaches and staff on the importance of inclusivity,” the statement says as reported by the online sports publication The Athletic. 

Most of the media accounts of Jarren Duran’s anti-gay slur and apology did not report that the incident took place about two months after the Red Sox hosted their 11th annual LGBTQ Pride Night at Fenway Park on July 11 of this year. The Red Sox are among several major league baseball teams, including D.C.’s Washington Nationals, that host “Pride” games at their stadiums. 

The New York Times and other media outlets reported that Duran, who was named Most Valuable Player at last month’s baseball All-Star Game, reiterated his apology to reporters in interviews on the day following the incident. 

“There was no intent behind the word that was used,” the Times quoted him as saying. “It was just the heat of the moment and just happened to be said.” According to the Times, Duran added, “I actually apologized to the umpire and the catcher for my actions because they were right there. They heard me say it.” 

The world has witnessed beautiful, brown-eyed Tom Daley dive into a pool as part of a competition for the last time. The Summer Olympics in Paris, where the five-time Olympian won silver in the 10m synchronized event, turns out to have been his swan dive. 

“It was emotional at the end, up there on the platform, knowing it was going to be my last competitive dive,” Daley told British Vogue in an interview published Monday. “But I have to make the decision at some point, and it feels like the right time. It’s the right time to call it a day.”

The 30-year-old athlete from Devon, renowned as the UK’s most decorated diver, said he had trepidations about announcing he is officially done with diving. 

“It feels very, very surreal,” he told Vogue. “I felt so incredibly nervous going into this, knowing it was my last Olympics. There was a lot of pressure and expectation. I was eager for it to be done,” he said. “But when I walked out, and saw my husband [American filmmaker Dustin Lance Black] and kids [Robbie and Phoenix] and my friends and family in the audience, I was like, you know what? This is exactly why I did this. I’m here, and no matter what happens in the competition itself, I’m going to be happy.”

Daley publicly came out as gay in a YouTube video in 2013, following a tabloid headline that  declared “Tom Daley, ‘I’m Not Gay.” Up until that point, he had neither directly denied nor confirmed his orientation publicly. 

“It infuriated me that somebody would say that. I never wanted to be seen as lying or hiding from who I was,” Daley told the interviewer.

“With every Olympics, there are more and more out athletes,” he said, mindful of one tabulation that estimates there were 195 openly LGBTQ competitors in Paris. That’s a huge difference from a decade ago, he noted. “It’s powerful,” said Daley, while acknowledging that many closeted male athletes fear coming out and are reluctant to take that step. 

“I think there is a lot of pressure for when people do come out to be an activist and to be outspoken. And sometimes that’s just not in some people’s nature,” he said. “I think this might be part of the reason why possibly more people haven’t felt as comfortable with coming out. I also think that [the world of sport] is such a heteronormative space … lots of queer kids, when they’re younger, have this automatic feeling that they shouldn’t fit into sports, so they don’t pursue them. I hope we’ll see more in the future.”

As for Daley’s past, his accomplishments on the springboard are legendary. He made his Olympic debut at Beijing 2008 at the age of 14. He won gold and bronze medals in Tokyo, bronzes in London 2012 and Rio 2016. Daley’s gold came in the 10m synchronized event in Tokyo in 2021 alongside Matty Lee. He was back to defend his title in Paris after being convinced by his son Robbie to return to the sport. Daley won silver in the French capital alongside Noah Williams. 

All told, he has since won a combined total of 11 World, Commonwealth and European Championship gold medals, and was the first Team GB diver to win four Olympic medals, a record he has now surpassed with five. 

Before coming out, Daley was asked why he thought he had such a large gay following. 

“Probably because I am half-naked all the time,” he replied. And as proof that’s still true, his latest TikTok and Instagram posts are titled “BRAT Summer Olympics.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tom Daley (@tomdaley)

Daley now has more than five million followers across his social media platforms. 

The Americans eked out a nail-biter victory at the Summer Olympics in Paris on Sunday, overcoming host nation France, 67-66, in women’s basketball with more out LGBTQ competitors and coaches than any other team.

Gold medals go to these magnificent seven women’s basketball stars: Breanna Stewart, Brittney Griner, Diana Taurasi, Alyssa Thomas, Jewell Loyd, Chelsea Gray, and Kahleah Cooper. They were led by Cheryl Reeve, one of the most successful WNBA head coaches, who led the Minnesota Lynx to four league titles. Her assistant coach, Curt Miller, is a two-time WNBA coach of the year, the current head coach of the Los Angeles Sparks and the first and only out gay male coach in pro basketball. 

Observers have dubbed them one of the “gayest teams” competing in Paris. 

But Sunday’s gold medal match was not the runaway win Team USA has become famous for. Not every star saw the floor, except from the bench. And those watching courtside — including Sue Bird, Dawn Staley, Kevin Durant, and Vanessa Bryant and her children — witnessed what one observer called the worst half of basketball the U.S. women have played on a world stage. 

The U.S. team appeared to be missing its offensive rhythm in competing against a very physical French defense. France briefly took the lead, 25-23 right before halftime, but Team USA fired back, right before the buzzer, tying it up, 25-25. at the half.

France jumped out to an 8-0 run to start the second half, and the two teams traded leads throughout, with the score tied 11 times throughout the game. Finally, it all came down to one shot: With seconds left on the clock, Team USA down three points, former Seattle Storm forward Gabby Williams — playing for France — had a chance to send the game to overtime with a buzzer-beater that caused a bit of a scare for the Americans.

But the New York Liberty’s Stewart immediately pointed out that Williams’s foot was touching the three-point line, preserving a 67-66 win for Team USA and giving the team its eighth straight gold medal and 61st consecutive victory. 

UNBELIEVABLE ENDING IN PARIS. 😱

Gabby Williams banked it in at the buzzer but her FOOT WAS ON THE THREE-POINT LINE. TEAM USA WINS BY A SINGLE POINT.#ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/DJI7YxfVMl

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 11, 2024

“The streak is crazy. I mean, they just told me when I was doing TV that it was, like, before I was born that it kind of started, which is wild,” Stewart said. “It just goes to show those that have really paved the way and to create USA Basketball and what it is now. Tons of appreciation for that and knowing that when you represent this jersey and wear USA across your chest the standard is high and there really is nothing higher.”

One factor that may explain Team USA’s struggles Sunday: The majority of 12,000 spectators in Bercy Arena loudly rooted for their home team, France. In that hostile environment, the U.S. shot a whopping 34 free throws off 25 French fouls, but only made 27 of them.

The Phoenix Mercury was well represented in Team USA. Copper had 12 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter. Griner had four points and two rebounds in five first-half minutes but didn’t play in the second. Taurasi didn’t see the floor for the first time all tournament but won her sixth Olympic gold medal, the most all-time for a U.S. basketball player, men’s or women’s. 

The Seattle Storm’s Loyd was the only player other than Taurasi to sit out this final game. But in the end, they won gold as a team.

On the podium, Griner was emotional as the national anthem played, wiping away a tear. Throughout these games, Griner has spoken about how playing for the U.S. means more to her this time around. Two years ago, she was imprisoned in Russia. Today, she is an Olympic gold medalist.

Other memorable LGBTQ Olympians

At last count, 195 openly LGBTQ athletes competed in the Paris Olympics, according to Outsports. 

On Saturday, Team USA defeated Brazil in the gold medal match of the women’s soccer tournament, a 1-0 victory that gives the Americans their fifth Olympic gold medal. Tierna Davidson and Jane Campbell are the only out LGBTQ athletes on the American women’s soccer team, which has not won an Olympic gold medal since 2012 in London. The U.S. was knocked out in the quarterfinals at the 2016 games in Rio and had to settle for bronze three years ago in Tokyo. 

Sha’Carri Richardson officially became an Olympic champion Friday, as the anchor leg for the Team USA women’s 4x100m relay squad in track and field. The baton pass from 200m gold medalist Gabby Thomas to Richardson wasn’t smooth, but the Texan then exploded down the stretch to cross the finish line and win gold. 

Women’s boxing has made headlines around the world at this Olympics. 

On Saturday, an emotional Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan became the second boxer in 24 hours to win a gold medal despite questions about her gender eligibility. Lin defeated 20-year-old Julia Szeremeta of Poland by unanimous decision to claim the featherweight title, a day after Imane Khelif of Algeria became the welterweight champion. Lin and Khelif competed in Paris despite being disqualified from last year’s World Championships because they reportedly failed gender eligibility tests. Both boxers have been taunted with accusations that they were men, or transgender. 

Both women are women. 

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach defended both Khelif and Lin’s right to compete, and noted the IOC severed ties with the IBA last year over governance and transparency issues.

“If somebody is presenting us a scientifically solid system how to identify men and women, we are the first ones to do it. We do not like this uncertainty,” Bach told the Associated Press on Friday. “What is not possible is someone saying ‘this is not a woman’ just by looking at somebody or by falling prey to a defamation campaign by a not credible organization with highly political interests.”

“But this has no impact on our very clear position: Women have the right to participate in women’s competitions. And the two are women.”

Southern California native Nikki Hiltz finished 7th in Saturday’s 1500-meter final at the Stade de France in 3 minutes, 56.38 seconds. Hiltz is the two-time U.S. outdoor and indoor national champion at 1500 meters and the first trans nonbinary athlete to reach an Olympic individual event final.

While some may call coming in seventh place “disappointing,” that’s not how Hiltz or their partner Emma Gee see it. Gee posted a photo of a beaming Hiltz to Instagram after the final.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Emma Gee (@emma_gee1777)

Three years ago, Hiltz failed to make the U.S. team for Tokyo. They were eliminated in the semifinals at last year’s World Championships. But on Saturday, they were right in the thick of a record-breaking race in one of the most competitive events in sports. 

Congratulations to Hiltz and all the competitors! Win or lose, each and every one comes home an Olympian. 

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A post shared by Nikki Hiltz (@nikkihiltz)

The first days of the Olympic Summer Games in Paris have been a mélange of powerful LGBTQ representation, queer controversy, hookup hiccups and unwelcome weather that started all wet and has turned scorchingly hot. 

Weather woes

The opening ceremony on the Seine was spectacular but soaked athletes, performers and spectators to the bone. And when the rain finally moved on, it left the famed river that was supposed to serve as one leg of the men’s triathlon too polluted for competition, for now. That event is now postponed, in spite of the cleanup efforts that cost Paris $1.5 billion. 

But now the athletes have gone from riders on the storm to a different kind of soaking: Sweating in the 95-degree heat on Tuesday, about 11-degrees above average for this time of year in France’s capital city. 

Much has been reported about the lack of air conditioning in the Olympic Village, just outside Paris. It was built with a cooling system that runs cold water through the floors, which officials said can reduce the ambient temperature by 10 to 20 degrees and achieve a target range of 73 to 79. The effort is part of the hosts’ larger plan to make Paris the greenest Olympics in modern history, according to the Wall Street Journal.

But Team USA wasn’t taking any chances: Every single room and some common areas accommodating the 592-member delegation isn’t risking the slightest discomfort. Every single U.S. room and some common areas have been equipped with portable A/C units, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee. Cool! 

Cock-blocked

Team USA may have A/C but no athlete looking for lesbian, gay or bisexual love at these games has access to Grindr’s “explore” function, a location-based feature, just like at the 2022 Winter Olympics. And journalists like Louis Pisano let the world know on social media. 

not they blocked Grindr in the Olympic Village 😭😭😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/sZsC996Kaa

— Louis Pisano (@LouisPisano) July 22, 2024

As them reported, Grindr began this crackdown on Olympics app usage after 2016, when the Daily Beast published a story about “hookup culture” in the Rio de Janeiro Games’ Olympic Village. The outlet later pulled the article after a widespread outcry. 

Without referencing that report, Grindr explained in a blog post that this is part of a series of enhanced privacy measures the app rolled out for the Summer Games. 

“If an athlete is not out or comes from a country where being LGBTQ+ is dangerous or illegal, using Grindr can put them at risk of being outed by curious individuals who may try to identify and expose them on the app,” Grindr said in its blog post. “Our goal is to help athletes connect without worrying about unintentionally revealing their whereabouts or being recognized.”

There are nearly 70 countries represented in Paris which have national laws criminalizing same-sex relations between consenting adults, according to Human Rights Watch.

Gender testing

Two apparently straight Olympic athletes from countries that have zero representation at these games have been cleared to compete in women’s boxing. Both were disqualified from last year’s World Championships for failing to meet “eligibility criteria.” 

Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting was stripped of a bronze medal in the March 2023 event after failing a gender eligibility test, and the International Olympic Committee says Algeria’s Imane Khelif was disqualified in New Delhi for failing a testosterone level test.

As the BBC reported, no further details are available as to why Lin, 28, and Khelif, 25, were disqualified from last year’s World Championships, or exactly what kind of gender tests were conducted. 

“These athletes have competed many times before for many years, they haven’t just suddenly arrived — they competed in Tokyo,” said IOC spokesman Mark Adams. In addition, Lin is a two-time winner at the Asian Women Amateur Boxing Championships. 

On Tuesday, Outsports co-founder Cyd Zeigler reported: “To be clear, these two women are not transgender, though they may be intersex.” 

LGBTQ medalists

Five Olympic Games, five Olympic medals. Huge congratulations to @TomDaley1994 OBE and Noah Williams on their Silver medal at @Paris2024 – for Tom, the culmination of a glittering career. pic.twitter.com/MgSIVYmzUW

— Wall's World 🇺🇦 (@itswallsworld) July 29, 2024

Thus far, out gay British diver Tom Daley has won his fifth Olympics medal — his first silver — in the 10-meter platform synchro competition, with diving partner Noah Williams. Out lesbian Lauren Scruggs won a silver medal in fencing for Team USA. And out lesbian Amandine Buchard of France followed up her individual silver medal in the 52kg category of Judo in Tokyo with a bronze medal in Paris. Outsports has updated its count of out athletes competing in the Summer Games to a record 193. 

Pride House

A legacy that began more than a decade ago at the Vancouver Winter Games continues and has been expanded in Paris, with a Pride House on the River Seine. For the first time, the Olympics organization has raised its profile by including this refuge on its official website, and celebrating these Olympics as “The Rainbow Games,” as Alexander Martin wrote. 

According to Jérémy Goupille, co-president of Fier Play, one of the Paris Pride House organizers, “nobody should hide who they are.’ France’s minister for sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, joined Goupille at the inauguration of the new Pride House on the banks of the Seine. She noted the role played by the opening ceremony in positive portrayals of marginalized communities like those who are LGBTQ. 

“Like all of us, I was extremely proud of the opening ceremony on Friday night,’ said Oudéa-Castéra. “I think, that this City of Light, this city of love, expressed itself with respect. It expressed itself with a blend of tradition and modernity that honors our country and allowed it to show what it is capable of. And when it reconciles with itself, by embracing all dimensions of its greatness, all of its people, all of its citizens, without discrimination, it is the most beautiful country in the world”, she said.

‘The Last Supper’ controversy

Even though the opening ceremony broadcast on NBC on its channels across America and all around the world included two men kissing and embracing and a not-at-all subtle reference to a ménage à trois, there was no outrage about those scenes. 

What got the conservative Christian right-wing viewers clutching their pearls was a moment that’s come to be known online as “The anti-Christian depiction of The Last Supper.”

Except it wasn’t. Here’s how The New York Times described the scene: 

“A woman wearing a silver, halo-like headdress stood at the center of a long table, with drag queens posing on either side of her. Later, at the same table, a giant cloche lifted, revealing a man, nearly naked and painted blue, on a dinner plate surrounded by fruit. He broke into a song as, behind him, the drag queens danced.”

Among the people who saw the images as a parody of da Vinci’s painting of “The Last Supper” were the French Catholic Bishops’ Conference, denouncing the “scenes of mockery and derision of Christianity,” and American Bishop Robert Barron of Minnesota, who called it a “gross mockery.” A Mississippi-based telecommunications provider, C Spire, announced it was pulling all its advertisements from Olympics broadcasts. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana described the scene as “shocking and insulting to Christian people.”

But the opening ceremony’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly, said the event was not meant to “be subversive, or shock people, or mock people” at Saturday’s news conference in Paris. On Sunday, Jolly clarified further that he had not been inspired by “The Last Supper.”

“It is Dionysus who arrives at the table,” Jolly told a French TV interviewer. For those who don’t know, he explained Dionysus is the Greek god of festivities and wine, and is the father of Sequana, the goddess of the Seine River. “The idea was instead to have a grand pagan festival connected to the gods of Olympus, Olympism,” Jolly added. And educated people on social media backed him up. 

Ohhhhh it’s the Feast of Dionysus, not the Last Supper. Somehow I imagine they’ll remain offended. Not sure why people are so surprised at the flamboyance of the French. pic.twitter.com/htXgAXbolc

— Amanda Kruel 💨🐿🌵 (@skweeds) July 27, 2024

And that was confirmed in a post by the official Olympics account on “X”: 

The interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus makes us aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings. #Paris2024 #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/FBlQNNUmvV

— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 26, 2024

Beware of misinterpretation! The director of the opening ceremony of the @Paris2024 Games, Thomas Jolly, confirms that this scene was NOT a representation of the Christian Last Supper but a pagan feast, as evidenced by the presence of Dionysus -the Greek god of feasting and wine. pic.twitter.com/F5MYUBZqvz

— Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer (@jeangene_vilmer) July 28, 2024

But on Sunday, the religious right got what it demanded: An official apology from Olympics spokesperson Anne Descamps noting that “If people have taken offense, we are really, really sorry.” 

So far, however, no one has requested an apology for this depiction of The Last Supper, featuring GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. 

MAGA Christians: Satirizing the Last Supper is offensive to our religion and we demand an apology!

Also MAGA Christians:
This is fine pic.twitter.com/9N7pTJcHEV

— Edelweißpirat- 🇺🇦 Я з Україною 🇱🇹 (@crandallgold) July 28, 2024

The Los Angeles Blade will continue to bring you coverage of the LGBTQ angle of the Summer Olympic Games in Paris as they proceed. Bonne chance! 

When this week’s Summer Olympic Games kick off in Paris, it will bewith an abundance of flair, fireworks, and joie de vivre — that’s French for “joy of life” — and more inclusion than ever before.

For the first time, the Olympics have achieved gender parity, with 50% of athletes identifying as men and 50% identifying as women, and at least two athletes identifying as transgender nonbinary. There is one trans man, boxer Hergie Bacyadan of the Philippines. These athletes will compete in 32 sports and 339 events, starting this week, and once again there will also be a Refugee Team featuring 37 athletes from all over the world, vying for medals in 12 sports.

There will also be a huge amount of LGBTQ representation among more than 200 countries and that Refugee Team. The big name athletes include track and field star Sha’Carri Richardson, shot-putter Raven Saunders, basketball superstars Diana Taurasi, Breanna Stewart, new “Pops” Brittney Griner, Alyssa Thomas (who is engaged to her WNBA teammate DeWanna Bonner), BMX Freestyle riders Hannah Roberts and Perris Benegas, the British diver Tom Daley, who is competing in his fifth Olympic Games, and Brazil’s legendary soccer player Marta, who will compete for a sixth time.

But determining exactly how many athletes are out is no easy feat.

Published estimates of total competitors range from 10,500 to 10,700, and the official Olympics site counts 11,232 athletes, including one 18-year-old woman representing the People’s Republic of China who will compete in a sport making its debut at this Olympics, called breaking — better known as breakdancing. She is identified only as “671,” no first or last name, just “671.” Good luck, “Six!”

While we don’t know how “671” identifies, there is a consensus that these games will see the largest contingent of out athletes since the 2020 Olympics were played in Tokyo in 2021, delayed a year because of the pandemic. GLAAD and Athlete Ally counted 222 out athletes competing in Tokyo, as mentioned in their comprehensive guide to these Summer Games, a collaboration with Pride House France.

In 2021, the editors at the LGBTQ sports website Outsports had estimated there were 120 competing in Japan, and updated that number to 186 after learning about other athletes who were LGBTQ, including some who came out after competing. That number, they said, set a new record.

This year, they have once again done the math, and calculated how many queer competitors will participate in this year’s Summer Games: Fewer than in Tokyo, but more than in any other Olympics.

“At least 144 publicly out gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and nonbinary athletes will be in Paris for the 2024 Olympics, the second consecutive Summer Games where the number has reached triple digits,” says Outsports co-founder Jim Buzinski. “There are also a record number of out male Olympians.”

And yet, Team USA has only one man who is publicly out: distance runner Nico Young, a cross-country and track and field athlete at Northern Arizona University. Young, 21, came out as gay in 2022 in a post on Instagram.

“I am living proof that it is not a choice, it is something I have always known and been aware of, but have kept silent out of fear of rejection,” Young wrote. “I have struggled to accept myself, but I am becoming more proud and happy with who I am. I have realized that the only reason I never liked this part of who I am was because of what society has told me, not because of how I actually feel. This is a quality of myself as well as so many other people that should be accepted and celebrated just the same as a straight person’s identity is.”

USA has the most out athletes

At least 24 countries — including the Refugee Team — are represented by at least one publicly out athlete in 32 sports this year. As before, the United States has the most out athletes of all with 28, about one-fifth of the athletes on the “Team LGBTQ” list compiled by Outsports.

Brazil has 22 out athletes, Australia has 17, Great Britain is fourth with 10 and Germany has nine.

Not surprisingly, out women athletes far outnumber out men on their list by about a 7 to 1 margin. But it’s not women’s basketball that has the most out athletes of any sport, with more than 30 players identifying as LGBTQ. It’s women’s soccer.

Tierna Davidson of Menlo Park, Calif., is the sole American competing in women’s soccer who is publicly queer. She proposed to her partner Alison Jahansouz in March. At Stanford, Davidson and her team won an NCAA title in college football. Then, at age 20, she won the 2019 Women’s World Cup — the youngest player on USWNT — and the Bronze with Team USA in Tokyo. But with the departure of the team’s gay icons, namely Megan Rapinoe, Davidson, 25, told The Athletic she said she feels pressure like never before.

“I think that there’s no illusion that the ratio of queerness on the team has decreased a little bit, at least with players that are out,” she said, noting that as an introvert she is not seeking the high profile of Rapinoe. “And so, I think it’s important to recognize that I am part of that ratio, and that it is important to bring issues to the table that are important to me and to my community, and be able to be that representative for people that look up to queer athletes and see themselves in me on the field.”

Canadian soccer player Quinn, 28, returns to the Olympics this week as the first transgender nonbinary athlete to have won a gold medal, at Tokyo in 2021, as the Blade reported. They came out to their team in an email in 2020, and recently took part in a Q&A about that experience.

“I think I had a better relationship with my teammates after coming out,” they said. “I had a new confidence and ability to be vulnerable with them and it strengthened many relationships in my life. There were some players on my professional team at the time who were ignorant, but having the overwhelming majority of players and staff support me really created an environment where anything less than that wouldn’t be tolerated.”

As of press time, GLAAD and Athlete Ally are still counting how many out athletes will be competing in Paris. But the numbers aren’t as important as visibility, GLAAD President & CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis told the Blade.

“LGBTQ athletes continue to shine at the Olympic Games, including transgender athletes who will help reporters and viewers to see their humanity as well as their achievements,” Ellis said. “For the first time there will be gender parity among Olympic athletes, a significant milestone that comes as transgender and nonbinary people are also included. This guide, created in collaboration with Athlete Ally and Pride House France, is uniquely positioned to help media covering the Games include and report on LGBTQ athletes so their talents and stories are centered to inform and inspire acceptance among audiences around the world.”

Of course, compiling all these lists is a gargantuan task, one that LGBTQ historian Tony Scupham-Bilton of Nottingham, U.K., has been doing for more than a decade with a blog called The Queerstory Files. He told the Blade he contributed to the list Outsports published.

“I had six athletes which they didn’t have on their list when we compared them last week, but there were about 20 athletes on their list which I didn’t have,” Scupham-Bilton said, noting that inclusion is increasing. “Paris has already exceeded previous levels of representation and involvement. That indicates a probable increase in medals. I have also noticed that there has been an increase in the number of Olympians coming out between Olympics.”

One other big change in terms of representation that this historian sees is how the Olympics themselves have embraced the LGBTQ community.

“Even though there have been Pride Houses at most Olympic Games since Vancouver 2010, the majority of which have been supported by the various organizing committees, Paris 2024 is the first to include it on its official website,” Scupham-Bilton told the Blade.

As the Blade reported, Team USA celebrated Santa Cruz, Calif., native Nikki Hiltz qualifying for the Olympics with their record-setting finish in the 1,500-meter race earlier this month with an Instagram post that drew a flood of negative comments from straight cisgender men.

Hiltz, 29, is the other trans nonbinary athlete competing in Paris. Team USA’s post showed them writing “I ❤ the gays” on a camera lens. A lot of the comments showed ignorance of their actual identity, calling them a “cheater” and “a man.”

Hiltz responded with grace, in an Instagram post about how far they’ve come since 2021. That year they finished dead last in the Olympic trials, held shortly after they came out. Earlier this month, Hiltz reflected on their growth.

“I’ve spent the past 3 years rebuilding my confidence and reshaping that narrative. Telling myself every single day that I belong. Showing up to meets, taking up space, and making friends with those little voices in my head that consistently tried to convince me I was too confusing, I was a burden or I wasn’t enough,” they wrote.

This year, in Eugene, Ore., was different.

“I stood on the start line of the Olympic Trials 1500 final and told myself ‘I can do this, the world will make space for you. Remember to enjoy this race and have fun playing the game of racing, this is your moment.’ The gun went off, it got hard, I didn’t crumble, I didn’t fall off the pace, I held on and 3 minutes and 55 seconds later I broke the finish line tape and became an Olympian.”

But by far the biggest name in LGBTQ sports at this Olympics is that of the fastest woman in the world: Sha’Carri Richardson. She missed out on competing in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021 for testing positive for cannabis, and now is going for gold.

Richardson graced a recent cover of Vogue, and told the magazine how committed she is to this goal: “Everything I do—what I eat, what I drink, if I stay up too late—it’s all reflected on the track,” she said. “Every choice. That’s what the world doesn’t see.” But she also talked about keeping herself fixed firmly in the present. “If all I’m doing is looking ahead, then I can’t be where I need to be. Which is here, now.”

The Blade will be there, in Paris, to bring you all the excitement from the Olympic Games.

BERKELEY — The student newspaper at University of California, Berkeley, noted that despite campus-wide celebrations during Pride month, one group too often goes ignored: LGBTQ+ student-athletes. And so Daily Californian senior staff writer Daniel Gamboa sought to change that, with an in-depth look at queer students who play school sports. 

“At Cal, queer athletes are thriving,” he wrote, spurred by a Campus Pride report that he said found queer and gender non-conforming athletes were twice as likely to experience harassment as their straight, cisgender peers. Since 2019, Cal Athletics has received a perfect score on Athlete Ally’s Athletic Equality Index, which quantifies LGBTQ+ inclusivity across collegiate athletics departments.

For his article titled “Proud to be a Bear: How queer athletes, admin create community,” Gamboa spoke to out student-athletes at Cal who have found acceptance at Berkeley. 

“I felt so much less alone,” said incoming senior Isabel King, a midfielder on Cal’s women’s lacrosse team and a bisexual. “Here, being queer isn’t something that defines who you are, but something that allows you to create relationships with other people who identify like you and find spaces that help you flourish.”

Being around so many people at UC Berkeley with so many unique identities — queer and otherwise —made her feel comfortable with her own, King said.

She compared her collegiate experience to her high school days, playing lacrosse, before she came out. King said unlike Berkeley’s queer-friendly environment, she felt uncomfortable being her authentic self. 

“I want to continue making a space for queer athletes to find affinity with one another and feel a sense of togetherness,” said King, in talking about Cal Bears United, a student-run affinity group for Cal student-athletes, which she serves as a co-executive director. The group hosts community events geared towards helping LGBTQ+ athletes thrive at Cal. “I love Bears United because yes, we are club mates, but more than that, we are all friends.”

“(UC Berkeley) doesn’t just acknowledge that you are your person but also gives you space to be a queer person recognizing your identities,” said Cassidy Puleo, a backfielder for Cal field hockey and Cal Bears United’s other co-executive director. Puleo moved to Berkeley from a small, suburban community, where it was not nearly as common to find other members of the LGBTQ+ community. She said the representation she found at Cal as a masculine-presenting gay woman affirmed her identity.

That representation includes leadership, Puleo said, such as her head coach, Shellie Onstead, who also identifies as queer. When they were planning their team’s media day, Puleo recommended that the team bring a Pride flag to their photo shoot.

Puleo told The Daily Californian Onstead was so touched by the gesture, that the coach pulled her aside after the photo shoot for a heartfelt conversation. 

“That was something she couldn’t do in sports when she was younger, something she never thought she would see,” said Puleo. “It served as a reminder to me to be outspoken about who I am, to share my identity with people and embrace that side of myself. You never know what it could do for other people.”

To be clear, the article’s headline, “Proud to be a Bear,” doesn’t necessarily mean to suggest this is a  look at Bears of the burly and bearded gay male-identified type, but Gamboa isn’t excluding anyone either. As Cal students, alumni, administrators, parents and fans know, “Oski the Bear” is the mascot of the university’s sports teams, the California Golden Bears, and is likely a cousin of the state’s official animal, the grizzly bear. 

Although King said she feels “welcomed and appreciated” for her identity, she cannot help but notice that homophobia is ever present on campus, from anti-LGBTQ jokes shared by her classmates to hurtful slurs spread intentionally.

“It’s not anyone’s fault, but casual acts of prejudice tend to slip through the cracks. It is on every athlete and administrator to shut down homophobia at its root,” King said, adding that even though Cal Athletics has a zero-tolerance policy for homophobia, the application and enforcement of that policy isn’t clear. One can only hope The Daily Californian will follow-up after the Fall semester starts in August.

It’s a boy for Brittney and Cherelle Griner. The Phoenix Mercury center revealed the news in interviews with CBS Sports and NBC News. 

“Every minute I feel like he’s popping into my head, said Griner. “Literally everything revolves around him. And I love it.”

The couple officially welcomed the baby boy on July 8. He weighs 7 pounds, 8 ounces.

“That’s my man. He is amazing,” Griner told CBS Sports. “They said as soon as you see them, everything that you thought mattered just goes out the window. That’s literally what happened.” 

Griner, 33, corrected the CBS News correspondent who said, “You’re about to be a mom!” She told her Cherelle, 33, had already delivered the baby and that she preferred to be called,“Pops.” 

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Griner told NBC News correspondent Liz Kreutz they chose to name their newborn son, “Bash.” 

TONIGHT: WNBA star Brittney Griner reveals to @LizKreutzNews her son Bash with wife Cherelle has arrived ahead of the Olympics. Much more of their interview coming up on NBC Nightly News pic.twitter.com/oLYNYC0d9z

— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) July 19, 2024

The WNBA star said she is Bash’s biggest fan and is constantly taking photos of him. “My whole phone has turned into him now,” Griner told CBS Sports.

The baby comes as Griner gets set to play in Saturday’s WNBA All-Star Game and then head to Paris with Team USA to compete for their 8^th straight gold medal at the Summer Olympic Games. 

“It kind of sucks because I have to leave, but at the same time, he will understand,” said Griner. 

Her time in Paris will mark the first time since the basketball star was released from a Russian gulag, where she was held on drug charges for nearly 10 months in 2022.

“BG is locked in and ready to go,” Griner told NBC News on Friday. “I’m happy, I’m in a great place. I’m representing my country, the country that fought for me to come back. I’m gonna represent it well.”

Griner also spoke with NBC News about her hopes the U.S. can win the freedom of imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was sentenced to 16 years in a Russian maximum security prison on Friday. 

“We have to get him back,” she said. 

He didn’t get to punch his ticket to the Olympics this summer but Trey Cunningham, 26, one of the world’s best high hurdlers, is in the news for a far more personal reason: He publicly came out as gay. 

“We say our goals out loud,” Cunningham told the New York Times Monday, explaining a technique he has relied upon in his training as an elite athlete. “If there’s something we want to achieve, we say it. Putting something in words makes it real.”

His sexuality isn’t exactly a secret. Cunningham came out to his parents and friends by phone five years ago at age 20. 

“It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done,” he told the Times, recalling that he found himself dripping with sweat as he waited for the ringing to end and for the calls to be connected. 

Cunningham revealed to the newspaper that he got the sense that at least some of his friends were not at all surprised by this news, and had been “waiting for me,” he said. “I was really lucky to have a group of people who did not care.”

He was in college then, starting to “explore the idea” of his sexual attraction. 

“It took me awhile to know it felt right,” he said. 

His high school years in Winfield, Ala., were a time for friends and fun, dreaming of playing pro basketball with the Boston Celtics before discovering he enjoyed “flinging myself at solid objects at high speed,” he said. It was not a place conducive to dating other boys. 

Cunningham recalled his hometown as “rural, quite conservative, quite religious: The sort of place where you did not want to be the gay kid at school,” he told the paper. “So, I had certain expectations of what my life would look like, and it took me a little while to get my head around it, looking different to that.”

So, it was not a surprise that his parents gave him some “pushback” — in his words — when he called them with the news five years ago. 

“They had certain expectations for their little boy, for what his life would be like, and that’s OK,” he told the Times. “I gave them a 5-year grace period. I had to take my time. They could take theirs, too.” 

Cunningham drew a parallel between his own process and theirs. “What was true for me was also true for my parents,” said the world-class sprinter. 

And he is world-class, even if he’ll be watching the Summer Games instead of competing in them. As the Times reported, Cunningham is ranked 11th in the world. In 2022, he won the silver medal in high hurdles at the world championships in Eugene, Ore., and last month he placed ninth in the 110-meter hurdles at the U.S. Olympic trials. 

“If you do well in the U.S. trials, you know you have a good shot at a medal,” he said.

Following his disappointing finish in what he described as a “stacked field” of competitors, he is coming out as gay in an interview with a journalist now because everyone who he feels needs to know has known for some time, he said. Also, he recognizes that being out is still rare. 

“There are lots of people who are in this weird space,” said Cunningham. “They’re not out. But it is kind of understood.”

What he hopes is that both sports and the wider world will someday get to a place where “people do not have to ‘come out,” he said, where people can “just get on with being them.”

In addition to being an elite athlete, Cunningham has a Master of Science degree from Florida State University, a deal with Adidas and — with his scruffy square jaw and pouty lips — he is a sought-after Ford model.

He said in the interview that he realized coming out comes with practical and potentially financial considerations: Competing in countries where being gay is a crime, like Qatar. Although he doesn’t think hiding his sexuality inhibited his performance or that some great weight is now lifted, he believes being public about it has value.

There are times, Cunningham said, when it pays to say something out loud, to make things real. This is that time. 

By Dawn Ennis

EUGENE, ORE. — They ran like the wind, broke the tape at the finish line and clutched their chest with the broadest smile on their face. Then Nikki Hiltz collapsed to the track, having set a new record in the 1,500-meter race at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials and earned a spot on Team USA. 

As the realization sank in that they would be representing the United States in Paris as an out transgender nonbinary athlete, what the Paris-bound Olympian did next was to scribble a message of LGBTQ+ representation on the last day of Pride Month, writing with a red marker upon the glass of the camera that records each athlete’s signature on a whiteboard: 

“I ❤️ the gays,” they wrote, and above it, they signed their first name. 

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Hiltz, 29, finished the race on Sunday at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field in first-place with a final time of 3:55:33, breaking third-place finisher Elle St. Pierre’s 2021 record of 3:58:03. 

Hiltz credited St. Pierre, the top-finishing American and third-place finisher in the women’s 1,500 at the Tokyo Olympics, with motivated them and the other competitors to race faster. With a first lap time of 61 seconds, St. Pierre led the race for the majority of its duration. St. Pierre and Emily Mackay, who placed second, also both earned spots in the Paris Olympics.

“If someone would have told me this morning that 3:56 doesn’t make the team, I don’t want to know that. I’m just in the race to run it and race it and that’s what I did,” Hiltz said after the race. The Santa Cruz native who came out in 2021 as trans nonbinary told NBC Sports that the accomplishment is “bigger than just me.”

“I wanted to run this for my community,” Hiltz said, “All of the LGBT folks, yeah, you guys brought me home that last hundred. I could just feel the love and support.” 

On Monday, Hiltz reflected on the race and how they became an Olympian in a post on Instagram.

“Woke up an Olympian. 🥹 Yesterday afternoon in Eugene Oregon a childhood dream of mine came true. I’m not sure when this will fully sink in… All I know is today I’m waking up just so grateful for my people, overwhelmed by all the love and support, and filled with joy that I get to race people I deeply love and respect around a track for a living. 🙏”

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Hiltz also shared a photo with their girlfriend, runner Emma Gee, and captioned it: “Remember in Inside Out 2 when Joy says “maybe this is what happens when you grow up… you feel less joy”? Yeah I actually have no idea what she’s talking about. 🎈🌈🤠🦅🥐🇫🇷”

They shared photos in their new Team USA garb, too. 

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While they will be the first out trans nonbinary member of the U.S. track and field team, Hiltz will not be the first nonbinary Olympian. That honor goes to Quinn, who played soccer for Canada in Tokyo and holds the record as the only nonbinary athlete to have won a gold medal. So far. 

Many of the posts by Hiltz, Team USA and others have been trolled by bigots and ignoramuses who have mistaken them for a transgender woman who was presumed to be male at birth and transitioned genders. Right-wing outlets and anti-trans activist Riley Gaines have commented on their victory and questioned their gender identity and decision to compete against cisgender women. 

A female who identifies as trans earned a spot on the U.S. women’s Olympic team.

I wonder why she didn’t try out for the men’s team. It’s almost as if she understands she would never be able to compete or succeed at same level against the men.

Tellinghttps://t.co/M5Lj9G0aEi

— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) July 2, 2024

But in the spirit of the late Marsha P. Johnson, who famously said the “P” stood for “pay no mind” to the haters, Hiltz shared a photo of a handwritten motivational note to themself, which ends: “I saw a quote online the other week that said, ‘respect everybody, fear nobody,’ and that’s exactly how I’m going to approach this final. I can do this.” 

And they did. 

ARLINGTON, Texas — Once again, the Texas Rangers opted not to celebrate Pride this month with a dedicated day or night on its 2024 promotion schedule. And once again, the American League West team is the only Major League operation to do so. 

So? Well, this repeated omission by the reigning World Series champs has sparked what one conservative news site calls a “ridiculous backlash.” As the Washington Examiner’s Kimberly Ross wrote this week:

“There is no getting away from these ubiquitous celebrations. Instead of ‘to each his own,’ major league teams are nearly required to give in and perform in an effort to placate the loudest crowds. It’s not good enough to include everyone at all times. You must kowtow or else. This kind of bullying is unacceptable, and it’s worth pushing back against whether you’re a regular citizen or the 2023 World Series champion Texas Rangers.”

But the only evidence of the “backlash” was a balanced report by Schuyler Dixon of the Associated Press that appeared on the website of KSAT-TV in San Antonio, detailing the frustrations of local LGBTQ+ advocates and fans. His report was a fair and straight-forward (no pun intended) report was also posted by the AP under the title: “Why are the Texas Rangers the only MLB team without a Pride Night?” Oh, and the virulently anti-trans British tabloid, the Daily Mail rehashed that same AP piece but added that LGBTQ+ groups were “FURIOUS” (yes, in all caps) without substantiating that claim with a single quote. 

At most, DeeJay Johannessen, the chief executive of the HELP Center, an LGBTQ+ organization based in Tarrant County, where the Rangers play, told the AP he felt “kind of embarrassed.” The Daily Mail’s headline writer was apparently “kind of” clickbaiting. 

“It’s kind of an embarrassment to the city of Arlington that their team is the only one that doesn’t have a Pride Night,” Johannessen said. While also not furious, local advocate Rafael McDonnell said, “It pains me that this remains an issue (after) all these years.”

How painful? McDonnell told the AP he considered not attending the championship parade with his boyfriend when the Rangers celebrated their first World Series championship last fall. Ultimately, he decided to go. So much for “FURIOUS.” 

McDonnell is the communications and advocacy manager for the Resource Center, which is an organization that grew out of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. He added that his group has worked with the Rangers, at their invitation, to help them develop a policy of inclusion, starting about five years ago.

The team has sent employees to volunteer for programs supporting its efforts in advocating for marriage equality and transgender rights.

Although McDonnell said members of the Rangers staff keep in contact with him, he told the AP he can’t recall any conversations with the team since its five-game victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in last year’s World Series. 

“For a long time, I’ve thought that it might be somebody very high up in the organization who is opposed to this for some reason that is not clearly articulated,” McDonnell said. “To say that the Rangers aren’t doing anything for the community, well, they have. But the hill that they are choosing to stake themselves out on is no Pride Night.”

Which stands out because the Rangers did celebrate Mexican heritage during a game earlier this month, and also host nights throughout the season dedicated to other groups as well as the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, first responders, teachers and the military. The team also recognizes universities from around the Dallas-Fort Worth area and other parts of the Lone Star State. But not Pride. 

Why? The Rangers issued a statement, very similar to one from 2023. It lists various organizations the team has sponsored and steps it has taken internally to “create a welcoming, inclusive, and supportive environment for fans and employees.”

“Our longstanding commitment remains the same: To make everyone feel welcome and included in Rangers baseball — in our ballpark, at every game, and in all we do — for both our fans and our employees,” the team said. “We deliver on that promise across our many programs to have a positive impact across our entire community.”

“I think it’s a private organization,” said Rangers fan Will Davis. “And if they don’t want to have it, I don’t think they should be forced to have it.” Davis is from Marble Falls, about 200 miles southwest of the stadium in Central Texas and attended a recent game with his son’s youth baseball team.

“I think if it were something where MLB said, ‘We’re not participating in this,’ but the MLB does participate in it. And the Rangers have chosen not to,” said Rangers fan Misty Lockhart, who lives near told the ballpark. Lockhart told the AP she attends almost three dozen games every season. “I think that’s where I take the bigger issue, is they have actively chosen not to participate in it.”

While Lockhart says she doesn’t see Pride Night as a political issue, she suggested there would be more pressure on the Rangers if their stadium was downtown, in the heart of Dallas County, where the majority of elected officials are Democrats. Tarrant County, home to Arlington, Fort Worth and Global Life Stadium, is generally more conversative, just like the governor, lieutenant governor, legislature, and fans like Will Davis. 

“In something like this, this is a way for people to go as a state,” Davis told the AP. “We don’t want the political stuff shoved down our throats one way or the other, left or right. We’re coming out here to have a good time with friends or family and let it be.”

Unfortunately, some Rangers fans decided they could not “let it be” the one time the team welcomed local LGBTQ+ groups to a game as part of a fundraising event, as it does for other groups. This was in September 2003, two years after the Chicago Cubs hosted what is considered the first-ever Pride game. At that time, Rangers fans raged about the invitation on a website, and showed up to protest outside the stadium before that game. 

The Rangers never extended that invitation again.