A 29-year-old marathon runner will be the first out trans woman to compete in a US Olympic trial.
In Atlanta on February 29, Megan Youngren and 62 other women will compete for a spot on the US Olympic team.
The winners at the trials will represent the US in the Summer Games in Tokyo later this year.
Youngren came 40th at the California international marathon in December with a time of 2:43:52 – good enough to qualify for the Atlanta marathon trials.
Her California qualifying time came after running the Los Angeles marathon in 3:06:42 last year, too. Youngren says this is what spurred her to train more intensively.
“I thought that if I worked incredibly hard and took some huge risks that I could run a 2:45,” Youngren said.
“People will try to put it down by saying, ‘That’s too easy because you’re trans.’
“But what about the 500 other women who will qualify? There’s probably someone with the exact same story.
“I trained hard. I got lucky. I dodged injuries. I raced a lot, and it worked out for me.
“That’s the story for a lot of other people, too.”
Susan Hazzard, the US team’s track and fields spokesperson, said: “To my knowledge, and that of other staff who have been with USATF for many years, we do not recall a trans competitor at our marathon trials.”
Megan Youngren said she was prepared for criticism, but that she had “done everything by the book” and could show it.
She also said it was important to her that she’s open about being trans, because “that’s the only way you can make progress on stuff like this”.
As far as training goes, Youngren said “there are days when my feet are sliding around in the snow. My lungs hurt because it’s cold and I’m wearing all these layers” and it’s then that she asks herself: “Am I really getting that much faster?
“Then it warms up a bit for a day and I go, ‘Oh, my God. I am actually getting faster. This is working.’ As far as getting on the starting line in Atlanta, I am super excited because training is going so well.”
While she’s the first openly trans athlete to compete at the US Olympic marathon trials, Youngren follows in the footsteps of Chris Mosier – another US athlete and trans man who, in January 2020, made history as the first openly trans athlete to compete in a US Olympic trial.
With the news that this weekend’s live broadcast of Super Bowl LIV will feature at least eightLGBTQ-inclusive ads, it’s fitting to pause and take a moment to appreciate how far we’ve come in the struggle for LGBTQ acceptance – even if it’s only to remind ourselves that, no matter how disheartening the political tides may be, there is still reason to hope that support for the community continues to grow within the culture at large.
On Friday, GLAAD issued a statement marking what they called “an unprecedented level of LGBTQ inclusion” scheduled for Sunday’s FOX airing of the NFL championship game, as well as the milestone represented by San Francisco 49ers coach Katie Sowers, who is the first out LGBTQ woman to serve as a coach in a Super Bowl game. They also took the opportunity to give the homophobic conservative advocacy group One Million Moms a taste of their own medicine, announcing they had launched petition a calling for the organization to “call it quits.”
The statement included comments from GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis, who said, “The level of diverse LGBTQ inclusion from at least seven brands during advertising’s biggest night, coupled with Katie Sowers’ trailblazing role on the field as Offensive Assistant Coach of the 49ers, mark a rainbow wave at the Super Bowl this year.”
GLAAD went on to chart some of the progress that has been made in LGBTQ representation by advertisers on the Super Bowl broadcast, citing a 2007 Snickers ad depicting two men who become disgusted when they accidentally kiss, a Coca-Cola ad from was celebrated for an ad featuring a diverse collection of American families, a Coca-Cola ad from 2014 that featured a family with two dads, and another from 2018 that used gender-neutral pronouns.
In addition, the LGBTQ media advocacy organization noted several out LGBTQ celebrities who have appeared in Super Bowl commercials over the years, such as RuPaul (who was the first drag queen to do so, twenty years ahead of this year’s ad featuring “Drag Race” alumni Kim Chi and Miz Cracker), Ellen DeGeneres, Neil Patrick Harris (who has appeared twice), and Carson Kressley, who co-starred with Cindy Crawford in a 2005 Diet Pepsi ad.
The brands offering this year’s eight LGBTQ inclusive ads, as noted by GLAAD, are:
Pop Tarts (with Jonathan Van Ness) Sabra (with Kim Chi and Miz Cracker, former contestants on “RuPaul’s Drag Race”) Microsoft (with 49ers coach Katie Sowers) TurboTax (with Trace Lysette and Isis King, as well as other LGBTQ members of the ballroom community) Doritos (with out Grammy-winner Lil Nas X) Olay (with Lilly Singh, out bisexual host of NBC’s “A Lilly Late with Lilly Singh,” and the host of the GLAAD Media Awards in New York on March 19) Amazon Alexa (with Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi Budweiser (with married World Cup champs officially designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-LGBTQ hate group. In the petition, OMM raises issue to the commercial’s inclusion of drag queens Kim Chi and Miz Cracker, saying, “Normalizing this lifestyle is contrary to what conservative, Christian parents are teaching their children about God’s design for sexuality.”
In response to OMM’s latest in a long history of failed campaigns against brands that have taken steps toward LGBTQ inclusion, GLAAD announced that it has launched its own petition, blasting the organization for claiming a mission to “stop the exploitation of children” when “nearly all of their public work and actions center on targeting brands/networks that include LGBTQ people in programming or ads,” and calling on them “to pack it up and go home.”
Ellis commented, “Leading brands have learned that fringe anti-LGBTQ organizations like Monica Cole and so-called One Million Moms project of the AFA, are not a reflection of where Americans are. Family-friendly brands today include all families, including LGBTQ ones.”
When the eight scheduled LGBTQ-friendly commercials air during Sunday’s game between the 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs, it will mark a record level of inclusivity for ads airing during the Super Bowl.
As Ellis puts it, “Now, American families will see and cheer on LGBTQ icons… it’s about time.”
Below, you can watch Little Nas X star opposite movie icon Sam Elliott in his Doritos ad, which will air during the Super Bowl LIV broadcast on Sunday, February 2, at 6:30pm ET.
Transgender girls and women would be barred from participating in sports on the team that aligns with their gender identity under a proposed Arizona law.
The Arizona legislation allows only biological women or girls to play on female teams, and requires a doctor’s note to prove a person is female if their birth sex is disputed. It allows lawsuits by students who believe they’ve missed opportunities because a transgender person is on a school team.
The measure is intended to prevent female athletes from being forced to compete against biological males, Barto said in a statement. It would apply to K-12 schools, community colleges and state universities but only to female teams.
She said most people view the issue as one of basic fairness.
“When this is allowed, it discourages female participation in athletics and, worse, it can result in women and girls being denied crucial educational and financial opportunities,” Barto’s statement said.
Republicans make up the majority in the state House and Senate.
Similar legislation has been proposed in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, Tennessee and Washington state, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
The measures are part of a national campaign backed by the Scottsdale-based Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative religious freedom group.
Barto said she is working with the ADF and the Center for Arizona Policy, a powerful group at the state Capitol that lobbies for religious freedom and anti-abortion legislation, to push the proposal,
Several national women’s rights and sports organizations are pushing back, saying in a letter distributed by the American Civil Liberties Union that barring transgender people from sports teams aligning with their gender identity often means they are “excluded from participating altogether.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a federal discrimination complaint on behalf of Connecticut girls who competed in track-and-field. The girls say the state’s inclusive policy on transgender athletes has cost them top finishes and possibly college scholarships.
“Forcing female athletes to compete against biological males isn’t fair and destroys their athletic opportunities,” attorney Matt Sharp, the ADF’s state government relations director told The Associated Press in an interview for a recent news report. “Likewise, every child deserves a childhood that allows them to experience puberty and other natural changes that shape who they will become.”
Conservative groups are also pushing bills that would bar doctors from providing them certain gender-related medical treatment.
The proposed laws, if enacted, “would bring devastating harms to the transgender community,” Chase Strangio, a transgender-rights lawyer with the ACLU.
“It is hard to imagine why state legislators have decided to prioritize barring transgender young people from sharing in the benefit of secondary school athletics or disrupting medical treatment consistent with prevailing standards of care,” Strangio said. “But here we are, the start of the session, a time to fight.”
The measure doesn’t apply to males, Barto said, because they are “biologically different from females in terms of bone density, lung capacity, strength, and other respects, are not disadvantaged by females in boys’ sports.”
She had no Arizona examples of girls or young women impacted but pointed to issues in Connecticut and the ADF lawsuit.
Once rejected from a volunteer coaching position because of her “lifestyle,” Katie Sowers will make NFL history as the first openly gay and female assistant coach headed to the Super Bowl.
Sowers is an offensive assistant coach with the San Francisco 49ers, whose win against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday secured the team’s spot in the championship game Feb. 2 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. The 49ers will face off against the Kansas City Chiefs.
She is the second woman to coach in the National Football League and began her athletic career playing in the Women’s Football Alliance for the West Michigan Mayhem and the Kansas City Titans. After retiring in 2016 because of a hip injury, Sowers joined the NFL as an intern for the Atlanta Falcons, and took the assistant coach position with the 49ers the next year.
Sowers became the first out gay coach in the NFL when she came out before the 2017 season.
“No matter what you do in life, one of the most important things is to be true to who you are,” she said in an interview with Outsportsafter coming out. “There are so many people who identify as LGBT in the NFL, as in any business, that do not feel comfortable being public about their sexual orientation.”
“By standing out and proud as the first-ever openly gay NFL coach in a Super Bowl, Katie Sowers not only shows LGBTQ athletes and fans what’s possible for them, but also shows the sport world as a whole that LGBTQ people are a valuable part of this community,” Joanna Hoffman, director of communications at the national LGBTQ athletic advocacy group Athlete Ally, wrote in an emailed statement.
“The more barriers we can break down in football and in all sports, the more LGBTQ athletes, coaches and fans will be able to be who they are and be a part of the sport they love.”
Despite achieving a historic position of leadership in the highest level of national football, Sowers said she experienced LGBTQ discrimination in sports while in college, when was rejected from a volunteer coaching job because of her “lifestyle.”
“I was so passionate about coaching and to feel like my opportunities were limited because of who I loved was hard to deal with,” Sowers told Outsports. “However, without that experience, I would not be where I am today.”
The incident encouraged the coach to use her platform to promote inclusivity. Sowers was in part responsible for the genesis of a Pride fan club for the 49ers last May, the first NFL team-sponsored group that officially recognized its LGBTQ fans. She also frequently posts pictures of her with her girlfriend on Instagram and talks about her experiences being a women’s coach.
Athletes and fans are excited for Sowers’ historic role at Super Bowl LIV and have remarked that her position is especially poignant given there have only been 13 out gay and bi players in the NFL’s 100-year history, according to OutSports.
Big congrats to our friend @KatieSowers on that NFC title and for making history! She’ll be the first woman to coach at a Super Bowl. Love to see it. #BeLegendary
“Congratulations to @KatieSowers of the @49ers, who will become the first woman to coach in the #SuperBowl,” tweeted Billie Jean King, gender equality advocate in sports and a former World No. 1 professional tennis player. “You have to see it to be it!”
“Phenomenal @KatieSowers,” wrote World Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist Hope Solo, alongside a clapping hands emoji.
Last week, another major advancement for women in professional sports occurred when Alyssa Nakken joined the San Francisco Giants as an assistant coach, becoming the first woman to be a part of a Major League Baseball coaching staff.
Rugby player Israel Folau has drawn anger for linking Australia’s bushfire crisis to the nation’s same-sex marriage and abortion laws. Folau, who was sacked by Australia in May for making anti-gay remarks on social media, described the fires as a “little taste of God’s judgement”.
Six people have died since last month in blazes raging in eastern Australia. Prime Minister Scott Morrison condemned Folau’s remarks as “appallingly insensitive”.
“He is a free citizen, he can say whatever he likes but that doesn’t mean he can’t have regard to the grievance [and] offence this would have caused to the people whose homes have burnt down,” Mr Morrison told reporters on Monday.
During the 10-minute recording, the 30-year-old says the timing of the bushfire crisis is no coincidence but only a taste of God’s judgment should nothing change. “I’ve been looking around at the events that’s been happening in Australia, this past couple of weeks, with all the natural disasters, the bushfires and the droughts,” he says.
He then reads from the Book of Isaiah in the Bible: “The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.”
Folau links the passage to the twin disasters of bushfire and drought and, in turn, the legalising of same-sex marriage and abortion. “God is speaking to you guys. Australia you need to repent and take these laws and turn it back to what is right.”
Hockey player Harrison Browne, thought to be the first openly transgender athlete in any professional U.S. team sport, didn’t have many trans athletes to look up to when he was growing up.
Then he saw Chris Mosier, a pioneering transgender triathlete being true to himself: “a trans athlete while still being a triathlete,” Browne said. “For me, when you see it, you can be it.”
When Browne came out as transgender in 2016 while playing for the Buffalo Beauts, a team within the National Women’s Hockey League, he said he had “a flood of people reaching out to me on social media saying, “It’s amazing to see you play your sport and be yourself.” His desire to take part in that type of positive representation is what drew Browne to play on a historic all-trans hockey team, which competed this past weekend in Massachusetts: Team Trans vs. Boston Pride Hockey.
The friendship tournament, played in Cambridge, was hosted by Boston Pride Hockey, an LGBTQ intramural organization that has both cisgender and transgender members. The game came about after a trans player reached out to Boston Pride Hockey and asked about its friendship series with the New York City Gay Hockey Association, which led to a conversation leading to the game.
Earlier this year, Hutch Hutchinson, who played defense on Team Trans, and New York player Aidan Cleary discussed how they wanted to create a space just for transgender athletes. Cleary contacted Boston Pride Hockey Vice President Mark Tikonoff about how they might recruit a full team of trans players.
“We have a few trans members, but not enough to make an entire team, so we started to reach out — to other cities we play with in national tournaments — San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Canada — to see if there were other players who might be interested in something like this.” Tikonoff said.
Hutch Hutchinson and Shane Diamond, players on Team Trans for the Boston Pride Hockey League.Courtesy of Kyle Outlaw
After receiving a strong response, the group organized the event, secured the space and raised funds to make sure the tournament went off without a hitch.
“For us, we didn’t realize how much we had in common, and we didn’t realize — I’m speaking personally — how much this community was underserved,” Tikonoff said. “As a cis gay man going into a locker room with other cis gay men, I don’t fear for my safety and I don’t fear judgment and I don’t fear exposing part of myself to people.”
While Team Trans lost to Boston Pride Hockey in both of the weekend games, Hutchinson said it was “an honor” to play alongside Browne and Jessica Platt — the two professional hockey players who competed in the weekend tournament. “The common thread was we have all never been on an all-trans team, and we have all gone through the struggle of ‘Where do I belong?’” Hutchinson said.
“We as trans people fight either big battles or little battles every day,” Hutchinson said. “This was an opportunity to walk into a locker room, and we didn’t have to explain anything to each other — we’re here, we are trans, this is great.”
Platt, a transgender woman who played with the Toronto Furies in the Canadian Women’s Hockey Players Association before it went out of business, said that being out and trans in a professional sport is “a really lonely experience.”
“There are not a lot of out trans athletes playing professional sports, and there are few in professional women’s sports,” Platt said. “I think that’s partially due to the fact that there’s a lot of negativity surrounding trans women participating in professional sports.”
“Growing up, I always played boys hockey and it didn’t feel like a safe atmosphere for me,” Platt said. “I knew there was something different about me but I always tried to be who I needed to be to fit in because I saw anyone who didn’t quite fit in the male hockey atmosphere got made fun of pretty harshly, so I didn’t want to be that person.” And yet she persisted, because she loves to play the sport.
Platt said that if presented with the opportunity to play forward on Team Trans again, she’d do it. “It was such a special experience for me, it was such a positive and supportive environment, I feel like everyone had no problem being themselves.”
Once the players hit the ice, it was easy playing the game they all know and love.
“A lot folks that I played with this weekend, we put years of our lives into practicing our sports and then we came out as trans and found there’s not necessarily a space for us in that sport anymore,” Hutchinson said. “I think that what happened this weekend it was important on individual levels — for me personally, it was like a full honoring of my identity: I am a trans hockey player and I am on a trans team.”
For her part, Platt said she hoped that the tournament would open more people’s minds to the fact that transgender athletes work hard and compete fairly just like cisgender athletes.
“We need more knowledge, more education, and for people to go into these things with an open mind and be willing to learn something that they might not be familiar with.”
Champion baseball player Sean Doolittle has declined an invitation to a ceremony in the White House because he disagrees vehemently with the policies of Donald Trump.
Doolittle – who plays for the Washington Nationals – told the Washington Post that he cannot justify visiting the White House as he finds Trump’s policies offensive.
He revealed that part of the reason he refused to visit the White House is because his wife has two mothers and he wanted to “show support for them”.
“I think that’s an important part of allyship, and I don’t want to turn my back on them.”
Sean Doolittle refused to visit White House over Donald Trump and his ‘divisive rhetoric’.
“There’s a lot of things, policies that I disagree with, but at the end of the day, it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and widening the divide in this country,” Doolittle said.
“At the end of the day, as much as I wanted to be there with my teammates and share that experience with my teammates, I can’t do it. I just can’t do it.”
I think that’s an important part of allyship, and I don’t want to turn my back on them.
Elsewhere in the interview, Doolittle drew attention to Trump’s treatment of race issues, refugees and disabled people.
“I feel very strongly about his issues on race relations,” he said. Doolittle spoke about the Fair Housing Act, the Central Park Five as well as Trump’s comments about white supremacy as examples of problem areas.
Doolittle said that Trump has disrespected the office of the president.
“I have a brother-in-law who has autism, and [Trump] is a guy that mocked a disabled reporter. How would I explain that to him that I hung out with somebody who mocked the way that he talked or the way that he moves his hands? I can’t get past that stuff.”
The baseball player also revealed that some people have taken issue with his refusal to visit the White House and said he should be respecting the office of the president.
However, Doolittle feels that Trump himself has disrespected the office on a number of occasions – and believes that this is the most important issue.
Doolittle and his wife Eireann Dolan have advocated for the rights of LGBT+ people on a number of occasions.
Gold medalist Kerron Clement is finally ready to share his story. The track athlete publicly came out Friday, on National Coming Out Day, exclusively telling Out, “I was tired of loving in the dark.”
“I have been through what a lot of people have been through which is being afraid of being who you are,” he says. “I struggled with my sexuality for 17 years. Over time, as you get older, you care less. Now it’s time to just be yourself and be free. That’s what I’ve become, free.”
Clement competed in the 2008 and 2016 Olympic Games, in Beijing and Rio de Janeiro, respectively. The track star won gold and silver medals in 2008, and another gold medal during his Olympic return.
Clement has also worked as a model and actor. In 2011 he made a fleeting appearance in a Beyonce video (at 1:47) despite “being more of a Mariah Carey fan.”
Plans by the International Olympic Committee to tighten guidelines for trans athletes ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Games have stymied because scientists are struggling to agree over the “tricky political and emotive issue”.
Scientists involved in the decision were expected to recommend halving the permitted testosterone levels for trans women competing in elite sport, opening up the field to more trans-inclusive races.
But sources confirmed to The Guardianthat the IOC have pinned discussions because the subject is so divisive, and consensus is not likely before the games begin next year.
Trans advocates have long argued that current regulations –established in 2015 – have limited non-cis athletes making it to elite level games.
An agreement has “proved far more difficult than expected”, says source.
The current regulations – hashed out by board members, scientists and legal advisors – allowed trans women to compete insofar that they “demonstrate that her total testosterone level in serum has been below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 months”.
However, these guidelines proved provocative, given that female testosterone levels tend to range between 0.12 and 1.79 nmol/l, while male’s are typically between 7.7 to 29.4 nmol/l.
According to the broadsheet, some scientists have advocated for reducing the permitted testosterone levels to 5nmol/L, which is below most males.
This would ensure more trans women could compete in women’s category sports, they claim.
But a salvo in the struggle to agree was some scientists disagreeing with this. They argued that testosterone suppression for trans women has little effect on reducing muscle strength even after a year of treatment.
One source told The Guardian that the draft IOC proposals “had gone around the houses” without any progress. Therefore, making it unlikely that a new consensus position would be reached before the Tokyo Olympics.
Another source said an agreement “proved far more difficult than expected because this is such a tricky political and emotive issue”.
The process is being led by the IOC Medical and Scientific Commission as well as being informed by inputs from the IOC Athletes’ Commission and the IOC Women and Sport Commission.
Stakeholders alongside medical, legal, and human rights experts will also have a say in the process.
The Guardian reported that talks will continue while other sporting federations are encouraged to create individual policies on trans athletes. But without the IOC taking the lead, these governing bodies may be un-willing to do so.
Former Welsh rugby captain Gareth Thomas has revealed he is HIV positive – and hopes coming forward with his diagnosis can help break the stigma for others living with the virus.
Thomas is thought to be the first UK sportsman to go public about living with the condition, and has revealed that he was driven to suicidal thoughts after being told he had the illness by a doctor during a routine sexual health check up.
The former British Lions captain, 45, who will be a TV pundit in the upcoming Rugby World Cup, added that he “broke down” when he got the news of his diagnosis. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, he said: “I’ve been living with this secret for years. I’ve felt shame and keeping such a big secret has taken its toll.”
The former Cardiff Blues player won 103 caps and scored 41 tries for Wales between 1995 and 2007, and he is 13th on the all-time international test try-scoring list.
Last November, he was attacked in Cardiff city centre in a homophobic hate crime, but asked South Wales police to deal with the 16-year-old assailant by way of restorative justice.
The sportsman now takes one tablet containing four medications each day, and doctors have said his condition is under control to the point that it is considered “undetectable” and cannot be passed on. Mr Thomas said that his partner – Stephen – who he met after his diagnosis and married three years ago, does not have HIV.
Gareth spoke about his HIV status for the first time in a video he posted on his Twitter page, revealing “evil” people had “made his life hell” by threatening to go public with his condition without his consent.
He explained: “I want to share my secret with you. Why? Because it is mine to tell you. Not the evils that make my life hell by threatening to tell you before I do. And because I believe in you and I trust you. I’m living with HIV.
“Now you have that information, that makes me extremely vulnerable but it does not make me weak.” He added: “Even though I have been forced to tell you this, I choose to fight to educate and break the stigma around this subject.”
