A new study out of the U.K. undercuts the idea that transgender women have an advantage over cisgender women in sports — and suggests that trans women are less like cis men than many suppose.
The study was funded by the International Olympic Committee and conducted at the University of Brighton in England. It was published in April in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The participants consisted of 23 trans women, 21 cis women, 19 cis men, and 12 trans men. They all were involved in competitive sports, although not at the national or international level, or did physical training at least three times a week. All the trans women had been on medication to suppress testosterone for at least a year and were taking estrogen.
Trans women in the study had greater handgrip strength than cis women, but they had lesser jumping ability than both cis women and cis men, plus lower lung function and cardiovascular fitness than cis women.
“While longitudinal transitioning studies of transgender athletes are urgently needed, these results should caution against precautionary bans and sport eligibility exclusions that are not based on sport-specific (or sport-relevant) research,” the study concluded.
A key takeaway is that “trans women are not biological men,” Yannis Pitsiladis, one of the authors, told The New York Times.
Some have criticized the study, claiming it was influenced by the IOC and that it deliberately used trans women who were less physically fit than cis men. But the authors emphasized that all participants met the same criteria for physical activity, and Pitsiladis told the Times that IOC officials did not pressure researchers regarding the outcome.
Pitsiladis said he and his team have been threatened over the study. That could have a chilling effect on research, he told the Times. “Why would any scientist do this if you’re going to get totally slammed and character-assassinated?” he said. “This is no longer a science matter. Unfortunately, it’s become a political matter.”
Anna Baeth, director of research with Athlete Ally, which works for LGBTQ+ inclusion in sports, welcomed the study. “The science is murky when it comes to specific hormones like testosterone and trans women athletes — primarily because no study, until this one, have examined trained athletes who identify as transgender,” Baeth told Forbes. “What does remain clear is that there are hundreds of factors that impact athletic performance, especially social ones. If governing bodies are serious about creating better and more opportunities for women, their focus should be on the numerous, proven research which consistently finds unequal treatment of women’s sports in participation opportunities, funding and resources, access to facilities and infrastructure, and media coverage.”
A drag queen has been announced as one of the people who will carry the Olympic flame in the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. She has been targeted for hatred by the right since she was announced as one of the people who will participate in the Olympic torch relay, but the city of Paris is standing up for her.
“I know that visibility is still one of the pillars of acceptance of our LGBTQIA+ community,” 33-year-old Parisian drag queen Minima Gesté said in a video announcing her participation. “So having a drag queen carry the flame—and who might fall flat on her face with it, wait and see—it’s an enormous source of pride.”
The video was posted online on Wednesday, and many people in the comments responded by attacking Minima. “Decadence of civilization brought on by the left,” one person commented. “Can I get a Russian passport?” another person wrote, calling Minima’s participation a “fiasco” and “ridiculous.”
Far-right politician and niece of proto-fascist politician Marine Le Pen, Marion Maréchal, attacked Minima in an interview on the channel TF1. “This person performs in a way that is particularly vulgar, hypersexualized,” she said. “I don’t think it’s a good way to represent France in the eyes of the world.”
But Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo stood up for Minima.
“I reaffirm my full support for her,” Hidalgo said in a statement on Friday. “I’ll say it again: I am proud and, yes, Paris is proud that a drag queen will carry the torch and the values of peace and humanity.”
The city’s X account said that the original video was “the target of numerous homophobic and transphobic statements.”
“Public insults, particularly of a homophobic and transphobic nature, are an unlawful act,” the account said, referring to France’s hate speech laws. “The Mayor of Paris will be passing statements that she believes potentially rise to the level of a violation of the law against public insult of a homophobic or transphobic nature to the Paris prosecutor’s office.”
“I really don’t care if Marion Maréchal Le Pen doesn’t agree that I should carry the Olympic flame,” Minima said in an Instagram story. “I’ll say it again: yes, I’m proud, and yes, Paris is proud that a drag queen will carry this flame and, therefore, the values of peace and of humanity.”
Minima will be one of several people who will carry the torch when the relay gets to Paris on July 14 and 15.
Maréchal has previously criticized the government based on rumors that French pop star Aya Nakamura, who is Black, was asked to perform at the opening ceremony. Nakamura was born in the West African nation of Mali and immigrated with her family when she was young to a working-class suburb of Paris, becoming a French citizen in 2021. Popular in France, her music is influenced by her African roots.
“The French don’t want to be represented in the eyes of the world by a singer whose style is influenced by the hood and Africa,” Maréchal said, according to an NPR translation. “This is a political move by [French President] Emmanuel Macron, who wants to tell the world that the face of France is multicultural, and we’re no longer a nation with Christian roots and European culture.”
Recent reports are claiming that several professional footballers plan to come out as gay on 17 May.
German newspaper Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung has reported that numerous national players plan to come out before the end of the Bundesliga, the professional football league in Germany.
The German outlet has quoted Marcus Urban as a source. Urban is a former footballer in Germany who came out after retiring. He was the second player worldwide to come out, only after British player Justin Fashanu in 1990. Fashanu was the only prominent player in pro English football to come out, until Jake Daniels in 2022.
Urban is a co-founder of Diversero, a global community for diversity that is said to be in contact with the relevant players.
“May 17th is an offer,” Urban told the German outlet. “A date that you could use as a guide and get together as a group.
Urban has shared that in a private group chat, there are active conversations surrounding this plan.
“There is controversy there. Do I still want to wait until the world of football becomes the way I want it to be? Why should I wait?”
“An interesting dynamic has come into play, you can see that people’s minds are starting to move and are thinking about whether it really makes sense to continue to hide and deny themselves.”
“There are also gay Bundesliga couples who are in hiding. That would be so liberating. What’s wrong with it?”
The collective coming out plan is reportedly named Sports Free. There is also said to be a documentary, named Hide and Seek, that will chronicle the stories of the players involved in this collective coming out.
“The footballers will see that they are just a small building block in a big game,” Urban remarked about the project.
Have there ever been any gay Premier League footballers?
To date, there haven’t yet been any out, gay footballers playing in the UK Premier League. Justin Fashanu didn’t play in the Premier League. He did have a trial for Newcastle United in 1991, but they were a second division team at the time.
That hasn’t stopped tabloids speculating, of course. The Sun claimed in November 2022 that two Premier League players in the same team “are in a relationship and open about being a gay couple”.
However, to date, the truth behind these rumours has not seen the light of day.
There is a stark contrast in terms of LGBTQ+ representation when men’s football is compared to women’s football. The latter is full of out LGBTQ+ female players, including Rachel Daly, who is currently dating her Aston Villa teammate Sarah Mayling: a defender.
Both the 2023 Women’s World Cup and Euro 2025 qualifiers are no exception, with a record number of publicly LGBTQ+ female footballers taking to the pitch.
Which professional male football players are out?
Josh Cavallo on the RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under judging panel. (World of Wonder)
The six active out, gay pro footballers include Jake Daniels. Daniels came out at age 17 in 2022 when he was playing for Blackpool.
“I want people to know the real me,” he declared at the time, noting his teammates had been supportive.
In Australia, there’s Josh Cavallo. Cavallo came out publicly as gay in 2021. He has been vocal about being sent death threats and homophobic abuse since his announcement, highlighting the state of LGBTQ+ acceptance in men’s football.
Also in Australia, Andy Brennan, an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a winger or striker for South Melbourne, became the first openly gay Australian male footballer.
As mentioned above, Zander Murray, Scotland’s first out gay professional footballer, has just retired. Murray, who played for Gala Fairydean Rovers FC, made headlines when he came out in 2022.
“I have achieved what I wanted to. I wanted to play in the league and I have done that. And I feel with what is happening off the pitch for me, I don’t really want to go on any further,” Murray stated about his retirement.
Another queer professional footballer using his voice to amplify LGBTQ+ topics in sport is 29-year-old Collin Martin, who plays for San Diego Loyal in the US. Martin, who came out in 2018, was at the time the only active male professional soccer player to be openly gay.
Speaking to PinkNews, Martin shared he was disappointed with FIFA over the Qatar World Cup over “the lack of representations in stadiums” and the “lack of allyship allowed from straight players willing to support the LGBTQ+ community”.
“It’s hard, and as much as there’s a lot of people who are pushing the sport in the right [direction], FIFA and Qatar have shown that they are still not willing to be a part of that conversation.”
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, or NAIA, which oversees more than 83,000 athletes at mostly smaller colleges, has rolled out a new policy that bans transgender women from competing in women’s sports, making it the first major college sports governing body in the U.S. to do so.
The policy states that only student athletes whose assigned sex at birth is female will be allowed to compete on NAIA-sponsored women’s sports teams. The organization’s Council of Presidents voted 20-0 to approve the policy on Monday, and it will take effect Aug. 1.
Under the new policy, transgender men and trans masculine students can compete on women’s teams if they haven’t started masculinizing hormone therapy. Those who have will also be barred from NAIA competition, but they can participate in workouts, practices and team activities for women’s teams. However, the NAIA policy states their participation is “at the discretion” of their college. All students, including trans men and trans women, will be allowed to compete on men’s teams, according to the policy.
The NAIA did not immediately return a request for comment. Jim Carr, the organization’s president and CEO, told The Associated Press that the policy was deemed best for member schools but also acknowledged that it will likely be seen as controversial.
“We know there are a lot of opinions, and a lot of people have a very emotional reaction to this, and we want to be respectful of all that,” Carr said. “But we feel like our primary responsibility is fairness in competition, so we are following that path. And we’ve tried as best we could to allow for some participation by all.”
The move makes the NAIA, which oversees more than 200 schools, the latest sports governing body to restrict the participation of transgender students as trans people’s participation in various aspects of public life has become increasingly politicized. Half of states have passed laws or regulations in recent years that restrict or completely bar trans students from competing on the elementary, middle, high school and/or college sports teams that align with their gender identities.
The NAIA had a transgender sports policy that was similar to the NCAA’s, the body that oversees collegiate athletics for more than 1,000 colleges and universities. Since 2011, the NCAA allowed trans women to compete on women’s sports teams if they underwent one year of testosterone suppression.
The NCAA changed that policy in January 2022, following controversy over Lia Thomas, a trans University of Pennsylvania swimmer who won a number of racesearly in her season and went on to win an NCAA championship. The NCAA adopted a sport-by-sport approach that determines eligibility based on guidelines set by the national or international governing body of each sport.
In response to the NCAA’s policy change, the NAIA formed a Transgender Task Force in April 2022.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, denounced the NAIA’s new policy Monday.
“Today, the NAIA decided to bar an entire category of people from competition simply because of a right-wing outrage campaign that purposefully misrepresents and distorts the realities of transgender athletes while doing nothing to support women’s sports,” Kelley Robinson, the organization’s president, said in a statement. “The benefits of sports to the mind, body, and spirit are well known. Every student, including transgender student athletes, deserve the opportunity to be a part of a team and to learn about sportsmanship, self-discipline, perseverance and more.”
Sasha Buchert, director of the Nonbinary and Transgender Rights Project at Lambda Legal, a national LGBTQ rights legal organization, went a step further, saying the NAIA’s new policy is “inconsistent with the law and science.”
“It is unconscionable that an organization that touts its ‘strong history of advocacy’ has chosen to use its power to smack down, rather than lift up these vulnerable athletes,” Buchert said in a statement.
Both Buchert and Robinson touted recent comments by South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley, who said before her team won the NCAA championship game on Sunday that she supports trans women’s inclusion on women’s sports teams.
“I’m on the opinion of, if you’re a woman you should play,” Staley told reporters Saturday. “If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports, or vice versa, you should be able to play. That’s my opinion.”
LGBTQ rights organizations have filed lawsuits against a number of states with laws restricting transgender student athlete participation, arguing that they violate Title IX, a federal law that protects students from sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools, and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
Carr, the NAIA president, said he believes the group’s new policy conforms with Title IX. “For us, we believed our first responsibility was to create fairness and competition in the NAIA,” he told CBS Sports. “We also think it aligns with the reasons Title IX was created. You’re allowed to have separate but equal opportunities for women to compete.”
So far, President Joe Biden’s administration has largely supported trans students’ access to sports teams that align with their gender identities, but more recently said it might allow some restrictions on their participation. In January 2021, the Education Department published a federal notice that it would interpret Title IX to protect LGBTQ students from discrimination.
Then, in April 2023, the department proposed a rule that would change Title IX to bar blanket prohibitions on trans students competing on sports teams that align with their gender identities. However, the measure would permit some restrictions in more elite levels of sports competition, such as high school and college. The department planned to finalize and release that rule in March, though there have been multiple delays.
The U.S. Women’s National Team Players Association issued a statement Tuesday in support of LGBTQ rights in the wake of a controversy over midfielder Korbin Albert’s social media posts.
The USWNTPA’s statement came in the hours before Albert appeared as a substitute for the national team in the SheBelieves Cup final against Canada. It was Albert’s second match with the team since the posts came to light. The statement did not mention Albert by name.
“The women’s soccer community is one of joy, excitement, kindness and love. We have worked to ensure our community is safe, inclusive and welcoming to everyone. As allies and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, those efforts will not stop,” the statement said.
“Across the country, human rights are being stripped away. LGBTQIA+ rights are human rights. Trans rights are human rights,” the statement continued. “Today and every day the USWNT Players will stand up for those rights.”
Alex Morgan and Lindsey Horan addressed the issue last week during camp. Morgan said it was handled internally.
“We stand by maintaining a safe and respectful space, especially as allies and members of the LGBTQ+ community. This platform has given us an opportunity to highlight causes that matter to us, something that we never take for granted. We’ll keep using this platform to give attention to causes,” Morgan said.
New York state officials may continue to take legal action against a county outside New York City that has banned transgender players from women’s and girls teams, a judge ruled Thursday.
U.S. District Court Judge Nusrat Choudhury denied Nassau County’s request for a temporary restraining order against state Attorney General Letitia James, saying the Long Island county “falls far short of meeting the high bar for securing the extraordinary relief.”
Among other things, Choudhury said the county failed to “demonstrate irreparable harm,” which she said was a “critical prerequisite” for such an order.
The ruling, however, doesn’t address the legality of the county’s ban or James’ request that the lawsuit be dismissed. Those issues will be decided at a later date.
Last month, James, a Democrat, issued a “cease and desist” letter to the county demanding it rescind the ban because she said it violates New York’s anti-discrimination laws. The ban also faces a legal challenge from a local women’s roller derby league, which has asked a state court to invalidate it.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, responded to James’ action with a federal lawsuit asking a judge to affirm that the ban was legal and to prevent James from taking action against it.
Blakeman’s February order, which affects more than 100 public facilities in the county just east of the New York City borough of Queens, states that any female sports organization that accepts transgender women or girls will be denied permits to use county-owned parks and fields.
Echoing the arguments of officials who have taken similar actions in other Republican-led cities and states, the county says women and girls will be discriminated against and their constitutional rights to equal protection will be violated if transgender athletes are allowed to compete alongside them.
James and Blakeman’s offices did not respond to emails seeking comment Thursday.
Cardiff has been chosen to host the EuroGames in 2027, marking the first time the LGBTQ+-inclusive event has been held in the UK.
LGBTQ+ sports development and inclusion organisation, Pride Sports Cymru, has been successful in ensuring that Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ sporting event would be staged in the Welsh capital.
The first EuroGames, governed by the European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation, was held in The Hague in The Netherlands in 1992 and this year’s event will be staged in the Austrian capital, Vienna, in July.
Up to 10,000 athletes, including transgender sportsmen and women, are expected to descend on Cardiff in 2027.
The chairperson of Cardiff Dragons – Wales’ first mixed gender LGBTQ+ football club – Charlotte Galloway told the BBC: “People are allowed to identify and play in their authentic gender. That means trans women can play in the women’s category and trans men can play in the men’s category.
“I think it’s really important that we’re able to do this because there’s no other competition this big in Europe that allows gender-non-conforming people, trans people and non-binary people to compete this way.”
It shows that sport is for everyone, she added.
Duncan Cameron, the chairperson of gay and inclusive rugby union club Cardiff Lions, said: “One of the greatest things about the EuroGames is that it’s open to anybody, no matter how they identify, no matter who you are.
“A lot of people don’t know that there are inclusive rugby teams or football teams [and lots of other] sports that are going to be highlighted. It’s a great chance for us to show what we can do on a national and global stage.”
And Neil Roberts, from LGBTQ+-inclusive badminton club the Cardiff Red Kites, responded to the news by saying the games could help “embed the culture that sport is something everyone should enjoy, regardless of who they are, who they love, what race or what background they come from”.
Meanwhile, Pride Sports director Lou Englefield said: “We’re delighted to be bringing a EuroGames to Wales. It is a huge privilege. [It’s] an opportunity to highlight Wales’ commitment to become the most LGBTQ+-friendly nation in Europe.”
Pride Sports team member Jess Williams, added: “A EuroGames in Wales will be transformative for LGBTQ+ people in sport, and indeed the whole community. The legacy the games will create, and opportunity for positive change, is enormous.”
The chief executive of the Welsh Sports Association, Andrew Howard, congratulated Pride Sports Cymru on its successful bid. “The event will undoubtedly prove a celebration and awe-inspiring showcase of inclusive sport, in a first for Cardiff and the UK,” he said.
They zip around the rink, armed with helmets, pads and mouthguards. They push, bump and occasionally crash out as they jostle for position on the hardwood floor.
But for the women of the Long Island Roller Rebels, their biggest battle is taking place outside the suburban strip-mall roller rink where they’re girding for the upcoming roller derby season.
The nearly 20-year-old amateur league is suing a county leader over an executive order meant to prevent women’s and girl’s leagues and teams with transgender players from using county-run parks and fields. The league’s legal effort, backed by the New York Civil Liberties Union, has thrust it into the national discussion over the rights of transgender athletes.
Amanda Urena, the league’s vice president, said there was never any question the group would take a stand.
“The whole point of derby has been to be this thing where people feel welcome,” said the 32-year-old Long Island native, who competes as “Curly Fry” and identifies as queer, at a recent practice at United Skates of America in Seaford. “We want trans women to know that we want you to come play with us, and we’ll do our very best to keep fighting and making sure that this is a safe space for you to play.”
Amanda “Curly Fry” Urena at United Skates of America in Seaford, N.Y., on March 19, 2023. Jeenah Moon / AP
Sports leagues and teams seeking permits to play or practice in county-run parks must disclose whether they have or allow transgender women or girls. Any organization that allows them to play will be denied a permit, though men’s leagues and teams aren’t affected.
Bills restricting trans youths’ ability to participate in sports have already passed in some 24 states as part of an explosion of anti-trans legislation on many subjects in recent years. The largest school district in Manhattan is among localities also weighing a ban, following a school board vote last week.
The Roller Rebels sought a county permit this month in hopes of hosting practices and games in county-owned rinks in the upcoming season, as they have in prior years. But they expect to be denied, since the organization is open to anyone who identifies as a woman and has one transgender player already on the roster.
The ban will also make it hard for the league, which has two teams and about 25 players, to recruit and will hurt its ability to host competitions with other leagues, Urena said.
State Attorney General Letitia James has demanded the county rescind the ban, saying it violates state anti-discrimination laws, while Blakeman has asked a federal judge to uphold it.
That a roller derby league has become the face of opposition isn’t surprising: the sport has long been a haven for queer and transgender women, said Margot Atwell, who played in a women’s league in New York City and wrote “Derby Life,” a book about roller derby.
The sport, which dates at least to the 1930s and enjoyed its heyday in the 1970s, involves two teams racing around a track as their designated “jammer” attempts to score points by lapping the other skaters, who are allowed to use their hips, chests and shoulders to slow them down.
The latest revival started in the early 2000s and has been sustained by LGBTQ+ people, with leagues frequently taking part in Pride parades and holding fundraising matches, Atwell said.
“You come in here and you say, ‘I’m a trans woman. I’m a nonbinary person. I’m genderqueer.’ OK? We accept you,” said Caitlin Carroll, a Roller Rebel who competes as “Catastrophic Danger.” “The world is scary enough. You should have a safe place to be.”
Blakeman has said he wants to ensure female athletes can compete safely and fairly. He held a news conference last week with Caitlyn Jenner, who won Olympic gold in the men’s decathlon in 1976 and later underwent a gender transition. Jenner, a Republican who’s frequently at political odds with the greater transgender community, has endorsed the ban.
Blakeman, a Republican who was elected in 2021, has said constituents asked his office to act. But many critics dismiss the ban as political posturing, noting he has acknowledged there have been no local complaints involving transgender players on women’s teams.
“This is a solution in search of a problem,” said Emily Santosus, a 48-year old transgender woman on Long Island who hopes to join a women’s softball team. “We’re not bullies. We’re the ones that get bullied.”
The ones who will suffer most aren’t elite athletes, but children still trying to navigate their gender identities, added Grace McKenzie, a transgender woman who plays for the New York Rugby Club’s women’s team.
Members of the Long Island Roller Rebels during practice at United Skates of America in Seaford, N.Y., on March 19, 2023.Jeenah Moon / AP
“Cruel is the only word that I can use to describe it,” the 30-year-old Brooklyn resident said. “Kids are using sports at that age to build relationships, make friendships, develop teamwork skills, leadership skills and, frankly, just help shield them from all the hate they face as transgender kids already.”
In the larger discussion about trans women in sports, each side points to limited research to support their opinion. And bans often do not distinguish between girls and women who took puberty blockers as part of their transition — stunting the development of a male-typical physique — and those who didn’t, something one New York advocate pointed out.
The order in Nassau County puts some younger trans girls at greater risk by potentially pitting them against boys instead, said Juli Grey-Owens, leader of Gender Equality New York.
“They are not hitting puberty, so they’re not growing, they’re not getting that body strength, the endurance, the agility, the big feet, the large legs,” Grey-Owens said.
The ban could even lead to cisgender female athletes who are strong and muscular being falsely labeled transgender and disqualified, as has happened elsewhere, said Shane Diamond, a transgender man who plays recreational LGBTQ+ ice hockey in New York City.
“It creates a system where any young woman who doesn’t fit the stereotypical idea of femininity and womanhood is at risk of having her gender questioned or gender policed,” Diamond said.
A 2022 Washington Post-University of Maryland Poll found that 55% of Americans were opposed to allowing trans women and girls to compete with other women and girls in high school sports, and 58% opposed it for college and pro sports.
Two cisgender female athletes said after listening to Jenner that men are stronger than women, so it will never be fair if transgender women and girls are allowed to compete.
“There is a chance I would get hurt in those situations,” said Trinity Reed, 21, who plays lacrosse at Nassau County’s Hofstra University.
Mia Babino, 18, plays field hockey at the State University of New York at Cortland and plans to transfer to Nassau County’s Molloy University.
“We’ve worked very hard to get to where we are and to play at a college level,” she said.
But that attitude runs against everything athletic competition stands for, and it sells women and their potential short, countered Urena, of the Roller Rebels.
“If people gave up playing sports because they thought they were going to lose, we wouldn’t have a sports industry,” they said. “I love playing against people that are faster and stronger because that’s how I get better.”
Dutch darts sensation Noa-Lyn van Leuven is facing backlash after historic back-to-back victories against both men and women in the same week.
Last week, the 27-year-old won the mixed PDC Challenge Tour in Germany, defeating several past male winners. She’s the first woman to win an event in the series, one level below the sport’s top tier.
Van Leuven then played a women’s event in the UK on Saturday, defeating two highly placed veteran players, including the current No. 1 woman, Beau Greaves. After that quarter-final victory, van Leuven went on to dispatch Ireland’s Katie Sheldon in the final.
Controversy has since courted van Leuven’s historic wins.
“No male bodies in women’s sports please, not even in darts,” out tennis legend Martina Navratilova, a vocal opponent of trans inclusion in women’s sports, wrote on X. “Again, women get the short end of the stick and it stinks.”
Two of van Leuven’s teammates, Anca Zijlstra and Aileen de Graaf, quit over her presence on the Dutch squad, citing disagreement over rules around trans inclusion.
“That moment when you’re embarrassed to come out for the Dutch team, because a biological man is playing on the women’s team, it’s time to go,” Zijlstra posted to Facebook. “I have tried to accept this but I can’t approve or validate this.”
“In sports, there should be an equal and fair playing field,” Zijlstra added. “I hope with all my heart and for all women in sports that people come to their senses.”
De Graff said van Leuven was free to “change and be happy,” but explained, “I just don’t think it’s right for a biological man to throw for the women or vice-versa. It’s either mixed or not.”
Trans journalist and activist Erin Reed wasn’t convinced a trans woman could have any advantage in the sport.
“Transgender women have a biological advantage at… Darts? That’s what is being claimed by a few people who are trying to get Noa-Lynn Van Leuven removed from a women’s darts team. There is no evidence transgender women are better at angles and throwing a dart.”
Van Leuven had little to say about the controversy, except to remind fellow players and keyboard warriors she has more in common with them than they’d like to admit.
“I think the only unfortunate thing about this issue is that a lot of people forget that I am also a human being.”
Following her mixed event win, van Leuven told OutSports she’s about to announce a new sponsor, and she’s looking forward to more appearances at upcoming televised tournaments.
She’s described the mostly online debate about her darts success as “insane” but says it’s not getting in her way.
“I just go out and do the thing I love. It gives me joy.”
Pro baseball, including Major League Baseball, has been played for about 175 years in the U.S. and during that time there have been only three gay or bi players in MLB who have come out, and nine in the minor leagues, including one woman.
It’s a weak legacy for a sport that did not accept Black players until 1947 and has always had a more conservative bent institutionally, so no one should have expected the sport to be welcoming to openly gay players. In contrast, the NFL has had 16 players who came out, including one who did so while active.
Yet progress has been made — many of the names on this list came out in the last 15 years, showing a growing acceptance. Six of these players, all in the minors, were out while still playing. There have also been out prominent front-office executives who have pushed inclusion. Yet the big victory will be having the first out active MLB player, something that has not yet happened.
As the 2024 season starts, here are the Major League Baseball and minor league players who have come out as gay or bi.
Get off the sidelines and into the game
Our weekly playbook is packed with everything from locker room chatter to pressing LGBTQ sports issues.
MLB
Glenn Burke (Outfielder: Los Angles Dodgers, Oakland A’s, 1976-79) As I wrote back in 2010: What’s remarkable about Burke is how out he was in the 1970s. Not in a “Hey world, I’m gay” way, but in the sense that his teammates knew as did the management of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Burke’s first team, and eventually fans who would taunt him from the outfield bleachers in Oakland by calling him a “fag.” A memorable moment came when the Dodgers — trying to stifle rumors that a popular player was gay — offered Burke $75,000 to get married. His reply: “I guess you mean to a woman?”
There is some debate as to whether Burke was an “out active player,” but Outsports has never considered him so, though that was not necessarily his doing. His teammates knew he was gay since he made little attempt to hide who he was, and fans suspected, but Burke did not publicly talk about being gay until 1982, after he had retired.
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In fact, Allen Barra, writing in the Atlantic in 2013, said of Burke: “His story was greeted by the rest of the news media and the baseball establishment, including Burke’s former teammates and baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, with silence. Even his superb autobiography, ‘Out at Home,’ which published the year he died, failed to stir open conversation about homosexuality in sports. Practically no one in the sports-writing community would acknowledge that Burke was gay or report stories that followed up on his admission.”
Burke is credited with inventing the high-five along with then-Dodgers teammate Dusty Baker. Burke died from AIDS complications in 1995.
Billy Bean (Outfielder, first baseman: Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, 1987-95) Bean was closeted during his Major League Baseball career and did not come out until 1999. Since then, though, he has been a forceful advocate for LGBTQ inclusion, especially since he joined the MLB front office.
TJ House(Pitcher: Cleveland Indians, Toronto Blue Jays, 2014-17) House came out on Dec. 8, 2022, after attending a White House ceremony where President Biden signed the “Respect for Marriage Act” and where House announced his engagement.
“Today’s passage of the Respect for Marriage Act protects us to have the same rights and opportunities that each of you have,” House wrote on Facebook. “It protects the same benefits. It makes us equal to you. It allows Ryan Neitzel and I to come together and create something beautiful. It gives me the confidence to get engaged to the person I love (he said Yes!), to marry them. I have a wonderful fiance, who challenges me daily to become a better person. To live life authentically. One who I never deserved but blessed to have. Love you see, it’s for everyone.”
Minor leagues
Anderson Comas (Pitcher, 2017-23) Comas came out in 2023, writing: “I’m proudly and happily part of the LGTBQ+ community. I’m also a human with a great soul, I’m respectful, I’m a lover, I love my family and friends and that’s what really matters, I enjoy my work a lot, being a professional baseball player is the best thing that happened to me so I just wanna say something to those people that says that gay people can not be someone in this life, well look at me I’m Gay and I’m a professional athlete.”
Solomon Bates (Pitcher, 2016-23) Bates came out to his teammates in 2019 and publicly in 2022. “I haven’t been out as my complete self because I’ve been hiding myself,” he said. “I’m a masculine man who loves the sport of baseball, and now I want to open up doors for gay athletes like me.”
“I was also one of the unfortunate closeted gay athletes who experienced years of homophobia in the sport I loved,” he wrote. “I was able to take most of it with a grain of salt but towards the end of my career I could tell it was affecting my relationships with people, my performance, and my overall happiness.
“I experienced both coaches and players make remarks … during my time in baseball, and each comment felt like a knife to my heart. I was miserable in a sport that used to give me life, and ultimately I decided I needed to hang up my cleats for my own sanity.”
Sean Conroy (Pitcher, 2015-16) On June 25, 2015, Sean Conroy, a pitcher for the minor league Sonoma Stompers in California, made history by becoming the first openly gay active professional baseball player. This led the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., to display the lineup card and scorecard from the game.
“It’s very humbling and completely unexpected,” Conroy told the Hall of Fame. All of Conroy’s teammates signed the lineup card,
Related
Jason Burch (Pitcher, 2003-08) Burch played for four minor league teams and told teammates he was gay if they asked. His one regret was not coming out publicly while active.
“Looking back, I wish I had told the whole world that I’m gay from Day 1,” he told Outsports. “That feeling of being relied upon, that people must turn to you as a closer to make things right, to have that role – and to have people have that feeling about me in that role – as a gay man, I think that would have been a powerful message. If we are talking about changing people’s opinions, I do think that would have been a powerful message. But I wasn’t really thinking about that at the time.”
“I made some off-hand comment and one of my teammates was just like, ‘So what do you identify as? Because you’re not straight, are you?’” Lovegrove said. “And I was like, ‘No, I’m not. I’m bisexual. I appreciate you asking.’ And everyone was just like, ‘Oh, cool! OK! Cool!’”
“Then we had nine hours left on the bus ride. And from that point, everyone just sort of embraced that as a fact of my life and didn’t treat me any differently because of it.”
Bryan Ruby (Infielder) Ruby played in six foreign countries and in a U.S. independent league and came out in 2021. He is also a co-founder of Proud To Be In Baseball, an advocacy and support group focused on elevating LGBTQ inclusion in the sport. He is also an accomplished musician based in Nashville.
Ila Borders (Pitcher, 1997-2000) Borders was the first woman to earn a scholarship in collegiate men’s baseball and a pitcher in the independent minor leagues in the late 1990s. Borders’ girlfriend is Sherri Murrell, at one time the first out gay coach in women’s Division I basketball.
Outsports writer Ken Schultz contributed to this report.
