Athlete

NASA Astronaut

b. June 7, 1979

“There are no average days or normal days in outer space.”

Anne McClain is a former NASA astronaut and U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who served as flight engineer for Expeditions 58/59 to the International Space Station. She is the second LGBTQ person to become an American astronaut.

Born and raised in Spokane, Washington, McClain dreamed of becoming an astronaut from an early age. She graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a degree in mechanical and aeronautical engineering. She earned a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Bath and a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Bristol, where she was a Marshall Scholar. A competitive athlete, she played rugby for the Women’s Premiership in England and for the U.S.A. Rugby Women’s National Team.

Following her studies, McClain joined the U.S. Army as a helicopter pilot, rising through the ranks to detachment commander. She served 15 months in Operation Iraqi Freedom, flying more than 216 combat missions as pilot-in-command. In 2010 McClain was appointed commander of C Troop, 1st Battalion, 14th Aviation Regiment, responsible for the Army’s initial entry training, instructor pilot training and maintenance test pilot training in the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior. During her military service, she logged more than 2,000 flight hours in 20 different aircraft.

In 2013 McClain was selected as one of eight members of the 21^st NASA astronaut class, becoming the youngest astronaut on NASA’s roster. The selection made her the second gay American astronaut after Sally Ride and the first out active NASA astronaut. In 2015 McClain completed the rigorous candidate training process, including scientific and technical training, physiological training, intensive instruction in International Space Station systems, spacewalks and robotics, T-38 flight training, and water and wilderness survival training.

From December 2018 to June 2019, McClain served as flight engineer on NASA Expedition 58/59 to the International Space Station. The flight launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard the Soyuz spacecraft. McClain was one of three crew members on the expedition, along with Canadian David Saint-Jacques and Russian Oleg Kononenko. McClain and the crew contributed to hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and earth science, including investigations into small devices that replicate the structure and function of human organs, editing DNA in space for the first time, and recycling 3D-printed material. McClain conducted two spacewalks totaling 13 hours and 8 minutes. She returned to earth after spending 204 days in space.

McClain resides in Houston, Texas. She has a six-year-old son, Briggs.

World Champion Boxer

b. February 3, 1938
d. June 23, 2013

“I kill a man and most people forgive me … I love a man … this makes me an evil person.”

Emile Griffith was an American professional boxer who won five world boxing championships. He fought more world championships than any other prizefighter.

Griffith was born in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. One of eight children raised by a single mother, he moved to New York City as a child. While working as a 14-year-old in the heat of a garment factory, Griffith asked his boss if he could remove his shirt. His boss noticed Griffith’s athletic physique and introduced him to Gil Clancy, the famed boxing trainer.

Griffith officially entered professional boxing in 1958, winning the Golden Gloves open championship the same year. Three years later, he won the welterweight championship, defeating acclaimed fighter Benny “Kid” Paret with a 13^th-round knockout.

Griffith faced Paret in a nationally televised rematch in 1962 at Madison Square Garden. It was their third encounter. At a weigh-in, Paret taunted Griffith with a homophobic slur, angering Griffith. Although it was not publicly known, Griffith had sexual relationships with men as well as women. In the 12^th round of the fight, Griffith pummeled Paret with more than two dozen blows, rendering Paret unconscious. Paret died in the hospital 10 days later. An investigation by the state of New York subsequently cleared Griffith of blame.

Haunted by guilt over Paret’s accidental death, Griffith claimed he was never again as aggressive in the ring. Despite this, he went on to fight 10 world championships—more than any other fighter in history—during his nearly 20-year career. He held a lifetime record of 85 wins with 23 knockouts, 24 losses and 2 draws. He headlined at Madison Square Garden 23 times.

In 1971 Griffith married a dancer, Mercedes Donastorg. The union lasted less than two years, although he adopted Donastorg's daughter. After he retired from boxing, Griffith worked briefly as a corrections officer at a juvenile facility in New Jersey. There he met his longtime companion, Luis Rodrigo, whom he publicly called his adopted son.

Griffith straddled the hypermasculine professional boxing world and the Manhattan gay club scene for most of his life. In 1992 he was brutally beaten by a gang after leaving a gay bar in downtown New York. The attack left him near death from kidney failure. He spent four months in the hospital recovering.

In 1990 Griffith was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame and the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He was the subject of the documentary “Ring of Fire” in 2005. Griffith died from complications of boxer’s dementia at the age of 75. The New York Times published his obituary.

Golf Legend

b. June 26, 1911
d. September 27, 1956

“My goal was to be the greatest athlete who ever lived.”

Recognized as one of the greatest athletes of all time, Mildred Ella “Babe” Didrikson earned Olympic gold in track and field, starred in basketball and baseball, and won 10 major Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) championships.

The sixth of seven children, Didrikson was born in Port Arthur, Texas, and grew up in Beaumont. Her parents emigrated from Norway. As a child, Didrikson earned the nickname “Babe,” after Babe Ruth, for her reputation as a baseball slugger. In high school she competed in track and field and basketball, then left to play basketball for the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU).

Didrikson competed in track and field at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. She won two gold medals—one in the 80-meter hurdles and one in the javelin throw, setting world records in each—and a silver medal in the high jump. She is the only athlete to win Olympic medals in running, throwing and jumping events.

Between 1932 and 1935, Didrikson played baseball for the New Orleans Pelicans and the St. Louis Cardinals.
 
Around the same time, she took up golf, the sport that earned her the greatest recognition. She won the U.S. Women’s Amateur tournament in 1946 and became the first American to win the British Ladies Amateur Tournament in 1947, the year she turned pro.

By 1950 Didrikson had won virtually every existing golf tournament or title, including the 1948 U.S. Women’s Open. She became a founding member of the LPGA.

Didrikson was inducted into LPGA Hall of Fame in 1951 and the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1976. The Associated Press named her Female Athlete of the Year six times between 1932 and 1954 and Female Athlete of the Half Century in 1950.
 
Though the press and public lauded her ability, she was often belittled for her “mannish” appearance. Perhaps as a reaction, Didrikson married George Zaharias, a professional wrestler, in 1938. Didrikson had a long, intimate relationship with fellow golfer Betty Dodd, whom she toured with on the golf circuit. During the last six years of Didrikson’s life, Dodd moved in with her and Zaharias.

In addition to her athletic prowess, Didrikson’s talents included competitive sewing, pocket billiards, and singing and playing harmonica in her own successful vaudeville show. “Babe,” a 1975 television biopic on Didrikson, won a Golden Globe Award. The Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum and Visitor Center in Beaumont, Texas, houses her Olympic medals, golf clubs and other memorabilia.

Didrikson died of colon cancer at the age of 45.

Olympic Figure Skater 

b. November 11, 1989

“I thought of everything I had been through as a young kid to get to that moment, and to feel confident, and to feel that I really liked who I was.”

Adam Rippon is an Olympic figure skater and an advocate for LGBT rights. In 2018 he became the first openly gay American athlete to win a medal at the Winter Olympics. At 28 he also became the oldest first-time Olympic skater to compete for the U.S. in more than 80 years. 

Rippon was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the eldest of six children. He started skating at age 10. The renowned coach Yelena Sergeeva trained him for seven years, beginning when he was 11. 

At the 2005 U.S. Championships, 16-year-old Rippon won the silver medal at the Novice level. He went on to win the 2007-08 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final, the 2008 and 2009 World Junior Championships and the 2016 U.S. Championships. 

Rippon came out publicly in the October 2015 issue of Skating Magazine. He was one of three male figure skaters selected to represent the United States at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.   

A month before the games, Rippon received a flurry of media attention for denouncing Vice President Mike Pence for his anti-LGBT positions. Rippon publicly opposed the selection of the vice president to lead the U.S. delegation to South Korea. He declined to join his American teammates in meeting Mr. Pence before the opening ceremonies.

In Pyeongchang, Rippon became a crowd favorite. He used Instagram and Twitter to connect with fans and demonstrate his playful, biting wit. His impeccable performance helped the United States capture the bronze in the men’s figure skating team event. 

Rippon emerged from the Winter Olympics a celebrity. TIME magazine named him to its list of 100 Most Influential People in 2018. Cher contributed to the TIME feature on Rippon. She wrote, “Adam is a skater who happens to be gay, and that represents something wonderful to young people.” 

Rippon’s Olympic achievements and LGBT advocacy have earned him interviews with numerous media outlets, including Out Magazine, The New York Times, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.”

In May 2018 Rippon competed in the 26th season of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” He became the first openly gay man to win. 

Rippon performs in the “Stars on Ice” tour. He lives with his boyfriend, Jussi-Pekka Kajaala

Long-distance Swimmer

b. August 22, 1949

“All of us suffer difficulties in our lives. And if you say to yourself ‘find a way,’ you’ll make it through.”

Diana Nyad is a record-breaking American endurance swimmer. In 2013 at the age of 64, she became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage. It took more than 50 hours.

Nyad was born in New York City. Her family traveled internationally and she speaks four languages fluently.

Nyad began swimming competitively in seventh grade. Later in life, she publicly accused her high school coach, an Olympian and Hall of Famer, of molesting her—an experience that has haunted her. Although high school was a turbulent time, Nyad became a champion and was well on her way to the Olympics. Her dreams ended when a heart infection prevented her from competing. 

Nyad went back to the sport in college where she began long-distance swimming with a vengeance. “I was swimming every stroke with anger at that man and that sexual abuse,” she told Out magazine. Nyad realized she was a lesbian and came out when she was 21. 

Nyad set the women’s world record during her first long-distance race in 1970. She gained public attention when she swam around Manhattan in 1975 and again when she swam from North Bimini in the Bahamas to Juno Beach in Florida. Her first attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida, in 1978, was interrupted by dangerous winds. It took five more tries before she made history.

In the 1980s Nyad became a sportscaster for a series of major networks. She hosted her own show on CNBC along with travel documentaries and other programs. She became a longtime contributor to several public radio programs, including the “The Savvy Traveler,” which she hosted. 

Nyad has contributed to The New York Times, Newsweek and other major publications. She is a popular motivational speaker and cofounded BravaBody—a company that provides online fitness advice to women over 40.

Nyad has written several books chronicling her life in and out of the water. In her 2015 book, “Find a Way: One Wild and Precious Life," she discusses what she has learned from swimming.  She is the subject of two documentaries, “Diana” and “The Other Shore.” 

Nyad was inducted into the National Women’s Sports Hall of Fame and the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame and is an International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame honoree. A bronze plaque hangs at Smathers Beach, Florida, the finishing point of her 2013 swim from Cuba.

Basketball Coach

b. October 17, 1967

“Just because I’m a gay coach doesn’t mean I’m going to have gay players … or turn my players gay.”

Sherri Murrell is the head coach of the Washington State University Cougars. She became the only openly lesbian coach in Division I women’s college basketball. 

Born in Oregon, Murrell started playing basketball early. By the fifth grade, she was a star player. She attended Catholic school, where she was a starter for a team that won the 1985 Oregon state championship.

She attended Pepperdine University, graduating with a degree in public relations. In college Murrell played point guard, earning All-West Coast Conference honors in 1990. She became a graduate assistant coach before moving to California University. Murrell also played two years of basketball at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette. 

Murrell coached at several universities in the Pacific Northwest, compiling an impressive record of winning games and recruiting talented athletes. At George Fox University, she was twice named the Cascade Conference Coach of the Year and led the team into the NAIA Top 25 for the first time in the school’s history. At Portland State, she reached the 50-win plateau by her 75th game, making her the fastest coach—men or women's—in the school’s basketball history to do so.

In 2002 Murrell joined Washington State University. The next year she became a member of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association and the Kodak All-American Team Selection Committee.

As the WSU coach, Murrell saw home game attendance rise more than 86 percent. She is credited with recruiting Kate Benz, who became the first player in WSU history to lead the Pacific 10 Conference in rebounding. 

Controversy arose for Murrell when a family photo of her and her partner, Rena Shuman, and their twins was included in the Cougar’s 2009 media guide. Although Murrell was already out to people she knew, it was the first time a coach of her stature had publicly come out in the United States. 

“There are a lot of coaches out there that want to do this,” Murrell said in an interview. “But they’re just so afraid.’” 

Murrell spoke at the Nike campus about her experiences and appeared in the 2009 documentary “Training Rules” about Penn State coach Rene Portland’s “no lesbians” team policy. Murrell advocates for more coaches and players to come out at every level of sports. “The more that you have gay coaches being O.K. with who they are,” she said, “then you’re not going to have the negative recruiting.”

Tennis Champion

b. February 10, 1893
d. June 5, 1953

“Never change a winning game; always change a losing one.”

Bill Tilden is considered one of the greatest men’s tennis champions in history. He was the No. 1 player in the world for six years, from 1920 to 1925. During that time, he became the first American to win Wimbledon.

Born to privilege in Philadelphia, he first picked up a racket as a small child. By the time he was 22, he had lost both parents and his brother. Struggling with immense grief, he preoccupied himself with tennis, which became his primary means of recovery. He wrote about the game in several noteworthy books, including “Match Play and the Spin of the Ball.” By 27, he had attained championship status.

Tilden’s countless wins include 14 major singles titles: a World Hard Court Championship, 10 Grand Slams and three Pro Slams. He also won a record seven U.S. Championships. His all-time tennis achievements include a career match-winning record and winning percentage at the U.S. National Championships. 

Tilden won his third and final Wimbledon in 1930 at age 37, before turning pro. He was the oldest man to win a Wimbledon singles title. He went on to tour and was notorious for holding his own against much younger players. When Tilden was 52, he and his longtime doubles partner, Vinnie Richards, won the professional doubles championship—the same title they had won 27 years earlier.

Tilden was considered quite flamboyant. He dabbled in acting on stage and in film, and rumors about his homosexuality circulated. When he was arrested and imprisoned twice for sexual misbehavior with teenage boys, his world collapsed. He was shunned by his fans and fellow players and banned from teaching tennis at most clubs. Questions remain about whether he was targeted because of his sexuality. At the time, homosexual sex was illegal.

In 1959, Tilden was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island.

Football Player

b. January 7, 1990

“I’m not afraid to tell the world who I am.”

In 2014 Michael Sam became the first openly gay player drafted by the NFL. The defensive end was drafted by the St. Louis Rams and spent time on the Dallas Cowboys practice squad. He signed with the Montreal Alouettes in 2015, but stepped away from the team just months later, citing “personal reasons.”  

The native Texan overcame a difficult childhood, living at one point in his mother’s car. Sam showed talent for football in high school, where he played both defensive and offensive tackle. He was offered several scholarships and chose to attend the University of Missouri to play for the Tigers. He is the first of his family to attend college. 

Sam was named first-team All-American by the Walter Camp Football Foundation and was a semifinalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award. In 2014 he helped Missouri beat Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl Classic. 

When Sam was drafted into the NFL, his emotional reaction was broadcast on national television, during which he kissed his boyfriend. President Barack Obama congratulated him, along with the Rams and the NFL, for “taking an important step forward today in our nation’s journey.” Sam’s name and number 96 became the sixth-best-selling jersey in the NFL that season. 

In 2015, when Sam signed a two-year contract with the Montreal Alouettes, it made him the first openly gay player in the Canadian Football League (CFL). In 2015 he also competed on the 20th season of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.”

Sam has received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award and was named GQ’s Man of the Year. He was a finalist for Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year.

Basketball Player

b. December 2, 1978

“I want to do the right thing and not hide anymore.”

Jason Collins is a retired professional American basketball player who played for 13 seasons with the NBA. During the 2012-13 season, Collins came out in Sports Illustrated before signing with the New Jersey Nets, making him the first openly gay athlete to play on any professional sports team in North America.

“If I had my way, someone else would have already done this,” he said when he came out. “Nobody has, which is why I’m raising my hand.”

During his career, Collins played for the Houston Rockets, the Memphis Grizzlies, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Atlanta Hawks, the Boston Celtics, the Washington Wizards and the Brooklyn Nets before retiring in 2014. He wore number 98 on his jersey in honor of Matthew Shepard, the young gay man who was murdered in 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming. Collins’s jersey broke records at the NBA Store; it became a best seller with the proceeds of signed jerseys benefiting the Matthew Shepard Foundation and the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN).

In 2013 Collins was inducted into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame. The following year, he was featured on the cover of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Collins was born in California. He has a twin brother who is also an athlete.

Olympic Soccer Player

b. July 5, 1985, Redding, California

“Your personal life is less about people having to know about your sexuality than standing up for what’s right and fighting for equality.”

In 2012 professional soccer player Megan Rapinoe came out publicly two weeks before she was to play for the women’s soccer team in the London Olympics. “I feel like sports in general are still homophobic in the sense that not a lot of people are out,” she said. “I feel everyone is really craving [for] people to come out. People want—they need—to see that there are people like me playing soccer for the good ol’ U.S. of A.”

Being closeted made Rapinoe feel inauthentic. It was her desire to do the right thing, to “stand up for what’s right and to fight for equality.” She said that when she came out she became a better player. In the Olympic Games, she scored three goals and logged four assists, helping her team win the gold medal.

“I’d like to help create more tolerance and acceptance across the board,” Rapinoe asserted. That means more people talking about it, more people coming out and, at the end of the day, making less of a massive deal about being gay. I’d like to see homosexuality become something that’s just normal to everyone.”