Advancing LGBT Athletics Through Women's Sports

It has taken too long, way too long. Opportunities in women's sports has seen expotential growth over the past 30-40 years with legislation such as Title IX affecting major colleges and universities, and leagues and tours seeing their inaugural seasons blossom such as with the Women's Tennis Tour, WNBA, and NWSL. All have given rise to a greater sense of gender equity in sport, but have not nearly reached the equality ticker that should exist on both sides of the spectrum. What the birth of women's sports has also offered are opportunities for LGBT athletes to be themselves.

Before Title IX came to be, only 1-in-27 high school girls participated in athletics. Females in college athletic departments nationwide received only 2% of overall departmental funding. Well, many would say that is a severe breach of equality, and yes it surely was. It is getting better, but STILL male sports receive the majority of funding in NCAA Division I athletic departments. The WNBA is perhaps the leading professional women's sports league in terms of popularity and notiriety, but still lags far behind its male counterpart in the NBA in the forms of sponsorshop dollars, attendance, salaries and media coverage. As Tamika Catchings describes, the difference between one biological chromosome can mean a $20 million pay differential.

Ok, yes there are still inequities between women's and men's athletics, but there also has been a huge road towards positive growth and acceptance. Now, lesbian athletes can be more proud and open about their sexual identity than ever before. Women are seen as strong, motivated and successful rather than the dainty, weak and domesticated. Heck, the first female in a major sport to come out did not have to wait until 2013, as it did for Jason Collins of the NBA.

Also, transgender athletes now have a home if transitioning from male-to-female. Where would they have gone previously if women's intercollegiate athletics did not exist or the WNBA or National Women's Soccer League were mere ghosts? Nowhere is the answer, and now transgender peoples can contiunue to succeed on the athletic stage.

Even for gay males, women's leagues have helped demand a sports environment that accepts diversity. If gender barriers were broken, certainly sexual orientation and gender expression ones can be eradicated as well. Women's sports have done much more for LGBT athletes than most will ever be aware of. Applause well deserved.