The homosexual sports community in the United States has one of the highest levels of acceptance and support in the world [1] [2] [3] and is rapidly growing as of 2020. [4] [5] General public opinion and jurisprudence regarding homosexuality in the United States has become significantly more accepting since the late 1980s; [6] [7] for example, by the early 2020s, an overwhelming majority of Americans approved of the legality of same-sex marriages. [6]
In regard to sports in the United States, in 2002 researcher Eric Anderson found "more openly gay runners and swimmers than football and baseball players." [8] He then hypothesized that this occurred because gay men likely abandoned some sports in favor of sports that were more accepting of homosexuality. [8] In 2006, a Sports Illustrated poll of roughly 1,400 professional athletes found that a majority would be willing to accept a gay teammate. As well, professional ice hockey (NHL) athletes seemed to be the most accepting of such teammates as 80% of its players approved of having a gay teammate. [8]
In 1996, Muffin Spencer-Devlin became the first LPGA player to come out as gay. [9]
In 2018, Tadd Fujikawa came out as gay, becoming the first male professional golfer to do so. [10] [11]
In 2018, Todd Harrity came out as gay, thus becoming the first openly gay professional male squash player in the world. At the time he was ranked No. 1 in the United States out of all male squash players. [12] [13]
American tennis player Billie Jean King acknowledged her relationship with Marilyn Barnett when it became public in a May 1981 palimony lawsuit filed by Barnett, making Billie Jean the first prominent female professional athlete in the world to come out. [14]
Glenn Burke was the first Major League Baseball (MLB) player to come out as gay, announcing it in 1982 after he retired. [15]
Umpire Dale Scott came out as gay in 2014, becoming the first active openly gay official in the MLB, NBA, NFL or NHL. [16]
In 2002, Sue Wicks came out as gay, making her the first openly gay person playing in the WNBA. [17] Many female players have since come out as gay; for example, Sheryl Swoopes came out in 2005, Brittney Griner came out in 2013, and Elena Delle Donne came out in 2016. [18] However, Swoopes later married a man. [19]
In 2013, Jason Collins publicly came out as gay. [20] President Barack Obama contacted him offering his support. [21] In 2014, Jason Collins played for the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA, making him the first openly gay athlete to play in any of the four major North American professional sports leagues. [22] [23] [24]
In 2002, the National Gay Flag Football League was founded. [25]
In 1975, former football player David Kopay became the first professional athlete from a major team to come out. [26]
Football player Alissa Wykes of the Philadelphia Liberty Belles became one of the first active American athletes to publicly come out as gay when she announced that she was a lesbian in an article in the December 2001/January 2002 edition of Sports Illustrated for Women . [27] [28] [29]
In the 2014 NFL draft, the St. Louis Rams drafted Michael Sam in the seventh round, the 249th of 256 players selected, [30] which made him the first openly gay player to be drafted into the NFL. [31] [32] However, on August 30, St. Louis released Sam as part of a final round of cuts to reduce their roster to the league-mandated 53 players before the start of the regular season. [33] [34]
In June 2021, Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib came out as gay via Instagram, making him the first openly gay active player in the NFL. [35] [36] He later became the first openly gay player in an NFL playoff game on January 15, 2022. [37] [38]
In 1985, the Los Angeles Blades was organized as the first gay hockey team in the United States. [39]
In 2021, Canadian Luke Prokop, who was drafted by the Nashville Predators in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, became the first active player signed to a National Hockey League contract to come out as gay. [40] [41] [42] On November 17, 2023, Prokop became the first openly gay player in the American Hockey League's history, by making his first appearance in a game as a player for the Milwaukee Admirals. [43]
In 1998, the Washington Renegades RFC was formed as the first gay rugby team in the United States. [44]
In 2013, Robbie Rogers publicly came out as gay. [20] President Barack Obama contacted him offering his support. [21] Thierry Henry, at the time playing in Major League Soccer, was quoted in a column for New York Daily News as saying "he (Rogers) is a human being, first of all. And that’s good enough." [21] Later in 2013, Robbie Rogers became the first openly gay man to compete in a top North American professional sports league when he played his first match for the LA Galaxy. [45] [46] [47]
Many female soccer players have been openly gay while actively playing for American teams, such as Joanna Lohman [48] [49] and Megan Rapinoe. [50] [51] [52] Megan Rapinoe came out in 2012, while a midfielder for the Seattle Sounders and while on the United States women's national soccer team. [53] [54]
...(the United States and [Western] Europe) as "already in crisis" for their permissive attitudes toward nonnormative sexualities...
13.) United States
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a dramatic wave began to form in the waters of public opinion: American attitudes involving homosexuality began to change... The transformation of America's response to homosexuality has been — and continues to be — one of the most rapid and sustained shifts in mass attitudes since the start of public polling.
