Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Hey, World, Hey - Part I

Remember when I promised I wouldn’t leave out the world in our Big Gay Olympics Party? See, I wasn’t kidding. This year’s games have the most-ever out LGBTI athletes competition at 47 48* and counting (up from the 43 I talked about on Monday - I will denote any new additions since this post went up with a *). And most of those, 28 29* to be exact, are women. Go, ladies of the world, go. In fact there are so many I’m going to split up my celebration of our international gay ladies into two days. So today we’ve got the first 14 LGBTI ladies alphabetically by country. If I had to pick a theme for this group it would be tattoos. Definitely tattoos.

AUSTRALIA

Michelle Heyman, soccer

Out, proud and plenty of tattoos.

BRAZIL

Isadora Cerullo, rugby

The biggest “Awwwwwww” of the Olympics so far, by far, is Brazilian rugger Isadora Cerullo being proposed to by her Rio volunteer Marjorie Enya after the women’s rugby finals.

Larissa Franca, beach volleyball


She married fellow volleyball player Liliane Maestrini in 2013.

Mayssa Pessoa, handball

She came out as bisexual before the 2012 London games.

Rafaela Silva, judo*

Silva was celebrated internationally as Brazil’s first gold medal winner. While the judo champ has apparently long been out on social media, she is now talking about and thanking her longtime girlfriend to the press. Congrats!

Julia Vasconcelos, taekwondo

She confirmed that she is a lesbian to ESPN journalist and producer Claudia Custodio, according to Outsports.

CANADA

Jen Kish, rugby

You’d better believe I clocked her right away while watching Canada’s matches. But sorry ladies, her fiancée was apparently cheering for her from back home.

Stephanie Labbe, soccer

Unfortunately, the out Canadian goalie is one of the players targeted by fans for homophonic taunts during the games.

Marie-Eve Nault, soccer

So are Marie-Eve and Stephanie still dating or what? Google is no help and I’m too lazy to try to decipher their Instagrams. So I’ll just ask my lesbian Canucks outright.

GERMANY

Nadine Müller, discus

She married her girlfriend on New Year’s Ever 2013. I bet her flower toss was epic.

Martina Strutz, pole vault

She married her girlfriend April 30, 2015. Damn, Germany ladies like to lock it down.

GREAT BRITAIN

Nicola Adams, boxing

The bi boxer became the first out LGBT person to win a medal in boxing when she took the gold in the 2012 London Olympics.

Helen Richardson-Walsh, field hockey

You guessed it…

Kate Richardson-Walsh, field hockey

…they’re married. They’ve been teammates for over a decade but tied the knot in 2013 and hyphenated their names.

Susannah Townsend, field hockey

The one out member of the British field hockey squad who is not married to Helen or Kate.

And there you have it, half of the world. Tune in tomorrow for India through Sweden.

7 comments:

Carmen SanDiego said...

I wonder what sport takes the gol. Withheld most out athletes aag
But wooo team Brazil! Not bad at all

Anonymous said...

In soccer, it's goalkeeper, Ms. Snarker, goalkeeper. Never goalie!

Danielle Warby said...

Thanks for linking through to my piece on Heyman and out Aussie sportswomen!

Anonymous said...

Hey, fellow anonymous-- don't mis-correct Ms Snarker. Goalie is totally fine.

Anonymous said...

That Steph Labbe photo is a twofer. Sucks McLeod wasn't Olympic ready but Ms. Labbe has really stepped up!

Anonymous said...

Dady this list is missing several players who I am friendly with who are not 'officially' out but not 'in' either. What qualifies someone to make the list?

Anonymous said...

Just dropping by with the news that the Richardson-Walsh's just made more history winning Gold with Team GB!