Gay History -- How We Got Here

[CellarDweller115]

Celebrating LGBTQ sports history: Kye Allums

By Dawn Ennis Oct 2, 2020


Not many people noticed a slight change on the George Washington University website earlier this year. It concerned a player on the school’s women’s basketball team named Kay-Kay Allums. Just a couple letters were taken away, a Y was moved and an E was added to form the player’s new name: Kye Allums. To most people it was meaningless, but to Allums the change was the most significant of his lifetime.

“A name is just a bunch of letters, but the letters make up a word and the words that make up my name have so many more emotions behind them,” Allums said. “My old name, that’s just not me. When I hear Kye, everything feels okay, everything is right.”

For the last 20 years, Kay-Kay Allums had appeared to the world as female. He was born with the anatomy that other women have. His mom tried to dress him in only the most feminine clothes. But inside was a man waiting to burst out of the female body he was born in.

On Nov. 13, Kye Allums will introduce himself to the NCAA basketball world at the Best Buy Classic in Minneapolis in a game against the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. When he steps foot on the court, Allums will be the first publicly transgender person to play NCAA Div. 1 college basketball.

Allums grew up in the small town of Hugo, Minn., a half hour north of Minneapolis. Head coach Mike Bozeman scheduled the tournament appearance as a homecoming for him, long before he transitioned to male. The junior guard’s inaugural game identifying as a man will also be the first time he has played in front of his hometown crowd. While Allums is making a change now, most of his family and friends will recognize him as the same old Kye.

https://www.outsports.com/2020/10/2/21498421/lgbtq-sports-history-kye-allums-transgender-ncaa-division-one

[CellarDweller115]

Celebrating LGBTQ sports history: IOC suspends mandatory gender testing for female athletes

By Dawn Ennis Oct 4, 2020


In the early 1960s, rumors swirled around the Soviet and Eastern Bloc Olympic teams that some of the women were actually men. While Avery Brundage requested gender tests as early as the Berlin Games of 1936, it wasn’t until 1968 that the International Olympic Committee instituted such tests. But as more became known about gender and a higher cultural sensitivity developed regarding gender identity, the process of gender testing came under scrutiny.

In 1999, the IOC reversed its 30-year policy and scrapped mandatory gender testing (though some groups like track & field’s IAAF maintain the right to test, as in the case of Caster Semenya). It opened the door ultimately to transgender athletes being able to compete as women if they followed certain protocol. And most importantly, it removed humiliating tests that put respected athletes in compromising positions. LiveScience.com summed it up well:

Mass gender screening went out of vogue because it failed to catch males masquerading as females, and unfairly screened out women athletes with genetic or hormonal disorders that might flag them as male. Many experts also see the tests as historical relics that became unnecessary due to the strict examination of athletes during modern drug testing.

https://www.outsports.com/2020/10/4/21500984/celebrating-lgbtq-sports-history-ioc-olympics-mandatory-gender-testing-female-athletes

[CellarDweller115]

Celebrating LGBTQ sports history: Corey Johnson’s story

By Dawn Ennis Oct 5, 2020


In April 2000, New England-based Bay Windows printed the story of Masconomet (Mass.) High School football player Corey Johnson. Written by Peter Cassels, the story was a shocker: A high school football player who came out to his team… and lived to tell about it. Not only did he survive, he thrived on the team as his teammates embraced Johnson as they had for years before. Outsports quickly picked up on the story as did others; Weeks later, on April 30, 2000, the New York Times published a front-page story by Robert Lipsyte entitled, “Icon Recast: Support for a Gay Athlete.”

It was Lipsyte’s article on the eve of the Millennium March on Washington that catapulted Johnson to national prominence. Lipsyte had been tipped on the story by Cassels. Lipsyte said he got the story on the New York Times page A1 because Johnson was speaking at the Millennium March that weekend — it was the news peg he needed to land the story on the paper’s front page. The next day, Johnson joined hundreds of thousands of people in Washington, D.C. to demand equality for gay people.

https://www.outsports.com/2020/10/5/21501746/celebrating-lgbtq-sports-history-corey-johnson-high-school-football-nyc-mayor-council

[CellarDweller115]

Celebrating LGBTQ sports history: Fallon Fox is the first transgender MMA fighter

By Dawn Ennis Oct 6, 2020


Coming out fully on their own terms and timetable isn’t a luxury shared by every LGBTQ athlete. It’s an unfortunate truth that retired MMA fighter Fallon Fox knows all too well. She was a budding octagon technician with two first round stoppage wins under her belt in March 2013. But the devastating knee she used to finish off Ericka Newsome at CFA 10 quickly gave way to a larger, more life-changing impact.

On March 5, 2013, three days after defeating Newsome, Fox came out as transgender after a reporter began investigating her gender identity and past. “Maybe someone would guess that I’m trans. Maybe they would know me from my life before I transitioned. I’ve been waiting for that phone call to happen. And Saturday night, it happened.”

The news threw Fox’s ability to fight into question despite being years removed from her transition. More importantly for Fox, it forced her to confront the harsh reality that the people around her that helped build her into a talented fighter might view her differently. “These past six years, people have seen me as a woman, not a transsexual,” she said. “People in the gym, people I train with, it’s been great, it’s been awesome.  I’m just a woman to them.  I don’t want that to go away.  It’s unfortunate that it has to.”  Here’s how it began....


https://www.outsports.com/2020/10/6/21501796/celebrating-lgbtq-sports-history-fallon-fox-transgender-mma-fighter

[CellarDweller115]

Celebrating LGBTQ sports history: Esera Tuaolo comes out as gay

By Dawn Ennis Oct 5, 2020

Today, Outsports co-founder Jim Buzinski looks backs at that time in 2002 when Esera Tuaolo revealed his truth, through a television interview.

The coming out of Esera Tuaolo, who played nine seasons in the NFL, shattered stereotypes. Here was a big (6-3, 300 pounds), tough defensive lineman who excelled in the trenches announcing he was gay. His public coming out occurred on HBOs “Real Sports” and generated a national debate about gays in sports.

https://www.outsports.com/2020/10/7/21503538/celebrating-lgbtq-sports-history-esera-tuaolo-nfl-football-gay-athletes

[CellarDweller115]

Celebrating LGBTQ sports history: Derrick Gordon finds his freedom

By Dawn Ennis Oct 5, 2020


https://www.outsports.com/2020/10/8/21503563/celebrating-lgbtq-sports-history-derrick-gordon-ncaa-gay-athlete

[CellarDweller115]

Celebrating LGBTQ sports history: Gay former college kicker is coming out


It had been months since Alan Gendreau put on a pair of cleats and stood three yards behind a football. The former Middle Tennessee State placekicker had all but left the game behind when he graduated a year ago.

Yet there he was on a Saturday morning in early April lining up for a kick, the sun beating down on the bright green field as the wind swirled around him. A half-hearted attempt to make it to the NFL was in his past; the crush of a disappointing senior season, punctuating a stellar college career, had been put in his distant memory. Now with renewed purpose, Gendreau had made a potentially game-changing decision: It’s time for him to shoot for the stars again.

After a brief instruction on how I should hold the ball for him, Gendreau looked up from his backward steps and focused downfield.

"I always focus on a spot past the goal post," he said as he readied for his first kick. "Gotta aim further than I’m trying to go."


https://www.outsports.com/2013/4/23/4253016/alan-gendreau-openly-gay-kicker-profile-middle-tennessee-state

[CellarDweller115]

Celebrating LGBTQ sports history: The first Outsports convention


2003: The Year We Made Contact
By Cyd Zeigler


As I was sitting in Trunks — a bar on Santa Monica Blvd. — Saturday night, one of our conventioneers, Cowboyhuskerfan, in from the East Coast for the weekend, summed up for me the entire convention perfectly:

“I was leery of coming 3,000 miles for this convention, and I didn’t know what to expect, but I’m so glad I came; I’m having a blast.”

That sentiment was resounded by all 18 of the participants at the first annual (and yes, I can now say with certainty, this will be an annual event) Outsports Convention, held in Los Angeles this past weekend, February 14-16. Not only was it the first convention for our Web site, but it was also the first conference ever held specifically for gay sports fans and athletes.


https://www.outsports.com/2020/10/12/21512405/celebrating-lgbtq-sports-history-hyatt-first-outsports-convention-trunks-weho-santa-monica-boulevard

[Sara B]

Beautiful photos in a new book.

https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/19/book-collects-photos-of-men-in-love-from-1850s-to-1950s-when-gay-relationships-were-illegal-13444238/

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I like those kinds of books!

[tfferg]

Beautiful photos in a new book.

https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/19/book-collects-photos-of-men-in-love-from-1850s-to-1950s-when-gay-relationships-were-illegal-13444238/

Wonderful, Sara !

I saw some of the photos in The Guardian the other day. Thanks for the link which has more.

[CellarDweller115]

Fantastic link, thanks Sara!

I'll be ordering a copy!


https://www.amazon.com/Loving-Photographic-History-Love-1850s-1950s/dp/8874399286/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1VRZOV5CI3ACC&dchild=1&keywords=loving+a+photographic+history&qid=1603248170&s=books&sprefix=Loving%3A%2Caps%2C224&sr=1-1

[Sara B]

Fantastic link, thanks Sara!

I'll be ordering a copy!


https://www.amazon.com/Loving-Photographic-History-Love-1850s-1950s/dp/8874399286/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1VRZOV5CI3ACC&dchild=1&keywords=loving+a+photographic+history&qid=1603248170&s=books&sprefix=Loving%3A%2Caps%2C224&sr=1-1

That’s great, Chuck. It looks beautiful - over 300 pages.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Did any of you watch the 8 1/2 minute video on the Amazon page. It has the two who started collecting the photographs and how this evolved into the book.

Over the years I've bought a couple other books like this, but what I noticed in the presentation and sale of this book is something different than those others. Other books in their presentations say things suggesting things like "we don't know if the guys in these photos are gay or in past times simply guys who had intimate relationships." As though they are not judging the photographs in any way.

Some of the first books of this type were based on wartime pictures, particularly WWII photos, where the crucible of war may have made men more apt to rely on companionship etc. Books like this one:



There's another one called: Men of WWII: Fighting Men at Ease.

Another called PICTURING MEN where it's written: Can you imagine that at one time in the not so distant past, men of all walks of life--cowboys, soldiers, athletes, businessmen--felt comfortable enough with each other to display their kinship openly? A hand laid firmly on a shoulder or knee, an arm draped around another man's neck--regardless of sexual orientation, these were demonstrations of genuine affection. Picturing Men starkly contrasts the calm affection displayed in earlier photographs with the absence of intimacy in photos from the mid-1950's on.

Some others are:

Dear Friends: American Photographs of Men Together, 1840-1918; David Deitcher

Affectionate Men: A Photographic History of a Century of Male Relationships; Russell Bush

The Invisibles: Vintage Portraits of Love and Pride. Gay Couples in the Early 20th Century; Sebastien Lifshitz

What the guys who put this new book together are saying is that "we know what love looks like and these photos are of men in love." They are giving a judgment to them. It's just as valid, to me, as saying they could be demonstrations of intimacy without that touchy sex label involved. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words...and those words can be contradictory.

[michaelflanagansf]

Hi all,

I just wanted to share one of my articles from the Bay Area Reporter over here on "Polly Polaroid", a woman who used to take photos in the bars from the 70s through the 90s. She was a straight ally and was wildly popular with bar patrons. After the article was published I got an email from her nieces in Idaho who were so happy to see pictures of her! It's a fun slice of San Francisco LGBT history:

https://www.ebar.com/bartab/barchive/294763