Op-ed: Will Suspicion of 'Gender Fraud' Police LGBTQ Olympians?By: Rev. Irene Monroe | Wed, 2012-07-25 17:58
http://www.shewired.com/sports/2012/07/25/op-ed-will-suspicion-gender-fraud-police-lgbtq-olympians?page=0,0
The 2012 London Summer Olympics begin July 27th.
While we all know that homophobia in sports is the other "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," 21 openly LGBTQ athletes, two coaches and two gay paralympians will compete for the gold. Three LGBTQ olympians will represent the US - Seimone Augustus (basketball), Megan Rapinoe (soccer), and Lisa Raymond (doubles tennis).
Lesbian U.S. wrestler Stephany Lee qualified for London but was kicked off the team after testing positive for marijuana. And with women's softball no longer an Olympic sport (remember those hotties!), the number of out lesbians is lower.
Of the 12,602 Olympians in this year's games, less than 10% (126) are openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ). But London's numbers are twice those of Beijing's in 2008.
Being an LGBTQ Olympian doesn't elicit as much homophobic shock and awe as it did when four times American Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis competed in the 80s. But homophobia finds a way to surface, and now a days its not so much about an athlete's sexual orientation as it is now more about suspecting that a LGBTQ athlete is perpetrating "gender fraud."
Will these London games have their "gender fraud" squad trolling the stadium looking for impostors?
