a (very brief) history of same-sex kisses in sports
also, weekend links!
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a (very brief) history of same-sex kisses in sports
At Autostraddle, Stef Rubino traced the history of kiss-ins as a protest tactic. I thought it would be fun to do a little companion piece that (briefly) looks at the history of same-sex kissing in the world of sports.
In 2009, the WNBA’s Washington Mystics came under fire for their reasoning for not including the a Kiss Cam at their games. “We got a lot of kids here,” managing partner Sheila Johnson told Washington Post columnist Mike Wise at the time. “We just don’t find it appropriate.” Many people rightly saw this as a coded allusion to the fact that what she viewed as “inappropriate” was the potential of kids seeing two women kissing, because the WNBA has a large lesbian fan base.
In 2013, two Russian athletes made headlines after kissing on the podium at the World Championships, where they won gold as part of the 4x400m relay team. People speculated that the kiss was intended to be a protest of Russia’s new anti-gay propaganda law, but the athletes denied it. “It was a wave of unbelievable feelings [to win gold] and if somehow, completely by chance, while we were congratulating each other, our lips touched, I don’t know in whose fantasy this all gets thought up,” Kseniya Ryzhova said in a press conference.
In 2013, Diana Taurasi kissed Seimone Augustus in the middle of a playoff game, as part of her on-court shittalking. When questioned about the incident following the game, Taurasi sarcastically said, “We were just trying to make sweet love.” Augustus responded by saying, “The tango dance that we had, I always say she just wanted some of my deliciousness.”
In 2015, the first same-sex couple was featured on a Kiss Cam at an NHL game, during a Los Angeles Kings game.
In 2017, the first same-sex Jumbotron proposal in Major League Baseball history occurred at a Washington Nationals game.
In 2019, USWNT player Kelley O’Hara came out publicly by “greet[ing] a fan” following the World Cup.
Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird each get to be the athlete and the WAG. For Rapinoe, it was following the 2019 World Cup; for Bird, it was after the 2020 Olympics.
In 2024, Australian sport climber Campbell Harrison kissed his boyfriend after the Olympic trials, leading to a barrage of homophobic hate and bullying. Harrison was undeterred, and kissed his boyfriend again after being eliminated from competition at the Paris Games.
ICYMI, last week I published a post about the increase in beauty campaigns and sponsorships for female athletes during a time of national gender panic and “transvestigations” in women’s sports.
In it, I used the example of Ilona Maher, writing:
“During last summer’s Olympics, [Maher] endured public speculation about her gender and harassment centered on her perceived masculine traits, including her muscular build. Maher has played up her femininity since. She wears lipstick on the rugby pitch, posed for a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover story, appeared on Dancing With the Stars, and teased potentially being the next Bachelorette… At the same time, who can really blame her? She’s been backed into a corner, where any perceived masculinity is viewed negatively. Seemingly the only way for her to combat that perception on a personal level is to lean in and play up her own femininity according to traditional definitions.”
Rose Eveleth, the incredible journalist behind the “Tested” podcast, which traces the history of sex testing in sports, added even more historical context to this over on Bluesky, which I wanted to share here. Eveleth writes:
“Back in 2009, when Caster Semenya was being accused of being secretly a man, she did a photoshoot with YOU magazine where she played up traditional feminine presentation: a dress, jewelry, painted fingernails, etc.
“You can see the subhed that says "We turn SA's Power Girl into a Glamour Girl -- And She Loves It!" Of course she didn't love it, but what other choice did she have in that moment?
But there is a kind of nice coda here. Caster no longer feels forced to present like this. She wears a suit (and looks amazing in it). And other athletes with variations look up to her, and feel that they can too. Max Imali told me she feels like she can dress like that because Caster does.”
OOYL events!
Don’t forget to join us for our first Out of Your League book club event on Wednesday, January 29th! If you haven’t purchased a copy of Hail Mary yet, you can order from my local queer owned bookstore, All She Wrote Books! You can also buy the audio book from them.
Also, we’ll be dong an OOYL Zoom screening of The Herricanes documentary, which is about the Houston NWFL team. After the film, we’ll be joined by fimmaker Olivia Kuan (who is also the daughter of Herricanes player Basia Haszlakiewicz) and one of the members of the Houston Herricanes for a Q&A. The screening will be Super Bowl weekend, at 2 PM ET/11 AM PT on Saturday, February 8th.
Watch the trailer below:
Both events are for paid subscribers. Please join us!
links and some fun memes
Courtney Williams is all of us, as Unrivaled debuts this weekend
The lesbians of the Laces absolutely killed it in their debut game:
A trans woman and senior editor at The Athletic, Carly J. Dubois, is opening up about the ways her mental health has been impacted and left her unable to work following the New York Times acquisition of the publication
Last July, Notre Dame basketball star Hannah Hidalgo shared a video on social media expressing anti-gay views. Since then, both she and Notre Dame have been quiet on the issue. This past week, legendary Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw made her thoughts clear on the “Good Game with Sarah Spain” podcast: “I thought it was a really poor choice on her part,” said McGraw when asked about Hidalgo’s social media post. “First, believing that, I think is a poor choice. And then saying it, as you said, on a stage where women’s basketball there are a number of gay players out there. I thought that it was almost insulting to her teammates, to everybody in the game of basketball. I was really disappointed that it came out that way. I was happy that she deleted it, but the damage I think was done before she deleted it.”
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