Queer Parent Paralympians All Earn Medals
All three queer parents who competed at the Paralympics this year won medals, including gold!
Sports
Paralympic Gold Medalist Was Raised by Two Moms (and There’s a New Picture Book About Her)
Tatyana McFadden last Saturday won her 20th Paralympic medal—8th gold—and set her 3rd world record! A new picture book biography traces her life from an orphanage in Russia, to being raised by two moms, to becoming “the fastest woman on Earth.”
Basketball Babies
Some of the most exciting recent LGBTQ parenting news is that not one but two queer couples in women’s pro basketball are expanding their families! Watch a short film about one couple’s experience and see photos here.
7 Olympic Medals (4 Gold!) Earned by Queer Parents at Tokyo Olympics
Being a world-class athlete is hard. Being a parent at the same time is even harder. Yet of the 11 queer parents I know of who were competing in the Tokyo Olympics, six medaled (one twice!) and four came away with gold. That’s better than average odds, which I’d like to think means that being an LGBTQ parent increases your chances of getting an Olympic medal. (Well, maybe not—but read on for some fun if dubious statistics and a lot of appreciation for these athletes.)
Queer Parent Athletes (and Athletes with Queer Parents) to Watch in the Olympics
It’s time for the Tokyo Olympics! As a fan and athlete, I will watch any event at any time—but I’ll be keeping a special eye on the queer parent athletes (and athletes with queer parents). Balancing parenting and high-level training, not to mention possible queerphobias—it’s a lot to handle, and they deserve our respect and admiration.
Teamwork Counts: Why I Support Trans Girls in Girls’ Sports
Those who have met me, even briefly, know one thing about me: I’m small. I stand 5’0″ in my socks and I’m not too hefty. I’ve been an athlete all my life, though, and have almost always competed against opponents who are taller and heavier. That’s only one of the reasons why I don’t understand those who want to limit transgender girls’ participation in girls’ sports.
Netflix “High Score” Series Features Trans Mom, Video Game Developer and Champion
The new Netflix documentary series about the early video game industry, High Score, features the winner of the first-ever national championship for a video game, who became a lauded game developer and entrepreneur. She’s also a transgender woman who’s now a mom and a grandma.
Megan Rapinoe Is Out and Proud in New Middle-Grade Book About U.S. Women’s Soccer Stars
Megan Rapinoe and three of her 2019 U.S. Women’s National Soccer teammates are the subjects of an inspirational new middle-grade book that follows them from their starts in the sport through their rise to global fame—and which also discusses Rapinoe’s coming out and its positive impact on her life.
Celebrating Queer Moms in the Women’s World Cup
Soccer superstar Megan Rapinoe recently opined, “You can’t win a championship without gays on your team!” I don’t doubt that—and I’m also happy to see that many of the queer players this year in the Women’s World Cup are also moms!
Soccer Star and Lesbian Mom Abby Wambach Gives Us Some Advice
Abby Wambach, two-time Olympic soccer gold medalist and FIFA World Player of the Year (2012), who is also lesbian and (since her 2017 marriage to author Glennon Doyle Melton) a mom, gave the commencement speech at Barnard College earlier this month. It’s well worth watching for her advice and inspiration on life, career, community, and leadership.
