As always, I have my eye on the queer parent athletes at the Olympics! Come meet them and see photos of their families! One met her future spouse when they were both 10 years old; the other is fighting for marriage equality in her home country.
All three queer parents who competed at the Paralympics this year won medals, including gold!
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.”
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.)
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.
The Winter Olympics start this Thursday, and—proving once again that queer parents can do anything—there’s a queer parent competing: Dutch snowboarder and three-time Olympian Cheryl Maas. Read on to learn more about her.
I love the Olympics. I was a varsity fencer in college and have done serious stints with a few other sports. I love the life lessons sports teach, including dedication, leadership, teamwork, and dealing with both success and failure — all values I’d like to convey to my son. I get choked up during recap montages and medal ceremonies. Normally, then, the start of the Olympics is a time of celebration around my house. And then there’s Sochi.
Le Zbor, the first lesbian and feminist choir in southeastern Europe, has created a charming video “expressing its solidarity with the LGBT citizens of Russia and worldwide.” Watch the Croatian singers here:
Yelena Goltsman is founder and co-president of RUSA LGBT, the association for Russian-speaking LGBT people in the U.S., and a leading voice speaking out for LGBT Russians. She didn’t plan to be an LGBT activist, though — and in fact came to the U.S. in 1990 because of anti-Jewish, not anti-LGBT, persecution, when she was still married to a man.
Here’s a sneak peek of Chevrolet’s ad that will run tonight during the Olympic opening ceremonies, featuring two-mom and two-dad families.
