A record 191 openly LGBTQ+ athletes are competing in the 2024 Olympics
A record 191 openly LGBTQ+ athletes are competing in the 2024 Olympics
A record number of athletes openly identifying as LGBTQ+ are competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Activist groups see it as a massive leap for inclusion during a competition that organizers have pushed to center around inclusion and diversity.
A record number of athletes openly identifying as LGBTQ+ are competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics, a massive leap during a competition that organizers have pushed to center around inclusion and diversity.
There are 191 athletes publicly saying they are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and nonbinary who are participating in the Games, according to Outsports, an organization that compiles a database of openly queer Olympians. The vast majority of the athletes are women.
That number has quashed the previous record of 186 out athletes counted at the COVID-19-delayed Tokyo Olympics held in 2021, and the count is only expected to grow at future Olympics.
“More and more people are coming out,” said Jim Buzinski, co-founder of Outsports. “They realize it’s important to be visible because there’s no other way to get representation.”
The moment a single trans athlete wins top 3 in their sport, expect every troll to suddenly become an expert biologist. But they don't actually give a single fuck when trans athletes lose.
Would be interesting to see something that could prove or disprove if transwomen (or transmen too, I guess) get any benefits. All I've seen is inconclusive or partial results (see my other comment). For that reason, I don't think IOC's guidelines can be thought of as being finalized or uncontroversial.
Suddenly the people who spam 41% at inboxes will forget what a statistic is
I have a very real problem with any guy ever competing in a woman's sport. It's a hard line that should never be crossed. Your biological sex at birth is quite valid, there is no discussion on this topic in the realm of sanity.
This is the line that most sane people also draw, and if you think otherwise you need to get off the Internet.
The sports organizations which allow trans atheletes do exactly that. Example:
https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/legal-documents/049-9_exhibit_i.pdf
"the International Olympic Committee (IOC) determined criteria by which a transgender woman may be eligible to compete in the female category, requiring total serum testosterone levels to be suppressed below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 months prior to and during competition."
Good enough for the Olympics? Good enough for me!
If you had a look at the actual statistics, with measures such as "be on hormones for at least X months before competing" in place: Middling athletes stay middling, shoddy stay shoddy, stellar ones stay stellar. If Michael Phelps transitioned and then competed and won it wouldn't be because of being born as a man, but because he's a genetic freak. Ideal limb structure, something about his lactose processing, you name it, he's been born with tons of advantages.
Which brings me to another point: No, the competitions have never been fair. Grit and determination is necessary, but definitely not sufficient, to win the Olympics. Athletes transitioning to get an edge? I believe it when transphobes demonstrate it, under doctor's supervision, on themselves. More likely they'd off themselves due to dysphoria before they could even dream of competing.
Children tend to have parity up until a certain point, I believe thats where some of the concern is at.
Why do you think the exact gender needs to be nailed down right at birth?
What percentage of all athletes is that?
1.7% Roughly. 191/11000, as that was the closest estimate.
As a population the estimate is 5% of people so probability there are almost twice as many athletes who are in the closet then those who are out.
I imagine at least a half of the countries participating in the Olympics being morbidly bad at LGBTQ+ rights and that a biggoted campaign against a sportsperson can cost them their entire career or life adds to the reasons why there're more of them we don't see. They phut Muh Mutherland to shame! is a big target to put on someone's back if not for the state, but for it's most reactionary citizen.
I don't know if this specific group has the same distribution of LGBTQ+ folks as the general population, but as a second thought I'm sure the amount of persons being aware of their own sexuality and gender identity or learning them can top their own nation's metrics because of the exposure to the international sports scene.
Maybe some of them aren't in the closet but have never been asked.
Wow. Impressive.
Alternative read: The gays are getting fitter!
Apparently grindr etc are banned in the athletes village. They’ll just have to do it the old fashioned way.
They can't openly use grindr. I'm sure theres plenty of stealth profiles on there.
Emphasis on .... OPENLY
There's still plenty of individuals out there who choose to keep their sexuality, identity and preferences to themselves, either for personal, social, societal, political, or religious reasons.
One day, I’ll learn how this works.
I wonder how many of those are from Africa and the Middle East.
(just kidding, we all know it's zero)
https://www.outsports.com/2024/7/17/24097560/celebrating-out-lgbtq-athletes-2024-paris-olympics/
The list of out athletes is heavily weighted to parts of the world where being LGBTQ is both legally and culturally accepted. This includes countries in North and South America, Western and Northern Europe and Australia and New Zealand. There are out athletes from 27 of the 206 participating nations (including the Refugee Olympic Team).
The countries with the most out athletes at the Paris Olympics: USA (31), Brazil (30), Australia (22), Germany (13), Spain (12), Great Britain (11), Canada (11) and the Netherlands (10).
There are only three out athletes from Asia that we know of at the time of publication: two boxers from the Philippines and one from Thailand. There are only four athletes from Africa: three South Africans, and one from the Refugee Team, boxer Cindy Ngamba, born in Cameroon and now living in Great Britain. There is only one athlete from any Muslim-dominated country (a Turkish volleyball player), places where being out and gay is often illegal or dangerous, and none from Russia, which has cracked down on LGBTQ rights in the past decade.
