The Olympic Games have never been gayer—and that’s a great thing.
Acceptance of LGBTQ+ athletes lends itself to acceptance of LGBTQ+ people in general, and while this year’s roster boasts 155 out and proud queer athletes, that still makes up less than 2% of the total. Even with these steps towards equality for a majority of the LGBTQ+ community, transgender women are still being left out. Alongside anti-trans laws in their home countries, new bans on trans women competing in various sports since the 2020 Tokyo games left many athletes unable to try to qualify for the Olympics.
This is a serious disappointment. Trans women are often the first to be discriminated against out of the LGBTQ+ community, even though they have also always been a large fighting force for queer rights before and since Stonewall. Three notable trans athletes that were excluded from this year’s games are American BMX rider Chelsea Wolfe, a cyclist for Britain, Em Bridges, and the French sprinter Halba Diouf.
There are other trans athletes competing, however, and out of the 155 total queer athletes, there are quite a few to look out for during the games.
One of these athletes, Raven ‘Hulk’ Saunders, is doing the shot put for United States. They were a 2020 silver medalist in Tokyo, and used their platform as one for protest. They say, “Shout out to all my Black people. Shout out to all my LGBTQ community. Shout out to all my people dealing with mental health. At the end of the day, we understand it’s bigger than us, and it’s bigger than the powers that be.” Their remarks send a powerful message, and they looked glamorous in their iconic mask and nails.
Some other athletes to keep an eye on are Sha’Carri Richardson for the USA track and field team, who, similar to Raven, sports some amazing nails and a full glam face beat. Another, Tyler Wright, is an Australian women’s surfer who uses her platform to protest violence against Black and brown people, highlighting the plight of indigenous people in Oceania as well.
Enjoy the games; cheer for the queers, and even with some steps back, there will always be a fight for acceptance in the future.
Photo courtesy of social media
