Sports
Rio wrap-up: gay athletes medal amid outing scandal
Brazilian activists operate Pride House during games

Amini Fonua, a gay swimmer from Tonga, is among those who blasted the Daily Beast for its stunt outing gay athletes in Rio. (Photo courtesy Facebook)
Six of the openly LGBT and intersex athletes who are competing in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro have medaled as of Wednesday.
Rafaela Silva of Brazil won her country’s first gold medal on Aug. 8 when she won the women’s 57-kg judo competition. Carl Hester and Spencer Wilton are members of the British dressage team that won a silver medal four days later.
British diver Tom Daley, who is engaged to Dustin Lance Black, won a bronze medal in the 10-meter synchronized event. Jen Kish is a member of the Canadian women’s rugby sevens team that won a bronze medal.
“Today was a great day,” said Kish in a tweet in which she also acknowledged her father.
Rachele Bruni came out on Aug. 15 after she won the silver medal in the women’s 10km swimming marathon. The Italian distance swimmer dedicated it to her girlfriend, Diletta Faina.
Brazilian rugby player Isadora Cerullo’s girlfriend, Marjorie Enya, proposed to her on Aug. 8 after the country’s final match at Rio de Janeiro’s Deodoro Stadium. Tom Bosworth, a British race walker, proposed to his boyfriend, Harry Dineley, on the beach on Aug. 15.
“He said yes,” said Bosworth in a tweet that included a picture of him proposing to Dineley.
Bosworth proposed to Dineley four days after the Daily Beast published an article that outed Olympic athletes, many of whom come from countries in which homosexuality remains criminalized.
Amini Fonua, an openly gay swimmer from Tonga, is among those who blasted the Daily Beast and Nico Hines, the website’s London-based editor who used Grindr and other hookup apps to look for gay athletes.
The Daily Beast subsequently removed Hines’ article from its website and issued an apology. The International Olympic Committee told Outsports.com, an LGBT sports website, earlier this week that Hines had left Rio de Janeiro.
“We understand the organization concerned recalled the journalist after complaints and withdrew the story,” an IOC spokesperson told the website. “This kind of reporting is simply unacceptable.”
The games are taking place against the backdrop of rampant anti-LGBT violence in Brazil.
Grupo Gay da Bahia, an advocacy group in the northeastern part of the country, notes that 326 LGBT Brazilians were reported killed in 2014. The organization said in June that an LGBT person is killed in Brazil every 27 hours.
President Dilma Rousseff remains suspended after the Brazilian Senate in May voted to impeach her in May. Lucas Paoli Itaborahy, the Brazil project manager of Micro Rainbow International, a European Union-funded organization that seeks to fight poverty among LGBT Brazilians, and K.K. Verdade, executive director of the Rio de Janeiro-based ELAS Brazilian Women’s Fund, both told the Blade earlier this month that the country’s economic crisis and concerns over Zika could overshadow the games.
Toni Reis, executive director of Grupo Dignidade, a Brazilian advocacy group, told the Blade in an email that LGBT people from South America’s most populous country have been part of the Olympics.
He noted that Laerte, a trans cartoonist, carried the Olympic flame in São Paulo. Reis also told the Blade that a trans sex worker is one of the games’ volunteer leaders.
“This year’s edition of the Olympic games looks like [it will be] one of the most ‘out’ ever for LGBT people,” said Reis. “We are optimistic that this will bring benefits in terms of more respect for LGBT people in Brazil.”
The LGBT Sports Committee of Brazil, Trans Revolucão and a number of other Brazilian advocacy groups are operating Pride House Rio during the games.
Pride House Rio features sporting matches, cultural activities, workshops on human rights, performances and other events that will take place through the Olympics. Jeferson Sousa, vice president of external affairs of the LGBT Sports Committee of Brazil, told the Blade that Pride House Rio seeks to “promote LGBTQI visibility” and ensure “a welcoming space” during the games.

Brazilian advocacy groups operated Pride House Rio during the games. (Photo courtesy Jeferson Sousa of LGBT Sports Committee of Brazil)
“We hope that during the games the world can have a different look at the issues that permeate the LGBTQI (community) regarding their rights, participation, respect for freedom of expression and community, security, health, education, among other (things,)” he said. “The goal of the Olympic games is to also bring together peoples, cultures and dilemmas so we can join forces and promote a more equal world.”
IOC: Olympics ‘should be open to all’
The games are taking place roughly two and a half years after the 2014 Winter Olympics took place in Sochi, Russia.
The Kremlin’s LGBT rights record — which includes a 2013 law that bans the promotion of so-called gay propaganda to minors — overshadowed the games. The IOC subsequently amended the Olympic Charter’s nondiscrimination clause to include sexual orientation and added an anti-discrimination provision to its host city contract.
“The IOC is clear that sport is a human right and should be available to all regardless of race, sex or sexual orientation as stated in the Olympic Charter,” an IOC spokesperson told the Blade earlier this month in response to a question about anti-LGBT violence in Brazil. “The games themselves should be open to all, free of discrimination. And that applies to spectators, officials, media and, of course, athletes.”
“This has been upheld at all editions of the Olympic games and will be the case in Rio,” added the spokesperson.
Sports
New IOC policy bans trans women from Olympics
New regulation to be in effect at 2028 summer games in Los Angeles
The International Olympic Committee on Thursday announced it will not allow transgender women from competing in female events at the Olympics.
“For all disciplines on the Sports Program of an IOC event, including individual and team sports, eligibility for any Female Category is limited to biological females,” reads the new policy.
The policy states “eligibility for the Female Category is to be determined in the first instance by SRY Gene screening to detect the absence or presence of the SRY Gene.”
“On the basis of the scientific evidence, the IOC considers that the SRY (sex-determining Region Y) Gene is fixed throughout life and represents highly accurate evidence that an athlete has experienced or will experience male sex development,” it reads. “Furthermore, the IOC considers that SRY Gene screening via saliva, cheek swab or blood sample is unintrusive compared to other possible methods. Athletes who screen negative for the SRY gene permanently satisfy this policy’s eligibility criteria for competition in the Female Category.”
The policy states the test “will be a once-in-a-lifetime test” unless “there is reason to believe a negative reading is in error.”
The new regulation will be in place for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
“I understand that this a very sensitive topic,” said IOC President Kirsty Coventry on Thursday in a video. “As a former athlete, I passionately believe in the rights of all Olympians to take part in fair competition.”
“The policy that we have announced is based on science and it has been led by medical experts with the best interests of athletes at its heart. The scientific evidence is very clear: male chromosomes give performance advances in sport that rely on strength, power, or endurance,” she added. “At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat. So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category. In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe.”
(Video courtesy of the IOC)
Laurel Hubbard, a weightlifter from New Zealand, in 2021 became the first trans woman to compete at the Olympics.
Imane Khelif, an Algerian boxer, won a gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Khelif later sued JK Rowling and Elon Musk for cyberstalking after they questioned her gender identity.
Ellis Lundholm, a mogul skier from Sweden, this year became the first openly trans athlete to compete in any Winter Olympics when he participated in Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy.
President Donald Trump in February 2025 issued an executive order that bans trans women and girls from female sports teams in the U.S.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee last July banned trans women from competing in female sporting events. Republican lawmakers have demanded the IOC ban trans athletes from women’s athletic competitions.
“I’m grateful the Olympics finally embraced the common sense policy that women’s sports are for women, not for men,” said U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on X.
An IOC spokesperson on Thursday referred the Washington Blade to the press release that announced the new policy.
More than a dozen LGBTQ athletes won medals at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics that ended on Sunday.
Cayla Barnes, Hilary Knight, and Alex Carpenter are LGBTQ members of the U.S. women’s hockey team that won a gold medal after they defeated Canada in overtime. Knight the day before the Feb. 19 match proposed to her girlfriend, Brittany Bowe, an Olympic speed skater.
French ice dancer Guillaume Cizeron, who is gay, and his partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry won gold. American alpine skier Breezy Johnson, who is bisexual, won gold in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, was part of the American figure skating team that won gold in the team event.
Swiss freestyle skier Mathilde Gremaud, who is in a relationship with Vali Höll, an Austrian mountain biker, won gold in women’s freeski slopestyle.
Bruce Mouat, who is the captain of the British curling team that won a silver medal, is gay. Six members of the Canadian women’s hockey team — Emily Clark, Erin Ambrose, Emerance Maschmeyer, Brianne Jenner, Laura Stacey, and Marie-Philip Poulin — that won silver are LGBTQ.
Swedish freestyle skier Sandra Naeslund, who is a lesbian, won a bronze medal in ski cross.
Belgian speed skater Tineke den Dulk, who is bisexual, was part of her country’s mixed 2000-meter relay that won bronze. Canadian ice dancer Paul Poirier, who is gay, and his partner, Piper Gilles, won bronze.
Laura Zimmermann, who is queer, is a member of the Swiss women’s hockey team that won bronze when they defeated Sweden.
Outsports.com notes all of the LGBTQ Olympians who competed at the games and who medaled.
Sports
US wins Olympic gold medal in women’s hockey
Team captain Hilary Knight proposed to girlfriend on Wednesday
The U.S. women’s hockey team on Thursday won a gold medal at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Team USA defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime. The game took place a day after Team USA captain Hilary Knight proposed to her girlfriend, Brittany Bowe, an Olympic speed skater.
Cayla Barnes and Alex Carpenter — Knight’s teammates — are also LGBTQ. They are among the more than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes who are competing in the games.
The Olympics will end on Sunday.
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