Sports
Sam the Ram
Out player causing buzz beyond usual football circles
Michael Sam was drafted by the St. Louis Rams in February. The team’s regular season starts Sept. 7. (Photo by Marcus Qwertyus; courtesy Wikimedia Commons).
With the football pre-season in full swing, many eyes are on Michael Sam, the defensive end for the St. Louis Rams who in February became the first out gay player to be drafted by the NFL.
Though the Rams have lost their first two pre-season games (they face the Cleveland Browns Saturday), buzz is strong for their prospects this year. ESPN analysts said they could emerge as a “sleeper” for the NFC West this year, they’re “primed to explode” and this fall is, in an ironic choice of words, “looking very much like their coming-out party.” Their first regular season game is Sept. 7 when they play the Minnesota Vikings at Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis at noon. It will be televised on Fox.
With Sam in the mix, the team is garnering attention beyond the usual sphere of fans. Almost everyone agrees, regardless of how Sam or the Rams do this year, his presence is a big deal.
Bruce Hobson, a St. Louis attorney and Rams fan, says the February news resonated strongly with him since he, like Sam, competed for the University of Missouri (Hobson swam).
“I was just sort of shocked,” said Hobson, who’s gay. “I remember I was in the airport waiting for a connecting flight and watching the ESPN alert on my iPad and I was like, ‘Oh wait a minute, that’s the guy from University of Missouri.’ I thought this was really cool that he would do that. … I had played for University of Missouri in scholarship. I was not really out but not really in either, so it had even more of a resonance for me having been a University of Missouri gay athlete.”
Hobson said buzz about Sam has been strong in St. Louis and that although the Cardinals dominate the local sports discussion there, Sam’s presence is high in the public consciousness.
“There was lots of, ‘Oh, isn’t this wonderful,’ and people talking who don’t have much interest in football suddenly were interested,” he said.
A.J. Bockelman, executive director of PROMO, Missouri’s statewide LGBT rights group, agreed.
“There’s an incredible amount of buzz coalescing around the idea that St. Louis has its first gay celebrity in Michael Sam,” Bockelman said. “When he made his debut in a practice game, it was very well received and from what I understand, whenever he walked on the field, the entire crowd shouted his name so I think what that shows is that for St. Louis, we’re ready for someone like Michael Sam to be on the stage and probably bring a lot more attention. It’s a lot different than if he’d been picked up by, say New York or Los Angeles. Lots of people think of Missouri as just some place you fly over, and this will help us break down that perception.”
Matt Berger, a crisis communications consultant and football fan who lives in Washington, said Sam’s coming out is historic.
“It just felt to me like a tougher barrier than a lot of other sports,” said Berger, who’s gay. “It felt more significant to me than Jason Collins and that’s what I liked about it. Here was this guy who wasn’t just an ancillary player. He was a star. He had played on a major team, he had won defensive MVP honors. It wasn’t just a guy on the sidelines. This was somebody people could really look up to and that made a big difference for me.”
Hobson said the nature of football as a team sport adds to the magnitude of the moment.
“It’s a culture that can be very tough,” he said. “Not just the physical nature of the sport but with the ostracization factor that can occur. It’s not like swimming where you only have to rely on yourself. … You might get tackled harder, you could be seen as the weak link on the team and they could make your life hell. You might pay a price and I’m sure there are many who would say it’s not worth the risk. That’s why this is so important and a much bigger deal than, say, a women’s basketball player or somebody who comes out at the end of their career. It’s easy to say, ‘Oh, I’m gay,’ on your way out the door when you’re already established. But to do this when there’s still so much at stake in your career, when nothing’s a done deal, that’s why it’s so historic.”
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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