page_title: Homosexuality in modern sports
section_title: LGBT leagues, teams, events, and individuals coming out
hierarchical_section_title: Homosexuality in modern sports / LGBT leagues, teams, events, and individuals coming out
caption_attribution_description: English: Pride London 2011, near Whitehall.
context_page_description: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other non-heterosexual or non-cisgender athletes have faced intolerance due to heteronormativity within sports culture.
  There have been several notable outspoken homosexual athletes, including Sheryl Swoopes, Billie Jean King, and Billy Bean. In the 1980s, Tom Waddell, an Olympic decathlete, hosted the first Gay Games in San Francisco. Since then, many homosexual sporting organizations have been founded along with sporting events that feature homosexual athletes.
  While overall the trend is towards open acceptance, different sports vary in acceptance widely and homosexual athletes still face many challenges. International sports organizations have come under scrutiny for holding competitions in countries where LGBT equality is out of step with their own policies.
context_section_description: In the absence of openly LGBT sportspersons, LGBT-focused leagues and events have been created since the late 1970s. One of the earliest-recorded gay sports event organizing committees is the Federation of Gay Games (initially known as the United States Gay Olympics Committee), which was established in 1980 by Tom Waddell, Mark Brown and Paul Mart to organize the first Gay Games (1982) in San Francisco; another organization, Apollo - Friends in Sports, was established in 1981 to organize the Western Cup, a multi-sport event for gay and lesbian athletes in Calgary, Alberta. By 1989, the European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation was formed to organize the EuroGames for LGBT athletes in Europe.
  In 2006, a schism occurred between the Federation of Gay Games and the Montreal organizing committee for the Gay Games, leading to the Montreal committee organizing a rival multi-sports event, the World Outgames, which continues to the present. The sponsoring organization for the Outgames, the Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association, has also organized smaller, regional multi-sports events, including the North American and AsiaPacific Outgames.
  In 2002, the first gay rugby world cup games were created called the Bingham cup. These games were created in order to promote the game of Rugby as an all-inclusive, global sport.
caption: Gay football and rugby players marching in Pride London 2011.
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