Word games.
If we're not entirely out in the sports world, then a gym bag full of old and new books confirms that we haven't been simply standing on the sidelines either. There's WNBA: A Celebration by Kelly Whiteside (1998; HarperCollins, $20), which isn't technically about lesbian athletes, and Girljock: The Book (1998; St. Martin's, $16.95), which is. In Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homophobia in Sport (1998; Human Kinetics, $19.95), Pat Griffin explores the mystique of--and the discrimination against--lesbian athletes.The closeted world of the professional athlete has been well documented in numerous autobiographies. Lately the field seems to belong to the very prolific Eric Marcus, who coauthored Olympic diver Greg Louganis's Breaking the Surface (1995; Plume Books, $12.95), skating champ Rudy Galindo's Icebreaker (1997; Pocket Books, $14), and Straight From the Heart: A Love Story (1994; Warner, $11.99), the autobiographical stow of ex-husband-and-husband professional bodybuilders Rod Jackson and Bob Paris. In 1997 Paris wrote his own memoir, Gorilla Suit: My Adventures in Bodybuilding (St. Martin's, $23.95).
Long before the Marcus era, The David Kopay Story (with Perry Deane Young, 1977; Dutton, $9.95) began a landslide of autobiographies by gay and lesbian professional athletes that peaked with Martina Navratilova's Martina (with George Vecsey, 1985; Alfred A. Knopf, out of print). The lineup includes Dave Pallone's Behind the Mask: My Double Life in Baseball (with Alan Steinberg, 1990; New American Library, $5.99) and Gay Olympian: The Life and Death of Dr. Tom Waddell (with Dick Schaap, 1996; Alfred A. Knopf, $23). Also not to be missed is Babe: The Life and Legend of Babe Didrikson Zaharias by Susan E. Cayleff (1996; University of Illinois Press, $14.95), a biography of the 1932 Olympic gold medalist and: pro golfer that includes a fascinating interview with the athlete's former lover, Betty Dodd.
Fiction fans would do well hunt down Out at the Old Ball count of big-league life, or Patricia Nell Warren's The Front Runner (1974; Wildcat, $21.95), the godfather of all homo-jock literature, about a gay track coach and the star runner who becomes his lover. This one has been called "the most celebrated gay love story of all time" (don't tell E.M. Forster!) and has spawned a pair of well-regarded sequels, Harlan's Race (1994; Wildcat, $12.95) and Billy's Boy (1997; Wildcat, $14.95).
Both Carol Anshaw's Aquamarine (1992; Houghton Mifflin, $11) and Jenifer Levin's Water Dancer (1982; Simon and Schuster, out of print) use the context of competitive swimming to position women against feats of physical and emotional endurance, and both made literary stars of their authors. Levin returned to the subject of swimming and lesbian love in The Sea of Light (1993; Plume, $10.95).
Lucy Jane Bledsoe's Sweat (1995; Seal, $10.95) collects stories--some sweet, some sad--about women who live for the rigors of competition. So does Sportsdykes: Stories from On and Off the Field, edited by Susan Fox Rogers (1994; St. Martin's, $8.95).
Other titles--particularly the young-adult Lesbians and Gays and Sports by Perry Deane Young and Martin Duberman (1994; Chelsea House, $12.95) and Her Story in Sport: A Historical Anthology of Women in Sports, edited by Reet Howell (1982; Human Kinetics, out of print)--emphasize the institutional prejudice surrounding homosexual orientation in pro sports. But all of them document the lives of notable gay athletes and celebrate their battles both on and off the playing field.
Pela is the Arizona arts correspondent for National Public Radio.
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| Title Annotation: | books on gay and lesbian athletes |
|---|---|
| Author: | Pela, Robrt L. |
| Publication: | The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine) |
| Article Type: | Bibliography |
| Date: | Aug 18, 1998 |
| Words: | 567 |
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