Heath Thorpe has a shot at qualifying for gymnastics at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games. The out gay gymnast posted on Instagram that there is a guaranteed spot for him to compete as an individual athlete. All he has to do is win the all-around at the upcoming continental championships. He wrote on Instagram: “4 Aussies and 4 Kiwis will compete head-to-head in the All-Around on May 26 in Auckland. The highest scoring gymnast on the day gets a named place at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Heath Thorpe (@heaththorpe) Thorpe was unceremoniousl ..read more

Candace Parker has retired from basketball. At least, from playing basketball professionally. The WNBA superstar announced her retirement from competitive play on Instagram. And the message couldn’t have been more full of love, from the image to the text. “I always wanted to walk off the court with no parade or tour, just privately with the ones I love,” she wrote on Instagram. “What now was to be my last game, I walked off the court with my daughter. I ended the journey just as I started it, with her.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Candace Parker (@candaceparker) Parker ca ..read more

Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger announced they were ending their long-term relationship last year. It left many people shocked. Now actress Sophia Bush is providing some next-step insight. It involves a new kind of power couple between sports and entertainment. Of course, no fan knows the behind-the-scenes reality of any relationship. Krieger and Harris, the two soccer stars and teammates who were married with children, clearly felt an end to their relationship was necessary. Harris is sharing her love for her kids with Krieger. Love to see it. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ash ..read more

Carl Nassib was selected in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns. Eight years later, he was once again be part of the draft. Nassib took the stage dressed in a hoodie Friday with Peggy Rajski from The Trevor Project to announce the Browns’ second-round pick, each of them wearing a Trevor Project shirt. “They do incredible work for crisis intervention for LGBTQ youth,” Nassib told the crowd in Detroit about the Trevor Project, which cheered. Carl Nassib represented the @TrevorProject as he announced the @Browns 54th overall pick. The NFL is proud to support the Trevo ..read more

Five years ago, CeCé Telfer, a senior track athlete from Franklin Pierce University (N.H.), took the blocks in the finals of the 400 meter hurdles at the NCAA Division II Track and Field Championships. She ended up winning the event and became the first transgender woman student-athlete in NCAA history to win an individual national championship. Next season, a likely successor will not get the chance. As fall practices start for most sports in August, the NCAA’s transgender student-athlete policy will cede to the regulations of the world or national governing body of each individual NCAA champ ..read more

Nikki Ayers will be headed back to the Paralympics, this time in Paris and this time totally out and proud in every aspect of her life. Having been announced as an ambassador for Pride House Paris 2024 — the biggest project of its kind so far for an Olympic and Paralympic Games — Ayers is also moving up a level in LGBTQ athlete activism. However, the Australian para-rower, who became a world champion for the first time last year, admits she is not a natural campaigner. She competed in Tokyo three years ago but wasn’t on Outsports’ list of 36 publicly out athletes at those Paralympics. “I ident ..read more

Welcome back to Talkin’ Gaysball, the only place on the internet where you can find a sentence like “Nymphia Wind just pulled off the biggest upset since Kirk Gibson’s Dodgers…” One of the best parts about attending a “Drag Race” watch party is being part of a group exploding with emotion at the most dramatic moments. It’s the closest most gay bars get to a “sports bar watching a big game” vibe. During last week’s Grand Finale, when RuPaul revealed that the lip sync for the crown would be set to Kylie Minogue’s “Padam Padam,” that was enough by itself to set my bar into an uproar. It was a cap ..read more

The NCAA Board of Governors met in a virtual sessions Thursday. One of the topics at the front of the list was continued attempts at NIL (Name-Image-Likeness) regulations and reforms, and best practices guidelines for mental health. There is also a growing urgency on the matter of transgender athletes in the NCAA, even with enhanced regulation ahead in the coming academic year. That urgency has been accelerated by the efforts of certain groups seeking a total ban on transgender women competing in women’s collegiate sport, as well as groups pushing for the inclusion of trans women in the female ..read more

Heath Thorpe has a shot at qualifying for gymnastics at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games. The out gay gymnast posted on Instagram that there is a guaranteed spot for him to compete as an individual athlete. All he has to do is win the all-around at the upcoming continental championships. He wrote on Instagram: “4 Aussies and 4 Kiwis will compete head-to-head in the All-Around on May 26 in Auckland. The highest scoring gymnast on the day gets a named place at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Heath Thorpe (@heaththorpe) Thorpe was unceremoniousl ..read more

The NFL Draft represents so much hope for so many young men in their football journey. One of them is Byron Perkins. This weekend about 250 players out of college football will be selected to join the NFL ranks, as potential players at every position from quarterback to cornerback. After the Draft, there will be a furious signing of hundreds of undrafted rookies as well. Over the long course of NFL Draft history, only three gay men have been publicly out ahead of the Draft. Michael Sam out of Missouri famously came out ahead of the 2014 NFL Draft. He was selected in the seventh round by the Ra ..read more