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Billie Jean King
Tennis
A top-ranked women’s tennis player in the 1960s and ’70s, King became the first prominent professional female athlete to come out as a lesbian in 1981. She lost her endorsements, but became a role model for LGBT athletes like Martina Navratilova and Amélie Mauresmo.
“Sports teaches you character, it teaches you to play by the rules, it teaches you to know what it feels like to win and lose,” she once remarked. “It teaches you about life.”
King is an outspoken supporter of gender equity, helping to form the Women’s Tennis Association and demand equal play for female tennis players. She is also active in the Elton John AIDS Foundation and, in 2013, was chosen to represent the United States alongside hockey player Caitlin Cahow and figure skater Brian Boitano at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, as a symbol of LGBT representation in sports.
She is among the honorees at this year’s Trailblazer Honors, where she will be introduced by actress Emma Stone.
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