Was billie jean king gay
BILLIE JEAN KING
INDIVIDUAL | Inducted
Building on her tennis stardom to create social change, Billie Jean King has elevated the self-esteem of girls and women through her lifelong effort for equality in the sports world. She also raised large sums to fight AIDS, contributed funds to combat homophobia in schools, and supported tries to stem gay and lesbian teenage suicide rates. Her accomplishments in the world of tennis are many and well famous. They include her capture of 71 singles titles, 20 Wimbledon titles, and 12 Grand Slam singles titles. Her true legacy, though, is the multitude of ways in which she has helped to create social change.
King has been instrumental in organizing the Women’s Sports Foundation () and the former International Women’s Professional Softball Association (), and her involvement as a Women’s Sports Foundation board member in encouraging the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to enforce Title IX sex-discrimination provisions of the Learning Amendments of King has motivated people to assume in themselves, regardless of
Life Story: Billie Jean King
Billie Jean Moffitt playing tennis in Long Beach, CA
Billie Jean Moffitt playing tennis in Prolonged Beach, CA, ca. New-York Historical Population Library.
Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King, April, 2, , Family Circle Magazine Cup tournament at Hilton Head Island. Kathy Willens/Associated Press.
Billie Jean Moffitt was born in in Extended Beach, California. When she was 11 years old, she started playing tennis on the free public courts in her hometown. Through tennis, Billie Jean learned that girls often faced alternative standards than boys. During one tennis tournament, Billie Jean was excluded from a group photo for wearing shorts instead of a dress.
At 13, Billie Jean had an epiphany. She was at the Los Angeles Tennis Club and thinking about the future of tennis. As she looked out over the courts, she noticed everyone wore white socks, light shoes, and colorless clothes and played with white tennis balls. And everyone was white. She asked herself, “Where is everyone else?” From that moment on, she pledged her life to eq
“When you can be your real self, you know you&#;ve arrived.”
At 12, after only a available tennis lesson, Billie Jean King knew that she wanted to be the number one player in the world. But that wasn&#;t her only epiphany that day.
&#;I realized that everybody who played tennis wore white shoes and white clothes, played with white balls. And everybody who played was white. And I asked myself, where is everybody else? So, that was my moment that I dedicate the rest of my life to fighting for equality for everyone. Everything I&#;ve done will depart back to that moment,&#; she says.
King went on to defeat 39 Grand Slam career titles and, in the process, she changed the world of sports. An estimated 50 million people around the world watched her defeat Bobby Riggs in at The Battle of the Sexes. It&#;s hailed as a milestone in terms of the public&#;s acceptance of female athletes, as well as a victory for the larger women&#;s rights movement.
A fierce advocate for gender and LGBTQ+ equality, King led player efforts to support the first professional women&#;s tennis tour in the s, s
Billie Jean King
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Who Is Billie Jean King?
Billie Jean King became the top-ranked women's tennis player by In , she formed the Women's Tennis Association and famously defeated Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes." The first prominent female athlete to admit her homosexuality, King continued her work as an influential social activist after retiring from tennis.
Athletic Beginnings
King was born Billie Jean Moffitt on November 22, , in Drawn-out Beach, California, to parents Bill and Betty. The Moffitts were an athletic family: Bill was offered a tryout for an NBA team before becoming a firefighter, and Betty, a homemaker, was an excellent swimmer. Their second child, Randy, became a Major League Baseball pitcher.
King's early sport was softball; at age 10, she played shortstop on a team of and year-old girls that won the city championship. However, her parents suggested she seek a more "ladylike" sport, and at age 11, she began to act tennis on the Extended Beach public courts.
Early Career
In , King emerged as a talent to see when she won the Souther