The Tokyo 2020 Olympics has a record breaking 181+ LGBT athletes competing in it. It has seen more visibly out Olympians than all the previous Olympics combined. Furthermore, there are more lesbian and bisexual women than gay and bisexual men, with a ratio of about 8:1. So let’s take a look at some lesbian and bisexual women from Team Great Britain!
Sarah Jones is a Welsh field hockey player. She is a midfielder/forward for Great Britain and Wales. “Having made her international debut for Wales back in 2005, Sarah was called into the GB cycle following the Rio 2016 Olympics and pulled on the GB shirt for the first time during the 2018 Champions Trophy,” according to Great Britain Hockey.
Sarah is in a relationship with fellow field hockey Olympian, Leah Wilkinson. When asked “when did you realise you were a lesbian?” Sarah said, “I’ve got to think about that…It was just the classic, fancying your P.E teacher when you’re 15 kind of thing. “I’m only 30, but I honestly think times have changed. We were left to find it out for ourselves. There was nothing in the media, I didn’t really know what it meant if I’m honest.” Relatable. She admits she still “stops short” of holding hands with Leah in public to “avoid the hassle.” Homophobia ended with gay marriage, though, right? *eye roll*
Leah Wilkinson and Sarah said, in 2020, that “among team-mates and the hockey community, they have been public as a couple for eight years. They are engaged, they own a house together. They dote over their garden.”
Leah continues, “Growing up in the hockey world, I was around a lot of gay women…My mum and sister had plenty of gay friends and for me it was all pretty easy. It was part of our lives, it was not seen as anything different. We shouldn’t say we’re fortunate, but you hear really sad stories about people who aren’t accepted. We’re lucky to have hockey, where there is such a thriving LGBT community.”
Even non-sporty people like myself can appreciate the way in which team sport — especially hockey and soccer — helps lesbian and bisexual women come to terms with their sexual orientation by exposure to other LB women and the team camaraderie that halts much of the homophobic bullying. Lesbians can have a lil’ female-only team sport if they want to.
Susannah Townsend, field hockey, used the gold win Britain won in Rio, the first gold in women’s field hockey for GB, to motivate her for Tokyo. “It has been the highlight of my career,” she says. “I would be lying if I said I didn’t think about it. But it inspires me to play in future as well as I did then –or even better.” She lives with her partner, Fiona Pocock. The couple have set up a schools sport program together, where they give courses on rugby and hockey, as a part of the Science and Exercise Management degree that Susannah undertook at the University of Kent.
Natalie Powell, a Welsh Judo star, was excited to show what she can do at Tokyo. I’m looking to be on the podium, I want a medal,” she said to Dai Sport. “I feel on my best day if everything goes to plan I’m fully capable of achieving that.” Natalie even isolated with her training partner and his girlfriend during British lockdown. “We didn’t quite anticipate how long lockdown was going to be but we knew it was going to be a while. We got access to all the equipment so we were really lucky with that during lockdown. I was probably able to manage about 80% of my normal training.”
Saskia Budgett, rower, had a boyfriend when she fell for fellow athlete, Kyra Edwards. “The 24-year-old admits she would probably not have questioned her sexuality had she not met Kyra. Rowing has not only impacted her life. It’s shaped it,” according to the Team GB website. “Rowing has given me a huge amount of confidence and I think it has taught me a lot of life lessons and made me a very resilient person,” she said. “I don’t know where my life would have gone but I don’t think I would have a girlfriend and, without rowing, I would probably be a very different person. I think it allows me to be my authentic self, be who I am and love who I love.” The couple have been together for five years.
Megan Jones and Celia Quansah are a rugby power couple who competed alongside one another in Tokyo 2020. “Jones, 24, and Quansah, 25, have also played XV-a-side together, representing Wasps in the Premier 15s league, and say how useful it is to have someone who knows you so well on the pitch. But on the day of the GB squad announcement, nerves were high as they waited at home for an email that would tell them if one or both had been selected,” reported the BBC.
The couple were originally a bit more private with their relationship, until they realized how many LGBT people they could help by being more open about it. “We never spoke out about it initially but when we did the response was incredible,” says Quansah. “Everyone was like this is amazing, you’re helping so many people by doing this. We didn’t even think about it before. If we can help one person feel like they can be themselves, it just makes you want to do it more.”
Instagram has been a great vehicle for the couple to share their positivity with the world: “What we’re about is being authentic and true to who we are. You get heterosexual couples posting photos of each other on social media. All we’re doing is sharing our life on Instagram. It was never to be like ‘this is for the community’ but naturally it becomes like that anyway. We’re very proud and it helps that we’re both vocal about it. Speaking about things normalises it – it’s as simple as that.”
The world’s most Sapphic Sport, soccer, scores again for Britain. Rachel Daly, Fran Kirby, Jill Scott, Demi Stokes and Carly Telford are all on Team Gay. All the more reason why Bend it Like Beckham was the ultimate gay-baiting film.
Defender Demi Stokes “has 56 international caps and has been playing for City for six years, winning three FA Cups and a Women’s Super League title with the club,” reported the BBC. Demi has a tattoo that reads “Don’t let your struggle become your identity,” palm trees because she played there for four years, and some on her calf that are dedicated to her nan. “I was really close with my nan – her and my mum pretty much brought me up. My nan sacrificed a lot for me and my brothers and sisters to give us a better life and we were really close. She was the best.”
Demi proposed to her partner Katie during lockdown! “I bought the ring — and how people buy rings and wait months is beyond me — on a Monday and I was going to propose the following Sunday, but I didn’t sleep the whole week because I was so excited. Katie asked why I wasn’t sleeping and if I was OK, and I was like: “Everything’s fine!” I waited to do it until I was off the next day because we’re always here, there and everywhere. I opened the door and she was like: “Why have you got a full outfit on?” I said I had just been on a walk. She was like: “What, in that outfit?!” It was quite funny — she was asking lots of questions. I think we try and complicate those things but she always says she loves our house and garden, so I just did it in the garden.”
