The League of Their Own Was 2/3rds Gay, Says Maybelle Blair at 95

women's baseball league gay

The All-Amerin Girls Profsnal Baseball League did everythg uld to keep lbians off the diamond. Seventy-five years later, s gay stars are fally openg up.

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* women's baseball league gay *

Many of the women actually were gay, cludg D’Angelo, which is another part of the story the movie didn’t tell. By not cludg a gay character’s story “A League of Their Own, ” the film do to the history of the league what the owners tried to do s existence — erase lbians om the Terry Donahue met Pat Henschel 1947, Donahue was a 22-year-old tcher and utily fielr the All-Amerin Girls Profsnal Baseball League. “I don’t thk was really even talked about, ankly, ” Henschel the ’40s and ’50s, homosexualy was not discsed much; wasn’t until 1973 that the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn removed om the list of mental illns.

“In 1994 few baseball — or the untry — were ready to accept a gay player, male or female, ” wr Borrs. ”“If a woman plays hardball, people figure she’s likely gay, ” wr Borrs. It’s why, durg her baseball reer, she nstantly had to answer qutns about whether she dated men, and had to reassure the public that, spe the fact that she played ball, she was not gay.

She unrstands today that talkg about beg a gay athlete is a double-edged sword, a way.

9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY

In major league baseball only two players have publicly me out as gay other than that few of mor league players have done so. * women's baseball league gay *

“I was eply ignorant of my small place the history of women athlet and the whole gay rights movement, ” Borrs wr of her playg days as a closeted this stereotype existed long before Borrs was even born. One manager released two of his players bee he thought they were gay and was worried they would “ntamate” the rt of the another se, a married player was mored to have fallen for one of her teammat.

“Knowledge of gay women sport ranged om a hazy, unarticulated awarens to an rmed faiary or personal volvement, ” wr Cahn.

It was many ways the perfect environment for gay women to bee volved wh each other. She also knew that the league was actively disuragg players om beg perceived as exactly what Wilkson was — gay.

THE LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN WAS TWO THIRDS GAY, SHAR 95-YEAR-OLD MAYBELLE BLAIR

In June, 95-year-old former ball player Maybelle Blair me out publicly as gay. At a panel for the A League of Their Own seri at Framele, she shared about queer life the league. * women's baseball league gay *

Donahue was a year to her four-season reer the AAGPBL, though was not yet aware of her fact, as Donahue rells the doc, she and another baseball player were so worried about gay women the league g onto them at the time, they would barri themselv si their room at night, blockg the door wh a chair. And while Chigo may have been more progrsive than Saskatchewan, was still the 1940s, when arrts om raids of unrground gay clubs or public outgs of homosexualy newspapers ed peopl' liv on the they had each other, Donahue and Henschel rarely ventured to such venu.

They formed a small muny wh other gay upl and ultimately settled to a hoe St. "There was speculatn over the years, our fay had ternal nversatns wonrg if they [were gay], " says Bolan, whose mother, Diana, a proment figure the documentary, was so close to Terry she nsired her more of a mother figure than nt. Were they gay, were they lbian?

"I thk a lot of the baseball players were gay, but maly they kept very quiet, jt away om the public, " says Henschel, who traveled wh Donahue's team for a uple weeks 1949, and regularly attend rnns wh her more recent s. Marshall and Madonna have both been nsired gay ins over the years, and star Rosie O'Donnell me out 2002. And hasn't stopped fans om labelg as "secretly gay.

95-YEAR-OLD ‘A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN’ WOMEN’S BASEBALL STAR OUT AS GAY

Eric Bach is an openly gay broadster for the Frericksburg Natnals. He has major league aspiratns, but his path has been much lonelier than he would prefer. * women's baseball league gay *

" Then aga, was the early 1990s — eons ago the evolutn of gay rights and LGBTQ awarens; the film was released at a time when the vast majory of onscreen pictns of gay characters volved the AIDS epimic (Longtime Compann, Philalphia) was never an issue for Donahue and Henschel, who proudly sports a uple different sweatshirts om the film (one toutg Tom Hanks's oft-quoted "There's no cryg baseball! Julie knows that the prent day, a lot of women who play softball are gay. But the 1940s, beg gay was still unacceptable and dangero—not to mentn that homosexualy was still nsired a mental disorr.

Ju Law’s character the movie Closer, an ob wrer, d some of this language: “‘He valued his privacy’—gay. And yet, spe beg able to garner the clu about women who may have spent their liv wh other women—who may or may not have intified as gay or a lbian or queer—choosg to share the fdgs wh the world at-large was another place for me to stop and nsir.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* WOMEN'S BASEBALL LEAGUE GAY

9 Baseball Players Who Came Out As Gay [2023 Update] .

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