Fair Play: How LGBT Athletes are Claiming Their Rightful Place in Sports

(Paperback)

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Outsports co-founder Cyd Zeigler tells the story of how sport has been radically transformed for LGBT athletes in the past four years. When Cyd Zeigler started writing about LGBT sports issues in 1999, no one wanted to talk about them. Today, this is a central conversation in American society that reverberates throughout the sports world and beyond. As a key figure in the LGBT sports movement, Zeigler tells the story of how sports have transformed for LGBT athletes, diving into key moments and issues that have shaped sports for LGBT people today.

Reviews

Rather than an individual autobiography or a fictional narrative, this book serves as a broader look into LGBTQ athletics topics and issues. It's a great resource for anyone who wants to see the bigger picture of LGBTQ progress in sports. I even sent it to my grandpa after I came out, and it helped him see where I was coming from.
--Outsports, included in a roundup of 39 LGBT Sports Books recommended by a gay pro baseball player

Fair Play presents LGBT history and shows how far the movement has come. It's also an important scrapbook of past and present-day gay athletes who have bravely tested America's social climate and come out, even when their careers were at risk.
--Bay Area Reporter

Zeigler shares the stories of those athletes who are working to bust through the prejudices and stereotypes, including NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin, transgender MMA fighter Fallon Fox, and NFL hopeful Michael Sam. This book is one part history and one part anthem, and will resonate with anyone who has played on a team but not felt a part of one.
--Literary Hub

It's hard not to be fascinated with what's definitely not your usual game coverage. Zeigler is a nationally known sports writer and this book is filled with insider peeks, big-name examples, astonishing incidents and up-and-comer encouragement.
--Washington Blade

Lack of acceptance, argues Zeigler, is more likely to come from teammates, owners, and others inside sports organizations. Using his access to athletes, managers, and coaches--something that teams often go to absurd lengths to restrict--he picks apart the homophobic inner worlds of amateur and professional sports.
--Gay & Lesbian Review

If sports are your thing, then Fair Play by Cyd Zeigler should be on your roster. Zeigler, an authority on sports and the LGBT community, looks at LGBT athletes, the issues they face, and the myths they have the power to dispel. You'll read about three in-the-news gay athletes, and how gay and lesbian sports participants will one day change the current level of acceptance of LGBTQ players in the game.
--Washington Blade, Spring Arts 2016 preview

Included in the Bay Area Reporter's Pride 2016 Reading List

Included in the Wisconsin Gazette's Pride 2016 Summer Reading List

Zeigler masterfully informs about LGBT sports history while motivating the reader to help foster progress.
--Roanoke Times

The most important book you read this year. A clear-headed exploration of the integration of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender athletes into the world of mainstream sports, it...should be required reading for anyone involved in playing, coaching and administering organized athletics at any level.
--Isthmus

Long regarded as a leading voice in the space, Zeigler has written the definitive book on LGBT issues in sports. By turns informative, insightful, poignant, and (rightly) impatient, Zeigler shows how LGBT attitudes in sports mirror the broader cultural shift--and how sometimes they don't.
--Jon Wertheim, executive editor of Sports Illustrated

Cyd Zeigler is right: courage is contagious. Sometimes all it takes is knowing others have come before and prevailed to spark a personal revelation and create another ally. More and more coaches, athletes, and fans are ready to embrace their LGBT teammates, even if--truth be told--there is still a lot of work to be done to change engrained mindsets and behaviors within sports at every level.
--John E. Amaechi, former NBA player

Fair Play is an essential read and one that is desperately needed to help break down stereotypes and myths with LGBT athletes and the community at large. There is still so much work to be done, but Zeigler and many of the brave athletes he chronicles--gay and straight--are literally helping to save lives.
--Amy K. Nelson, award-winning sports journalist

Cyd Zeigler has to be listed among the great pioneers for making it possible for LGBT Americans to come out in the sporting world. His writing is filled with passion, insights, and a deep belief in equality. Fair Play fills a void of a critical part of LGBT history and we are fortunate that Zeigler has told it with such power and grace.
--David Mixner, coauthor of Brave Journeys: Profiles in Gay and Lesbian Courage

Author Bio

Cyd Zeigler is one of the world's foremost experts on LGBT issues in sports. Along with his Outsports cofounder Jim Buzinski, Zeigler has written more coming-out stories of LGBT people--in sports or any other arena--than any journalist in America. These stories have included former NBA player John Amaechi, former NFL prospect Wade Davis, NFL hopeful Michael Sam, and NCAA basketball player Derrick Gordon, in addition to countless other athletes and coaches in high school, college, and pro sports. Zeigler also cofounded the Sports Equality Foundation, which helps fund the cycle of LGBT people coming out and being out in sports. He appears regularly on ESPN, and in the New York Times and USA Today, and provides expertise on LGBT sports issues for countless other media outlets including Sports Illustrated, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, and NPR. He is a former high school athlete, still holding school track-and-field records twenty-five years later. A graduate of Stanford University, Zeigler lives in Los Angeles with his husband and two cats.