In New Zealand, LGBT-rights advocates have called for a gay player with the legendary All Blacks rugby team to openly declare his sexuality, according to Radio Australia. Broadcaster Steve Gray recently said that he was aware there had been several gay All Blacks, and that it was time for one to stand up and be counted. The openly gay TV presenter also claims to have slept with one player.
Bev Kearney, a Hall of Fame women's track and field coach at the University of Texas, abruptly resigned after a 2002 affair with an adult female athlete was publicized, according to SheWired.com . Kearney, who coached the Lady Longhorns to six NCAA track championships since she took the reins in 1993, told ABC that she was "shocked" when the decade-old consensual affair came to light. Kearney's attorney believes the revelation was timed to keep Kearney from earning a raise and extended contract.
In coach Tom Sermanni's debut, the U.S. women's soccer team beat Scotland 4-1 in Jacksonville, Fla., according to ESPN.com . It was Sermanni's first game in charge since the U.S. Soccer Federation hired him in October. Sermanni, who was born in Scotland, is the successor to lesbian coach Pia Sundhage, who now heads the Swedish national team.
Despite reports that the Russian government wants LGBT athletes to tone it down for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, out figure skater Johnny Weir is not concerned, according to USA Today. Among the reasons are that Weir's close friend is the nation's biggest figure skating star, Evgeni Plushenko; the fact that Weir speaks Russian; and that he's married to a man, Victor Voronov, whose parents grew up in the former Soviet Union. Weir said, "It's appalling they can censor their public, but I try to do everything I can. I have been in talks with different LBGT organizations in Russia with how I can help."