Published November 19, 2024
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This podcast is funded by the New York City Council. It was developed by History UnErased and produced and edited by Dinah Mack; Kathleen Barker; and Deb Fowler.
TRANSCRIPT
Deb Fowler: Hello and welcome to UnErasing LGBTQ History and Identities Podcast. I’m Deb Fowler, co-founder of History UnErased.
Even if you are not a follower of tennis, it would be difficult not to be impressed by someone who won 39 Grand Slam titles, including 20 at Wimbledon, and was ranked number one in women’s tennis for six of ten years between 1966 and 1975. But equally as impressive as Billie Jean King’s title as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, is her legacy that extends far beyond her achievements and athleticism on the court. As an LGBTQ pioneer and an unwavering advocate for women’s rights, King has used her platform to challenge social norms, fight for equal pay and gender equality, and break down barriers for the LGBTQ community. Her courage and leadership have made her a lasting icon in both sports and activism.
Kathleen Barker: Born in 1943, Billie Jean King entered the world of professional tennis during a time when women faced significant inequalities in her sport. Men had greater access to corporate sponsorship deals, earned more money competing in tournaments, and had more media exposure than women, and King was one of the first players to challenge these inequities. In a 1973 interview called “Day at Night” with journalist James Day, King described the discrimination she faced as a female athlete this way:
Billie Jean King: A lot of girls would be playing a lot more sports if people would accept them better in society. Because generally if a woman decides to go into sports, it's a no-no, and it's a negative approach. And…Why? Because it means you're masculine, it means you're aggressive. All those things. People connotate with not being a woman or a lady. And that's finally changing. People are starting to say, look, it's beautiful. You get in shape, you have a better life. And people in general are accepting women as athletes and peers are starting to accept each other. Generally. For a boy, it's a great thing to be an athlete, but for a girl it wasn't really accepted. But that's finally changing. Now girls are starting to identify with women athletes…I think we should get rid of the words feminine and masculine. Do you? I think we should because too often it makes children try to act a certain way instead of feeling and doing what really is right for them. And it just kills me to see some girls be passive when in reality they're not a passive person. And also what happens to the boy who isn't a super jock, who doesn't go out and run a hundred yard dash in X amount of seconds and he likes to sit home and read, or he likes to sit home and cook now, that's when the family gets uptight and they start yelling at him. So I am hoping that through, well, I call it the women's movement, women's Liberation, that it's going to help both, not to stereotype people. You wouldn’t have us all be alike I mean? I don't want anyone to be alike. Whatever you like doing. I'm an aggressive tennis player. Some men are aggressive tennis players, some are not. And some women are not aggressive tennis players. But generally when you think an aggressive tennis player, you'd say, oh, she plays like a man. And that's out the window as far as I'm concerned….But as I got into tennis and grew up in tennis, started playing in country clubs, realizing it was a very traditional sport, a very rich and only for whites, that just turned me off. And I didn't like that. And I can remember when I was 14 or 15 that I said to myself, if I can help change the sport to make it a better sport for everybody, why shouldn't everyone have the opportunity to have the same feelings I've had about this sport that I love so much? And the only way you can do it's by changing the system, make it available to the masses, and we need a professional side to it.
KB: In 1970, Billie Jean King was one of nine courageous women who joined together to take a stand for equal rights in tennis. The group of nine, later called the "Original 9", signed a symbolic $1 contract to join the Virginia Slims Circuit, and took a stand against the unequal prize money awarded in men’s and women’s tennis. Their commitment to break from the traditional tennis establishment led to the formation of the Women’s Tennis Association in June of 1973 and this association set the stage for greater gender equality in the sport.
BJK: As a professional, you can practice and practice and make your living out of it, and that's what is the top level you can go to. But young girls need to know where they can go, and that's what we can help them see. This is the highest standard possible and it's a beautiful thing. And when the money came into the game, people started to notice me and the other women. And the reason for this is money is a measuring stick. Whether you work in a factory, whether you're a school teacher or whatever, at least you can relate. You say to yourself, I make $200 a week, and here this woman's making $10,000 a week. Oh, I think I'll go watch it. I wonder why they make so much money.
This is another thing I would hope that would change in all areas of sports, that sports is part of life, and we've always tried to separate sports from life, like you say, making it very pure and making it up there. Well, if we do it that way, it'll only be open to very independently wealthy people because when you get a child who wants to become a champion, to be a champion, you've got to travel to travel, you need money. And when they can make it on their own through the money they win. They have so much more self-respect in themselves and not being obligated to others. That's a terrible feeling to an amateur athlete. And I got paid under the table and that was very degrading to me.
KB: In 1973, Billie Jean King captivated a global audience of 90 million people when she took on former world No. 1 and a self-declared male chauvinist named Bobby Riggs in what was called the “Battle of the Sexes.” This was a defining moment not only for tennis but also for the feminist movement.
“I’m taking this match very seriously. I love to win. I welcome the responsibility and the pressure. Bobby had better be ready.” That was Billie Jean King when asked about the challenge. Riggs, then 55 and a former men’s tennis star of the 1930s and 1940s, had openly belittled women’s tennis, saying that women were so inferior to men that even he, in his advanced age, could defeat the top female players. After beating Margaret Court, who was the second-ranked woman at the time, on May 13, 1973, Riggs set out to play Billie Jean King, who accepted his challenge to prove him wrong. The match was advertised around the world, and aired on prime-time television on September 20, 1973, captivating an estimated 90 million viewers.
ABC Sports Commentator: Wait. We'll watch Bobby. He'll behave like a perfect gentleman. And so this is what it's come down to here in the Houston Astro, though a long-awaited match hustled and promoted ceaselessly and shrewdly by Bobby Riggs, excitement engendered all over the country. As Billy Jean hugs her husband, Larry King, it began to become a cause celebre, equality for women, equal rights. It was Billy Jean who fought for equal pay for women in the US Open Tennis tournament and for all of the women of America, or at least most of the US seemed to be caught up with the anticipation of this match. Billy Jean went into virtual seclusion. There was talk before the match about her health, whether or not she'd even be able to go ahead with the match scheduled or the match would have to be postponed. It turned out instead that Billy Jean King was perfectly ready and not only ready, but willing and able. She played her own game, resting up, being non-communicative, but preparing herself mentally and emotionally and physically for a stunning performance against Bobby. Ricks once again, the winner of the Battle of the Sexes, Billy Jean King by scores of 6 4, 6 3 6 3. This ABC sports exclusive has been brought to you by Cadillac.
KB: But King’s victory left no questions about a woman’s athletic potential as she beat Riggs in three sets—6–4, 6–3, 6–3—and won the $100,000 winner-take-all prize. King’s victory, along with the passage of Title IX the previous year, was a catalyst for the rise in participation in women’s sports, and also inspired women to demand equal pay across all areas of the workforce.
Title IX, which was passed into law in 1972, includes 37 words that changed America: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” In other words, Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receives funding from the federal government. This included athletic programs in high schools and colleges.
According to the National Women’s Law Center, after Title IX passed in 1972, women’s and girls’ participation in sports soared. Before Title IX, less than 16 percent of all college athletes were women and fewer than 32,000 women participated in college sports. By the 2019-2020 academic year, that number was close to 230,000 —almost seven times the pre-Title IX rate and representing 44 percent of all NCAA athletes. Looking at high school sports, in 1972, 7 percent of all high school athletes were girls, (only about 295,000), but by the 2018-2019 school year, that number had risen to 3.4 million, representing 43 percent of all high school athletes.
In 1974, two years after the passage of Title IX and a year after beating Riggs, King started the “Women’s Sports Foundation” to create more access to sports for girls and women in sports across the United States and around the world.
In addition to her work for women’s rights, Billie Jean King is a pioneering figure in the LGBTQ rights movement. In 1981, Billie Jean faced a major challenge when her secretary, Marilyn Barnett, publicly revealed their secret relationship and outed King as a lesbian. King held a press conference to confirm the story, and asked for privacy. Despite this, the scandal damaged her career and she lost nearly $2 million in endorsements.
“It was horrible," King told NBC News of the 1981 incident. Her mother had always told her, ‘To thine own self be true,” and King was determined to live by those words. When asked, in retrospect, if she would do anything differently, King said, "I'd come out earlier."
In a 2021 interview with GLADD, King spoke about this experience. Here’s what she had to say:
BJK: “I think I was the first one that was outed in ’81. And I told the truth, which my PR people did not like. And I said, “No, I’m going to tell the truth.” Oh my God, it was just a knockdown drag-out fight over the phone. And I mean, it was just hours, and hours, and hours. And I just said, “No.” You cannot believe in today’s society, at least the situation that I’m in, that this ever happened. It’s like a bad dream. And yet I lived it day after day. And when we started the tour, because I was chosen as the leader and I happened to be the number one player around that time, too, I was told if I talk about anything, that we wouldn’t have a tour. So, this wasn’t just about me. This was about a lot more than just me.”
KB: In 1987, Billie Jean and her husband, Larry, divorced. By then, she was in a relationship with tennis player Ilana Kloss. King’s coming out was a key moment in the history of LGBTQ visibility, and her representation helped challenge the stigma and silence that surrounded other LGBTQ individuals in sports and society. She became an important role model and paved the way for future generations of athletes who will hopefully find it easier to be open and honest about their lives from the beginning of their careers.
In the 1980s and 1990s, when the AIDS crisis was devastating communities, especially the LGBTQ community, Billie Jean King was outspoken about the need for increased attention to the epidemic. She was one of the first major public figures to speak out on the issue, using her platform to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, particularly during a time when stigma and misinformation were rampant, and she was a founding board member for the Elton John AIDS Foundation which to date has raised over $600 million to combat HIV/AIDs across the world.
In August of 2009, President Barack Obama awarded Billie Jean King the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, for her relentless commitment to equality for women and the LGBTQ community. She was the first female athlete to ever receive the Medal.
President Obama: These are the 2009 recipients of the Medal of Freedom. At a moment when cynicism and doubt too often prevail, when our obligations to one another are too often forgotten, when the road ahead can seem too long or hard to tread these extraordinary men and women, these agents of change remind us that excellence is not beyond our abilities, that hope lies around the corner, and that justice can still be one in the forgotten corners of this world. They remind us that we each have it within our powers to fulfill dreams, to advance the dreams of others, and to remake the world for our children. And it is now my distinct and extraordinary honor to ask each of them to come forward to receive their award. As a military aid reads their citation,
Military Aid: Bill Jean Moffitt King has advanced a struggle for greater gender equality around the world. In an age of male-dominated sports, her pioneering journey took her from Long Beach, California to the lawns of All England Club and the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Her athletic acumen is matched only by her unwavering defense of equal rights. With Billie Jean King pushing us, the road ahead will be smoother for women. The future will be brighter for LGBT Americans, and our nation's commitment to equality will be stronger for all.
KB: Billie Jean King has continued to advocate for female and LGBTQ athletes around the world. Together with Ilana Kloss, she founded the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative in 2014, a non-profit organization that seeks to use the power of sports for personal growth and social change, expand access to education, and to support organizations that work to empower activism and leadership.
In 2019, ESPN established the Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Award to recognize young athletes who use sports to improve their communities. King also played a key role in the multi-year effort to create the Professional Women’s Hockey League in 2023. She serves on the League’s Board of Directors, and the League’s annual Most Valuable Player Award is named in King’s honor.
On September 14, 2021, the New-York Historical Society began construction on a major building expansion, which will include the future home of the American LGBTQ+ Museum, among other exciting projects. The emcee of the event was Billie Jean King who spoke about her love of history and the importance of history to develop a greater and more diverse story of America.
BJK: “Telling history honestly, whether little or widely known, is so important because history matters. It’s alive. .It is our time for our American LGBTQ+ community to share our story, not only to the greater world, but to one another.”
KB: Billie Jean King’s legacy as an activist for women’s rights and LGBTQ equality has created a lasting impact that will continue to resonate for generations to come. We can all be inspired by her famous words: Face your fears; live your passions, be dedicated to your truth.”
DF: Kathleen Barker is History UnErased’s program director and is a library and information specialist and public historian with 20 years of experience as a museum and library educator. This podcast is funded by the New York City Council. It was developed by History UnErased and produced and edited by Dinah Mack, our youth equity program director and podcaster. Our theme music is “1986” by BrothaD via Tribe of Noise.
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I’m Deb Fowler. Thanks for listening. Visit UnErased.org to learn how we are putting LGBTQ history in its rightful place - the classroom.
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