Billie Jean King Thesis Statement

Billie Jean King is known as not only one of the best female tennis players of all time, but also as one of the leading activist in the LGBT community. Billie Jean King was born on November 22, 1943 in Long Beach, California. As a child King decided that she wanted to be the best women’s tennis player in the world, and she accomplished her goal in 1967. She went on to win multiple grand slams and went down as one of the best to ever play the game. King was married for 22 years from 1965 to 1987 even though she came out as lesbian in 1981 amid a lawsuit from her former female lover. King was one of the first openly gay athletes and she did not shy away from the public scrutiny that came along with it at the time. She lost all her sponsorships

In an interview with Piers Morgan on the Piers Morgan Tonight show, King went in depth when describing the struggles she went through when she decided to come out as a lesbian. Beauvoir describes how the biggest obstacle a lesbian women will go through is the act of coming out and admitting that they are actually lesbian, and Billie Jean King completely agreed with this claim. In the interview, Piers Morgan asked her what the biggest challenge of her life was and she said that it was in 1981 when she came out and admitted she was lesbian to the public. King lost all her sponsorships overnight and said that most of the companies called her names such as “slut” and “whore” which affected her greatly. King lost all her money overnight and entered what would be the most difficult years of her life. King did not came out on her terms because she got sued by a former female lover which forced her to go out in public and admit the relationship and that she was actually a lesbian. King says that this made everything more difficult because she believes that a women who is lesbian should come out when they feel 100% comfortable with themselves and with the public knowing who they truly are. This goes hand in hand with Beauvoir’s philosophy when she says that a women has the choice to feel either trapped or

She says that part of winning in society is just showing up and admitting that they are lesbian. She believes that she is equal to every other athlete and that her sexual decisions should not matter at all. King takes a very commanding stance and to this day she believes that no one has the right to take her happiness away from her. In The Lesbian, Beauvoir talks about how lesbians usually have a more commanding attitude than straight women because of the missing male figure in their life. Billie Jean King exemplifies this by being such an active leader and by fighting for women’s rights for the greater part of her life. In the interview, King was asked how she felt about the statement that Russian president Vladimir Putin made on gay and lesbian people and how he considers most of them to be pedophiles. King said she took it to heart because she feels as if gay and lesbians are some of the most honest and genuine people in society and she said she would love to have the chance to meet with him in person and ask him exactly what he meant. King went on to say that she hopes that future Olympics or other major sporting events are not played in countries that still discriminate towards gay and lesbian people because it creates unnecessary tension for the athletes. The leadership skills displayed by King are very consistent with the way