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Fair Play: How LGBT Athletes Are Claiming Their Rightful Place in Sports Paperback – June 7, 2016


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Zeigler tells the story of how sports has been radically transformed for LGBT athletes in the past four years.

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

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.

In Fair Play, 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. He shares intimate behind-the-scenes details about various athletes and stories―including NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin, transgender MMA fighter Fallon Fox, and NFL hopeful Michael Sam, among others―along with contextual insights about elite sports, including the overhyped “distraction” myth surrounding gay athletes.

Always the forward-thinker, Zeigler maps out the necessary steps to complete sports’ transformation and fully open athletics to LGBT people.

Political sportswriter and Edge of Sports imprint curator Dave Zirin (the Nation) has never shied away from criticizing that which die-hard sports fans hold dear. The Edge of Sports titles will address issues across many different sports―football, basketball, swimming, tennis, etc.―and at both the professional and nonprofessional/collegiate levels. Furthermore, Zirin brings to the table select stories of athletes’ journeys and what they are facing and how they evolve both in their sport as well as against the greater backdrop of one’s life’s odyssey.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This important and accessible book about the evolving treatment of LGBTQ athletes in organized sports should be required reading for anyone involved in the playing, coaching, and administration of organized sports. Zeigler, an expert in LGBTQ athletics and cofounder of the online magazine Outsports, revisits key moments that have shaped sports participation for openly LGBTQ athletes. . . . The author debunks the myth that having a nonstraight athlete on a team’s roster is a ‘distraction’ and shares positive stories of younger athletes at high school and college levels who have come out to coaches, teammates, and family members. Zeigler argues that the dominant emotion holding back LGBTQ athletes is fear, reminding them and everyone else that courage is contagious."
Publishers Weekly

"
Outsports.com founder Zeigler gives an account of the great strides LGBTQ athletes have made in the sports world over the last 15 years . . . Lively and provocative, the book not only offers a much-needed perspective on what until recently has been one of the last bastions of heterosexism. It is also significant for its conscious consideration of how current developments will impact LGBTQ athletes of tomorrow. An informative, necessary work."
Kirkus Reviews

"
Fair Play, published in conjunction with Akashic Books, tells the story of how sports are transforming for LGBTQ athletes, and specifically focuses on the time period following the turn of the 21st century. Zeigler’s book covers treatment of LGBTQ athletes, touching on bullying and hazing that has surrounded, and continues to surround, LGBTQ athletes, specifically in high school and college, while weaving in stories of LGBT athletes and allies such as Michael Irvin, Fallon Fox, and Michael Sam, among others."
GLAAD

"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

"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

About the Author

CYD ZEIGLER is the cofounder and coeditor of Outsports.com, the world’s most renowned publication dealing with LGBTQ+ issues in sports. One of the world’s leading experts on the intersection of sexuality and sports, Zeigler has been tapped to discuss the issue by CNN, ESPN, the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, and many others. He has worked with countless athletes to tell their coming-out stories, including professional athletes Michael Sam, John Amaechi, and Ryan O’Callaghan. He is also the author of Fair Play: How LGBT Athletes Are Claiming Their Rightful Place in Sports. A graduate of Stanford University, Zeigler now lives in Los Angeles with his husband and two cats. My Life on the Line: How the NFL Damn Near Killed Me and Ended Up Saving My Life (with Ryan O'Callaghan) is his latest work.

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