Billie Jean King: "Coming Out"
King talks about her experience of being outed, its consequences, and having the courage to be honest.
Billie Jean King first learned tennis in the late 1950s on the public courts in Long Beach, California. The game ultimately took her farther than she could possibly have imagined. King's hard-charging style of play won her no fewer than 39 Grand Slam titles. She played largely against her own towering standards, later reflecting, "I'm a perfectionist much more than I'm a super competitor. And there's a big difference there." By the end of the 1960s, King was already speaking out against a longstanding—and, at the time, growing—disparity in prize money awarded to men and women. Her drive for equal opportunities helped establish the Virginia Slims Series and the Women's Tennis Association. King presided over the creation of the WTA when she organized a 1973 pre-Wimbledon meeting to unite all of women's tennis in one tour. Of course, all of her work on behalf of women's opportunity and equality in competition came together in one beautiful moment when she beat former men's champion Bobby Riggs in 1973's famous "Battle of the Sexes" match. In 1974, King co-founded World TeamTennis, a pioneering co-ed professional league, and the Women's Sports Foundation.
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