Tennis star and Gay Games Ambassador Billie Jean King has been awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. America’s highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom is awarded to individuals who make an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.Other recipients include US Senator Edward Kennedy, Nobel-winning physicist Stephen Hawking, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the late congressman and housing secretary Jack Kemp, anti-apartheid leader Desmond Tutu, civil rights leaders Joseph Lowery, gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk, and actors Sidney Poitier and Chita Rivera.
From the presidential citation, which can be read in full HERE:
Billie Jean King was an acclaimed professional tennis player in the 1960s and 1970s, and has helped champion gender equality issues not only in sports, but in all areas of public life. King beat Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match, then the most viewed tennis match in history. King became one of the first openly lesbian major sports figures in America when she came out in 1981. Following her professional tennis career, King became the first woman commissioner in professional sports when she co-founded and led the World Team Tennis (WTT) League. The U.S. Tennis Association named the National Tennis Center, where the US Open is played, the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in 2006. Click HERE to read a wonderful SF Examiner article.
Billie Jean King has been awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. She is the biggest sports hero I know. Her work in sport is so fantastic I can not begin to speak of it. Go rent or watch the HBO biography of her. My entire family played tennis as kids because of her. Title 9 happened because of her!
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