Anna Aagenes sat down to talk about her experience being out in sports with G Philly for the new summer issue of the magazine. Here’s what she had to say about changing attitudes, coming out and life lessons learned on the field.
How did you first get involved with sports?
All of my life I have been an athlete – I’ve played field hockey, basketball, soccer, snowboarding, track and everything in between. I began running cross-country and track my junior year of high school. I fell in love with the sport.
What was it like coming out to your teammates?
I date both men and women, but it took me a long time to be comfortable enough to tell people I identify as bisexual. The process of coming out began during middle school when I started to question my sexual orientation. I’m now comfortable identifying, but coming out when I meet new groups of people or join a new team is still an ongoing process. When I started dating my first college girlfriend, I confided in a few teammates and had come out to the rest of my friends and the team only a few months into my freshman year. Of course I was anxious about the decision to come out, but the more people who found out and became my allies, the more confidence I gained.
You’ve been a voice for other LGBT athletes over the years, speaking at colleges and universities. What’s the reaction usually like?
Being a visible LGBT athlete brings up the assumption that you can’t be gay, bisexual, lesbian or transgender and an athlete, at least not openly so. I don’t think I necessarily fit the stereotypes for what an LGBT athlete might look like, so people are often surprised. The whole purpose of the advocacy work is to show that these categories aren’t mutually exclusive – not all athletes should be presumed straight, and not all LGBT people should be assumed to be “non-athletes.”
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