The Year of BJK: New York Exhibit Showcases Some Grit, More Glamour
With its recently opened exhibit Billie Jean King: The Road to 75, the New York Historical Society has postured that 2018 is finally the year of Billie Jean; the denouement, if you will, of the tennis icon. But actually, the woman who is known throughout the sport simply as BJK has had lots of years: 1959, when BJK entered her first Grand Slam at age 15; 1966, the year she won Wimbledon for the first time; 1971, when BJK formed the WTA; 1987, the year she was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame; 2006, when the USTA renamed its National Tennis Center at Flushing, Billie Jean King National Tennis Center; and 2009, the year President Barack Obama awarded BJK the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her advocacy on behalf of women and the LGBT community.
When, in fact, has there not been a year of Billie Jean King? Probably 1981, the year she was “outed” by an ex-girlfriend — actually, a hair stylist also portrayed in Battle of the Sexes. The unfortunate affair came out when Marilyn Bennett, then 33, sued Billie Jean for lifetime spousal support, saying she backed Billie Jean during her toughest years. At a press conference, Billie Jean, as her parents and her husband, Larry King, looked on with tears in their eyes, claimed she had strayed, but remained devoted to Larry King. The next years were fraught as Billie Jean struggled with her “bisexuality” until she finally divorced Larry King in 1987. Just a few years later, Martina Navratilova, who also came out in 1981, would fight her own palimony suit at the hands of ex-lover Judy Nelson.
I know this because, as an adolescent tennis player with dreams of playing pro, I watched and read it all. People magazine, the nightly news, even a book, John Feinstein’s expose of the WTA and ATP, Hard Courts: Real Life on the Professional Tennis Tour had salacious details of the “horror”— even sometimes questioning whether these gay women made untoward advances in the locker room. The world has come a long way since the early 1980s. Back then, however, BJK’s embrace of her sexual orientation might have helped a a teenager tripping over her own path to lesbian self-discovery .
The New York Historical Society’s exhibit has some great photographs and a bit of memorabilia (most of it must have gone to the Wimbledon Museum’s fantastic collection, as well as the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Nantucket): Billie Jean on the 2018 Pride Parade float, playing tennis with Renee Richards, the first transgender person on tour, hanging out with Elton John (a sure gay giveaway) and with Ilana Kloss, Billie Jean’s partner of 40 years. But the society has chosen to gloss over BJK’s gay struggle. Perhaps it’s not important anymore. After all, younger players and fans have Amélie Mauresmo, Lisa Raymond and Casey Dellacqua to demonstrate that one can be gay in the sport and have a career. I suppose, while looking at all those photos on a recent Saturday, that when I was facing the most difficult off-court challenge of my life 40 years ago, I could take consolation that someone bigger than me was, as well.
