Introduction

The issue of gender in sport is as old as the origins of sport as a social phenomenon. Sports have traditionally been considered an activity circumscribed to men that excluded women. As Moscoso and Piedra (2019, p. 2) argue, “The history of sport is that of an androcentric social reality. It was ‘men’ – sociologically speaking – who ‘produced’ sport.”

Modern sports emerged in the 19th century in a capitalist, industrial, and urban England entrenched in the dominant Victorian social ideals. At that time, the wealthy classes used sport as a means to build a manly character in male children (Barbero, 2003). One of the social function’s sports fulfilled was to maintain sexual division and discrimination, thus acting as a mechanism of ideological reproduction that aimed to prohibit women from taking part in this new leisure practice (Hargreaves, 1994). The main argument was that sports violated women’s “feminine nature.” This belief was based on the notion that women were biologically incapable of the efforts required of men due to their supposed weakness and fragility and that they could only engage in low-intensity activities with a marked aesthetic component. The underlying objective, however, was to prevent women from violating the dominant stereotype of femininity (Hargreaves, 1994). This belief was maintained in Europe well into the 20th century (Rodríguez et al., 2005) and caused the sexual orientation of female athletes who did not adhere to the traditional norms of femininity and/or acted in a manner contrary to feminine gender roles to be questioned, who were labelled as lesbians (Davis-Delano, 2014; Griffin, 1998; Harris, 2005; Kauer & Krane, 2006; Krane, 1997; Sykes, 1998).

This belief also had a profound impact in Spain. Sports have exerted and continue to exert power and control over traditional categories of masculinity and femininity and are configured as a clear heteronormative device (Moscoso & Piedra, 2019). Nonetheless, a paradox also arises in this context: sports teams may be perceived as a space in which women feel free to reveal their true sexual orientation because they consider them safe havens where they can explore their sexuality and what it means to be a woman and an athlete (Martos-Garcia et al., 2023; Ribalta & Pujadas, 2020, 2023), as also identified by previous studies in the international literature (Anderson & Bullingham, 2015; Bullingham, 2016; Davis-Delano, 2014; Fink et al., 2012; Fynes & Fisher, 2016; Melton & Cunningham, 2012; Palzkill & Fisher, 1990; Ratts et al., 2013; Robinson et al., 2013; Stoelting, 2011; Xiong & Guo, 2023).

In context and given the scarcity of empirical studies that address this issue in Spain, this paper aims to explore female athletes’ perceptions of the relationship between competitive team sports and the discovery and lived experience of their sexual orientation in the sociocultural context of Spain. The research questions revolved around two themes: (i) the role of sport as a space that allows women to freely experience their sexual diversity and (ii) sexual orientation as a factor that can influence women’s interest in team sports labelled as masculine.

The way a society views sport mirrors that society. Thus, by exploring the relationship between team sports and such an intimate topic as women’s experiences of their freely lived sexuality may allow us to determine whether the policies implemented in Spain to promote acceptance and respect for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) community are materialized in the perceptions of Spanish female athletes.

The Spanish Context: LGBTQ+ Advocacy Policies and Their Impact on Sports

The beginnings of the history of Spanish women in sport were strongly conditioned, as in most countries, by the dominant stereotypes of femininity. The social control and penalization of women who dared to deviate from these stereotypes were very evident (Martin et al., 2017). Additionally, art. 616 of the Penal Code of 1928 classified homosexuality as a criminal offence, forcing lesbians to seclude themselves in the private domain. At that time, women tended to participate in individual sporting activities—usually in the company of men—such as hunting, horseback riding, tennis, cycling, hiking, skiing, pigeon shooting, ice skating, or dancing. They would occasionally take part in competitions, but female sports had not yet been institutionalized in Spain (Torrebadella-Flix, 2016).

Middle-class Spanish women suffered the social biases of the dominant masculine society and very cleverly used sport as a mechanism to achieve their pretensions. It was mainly in team sports, such as field hockey, basketball, or handball, where women’s sports were institutionalized, particularly during the Second Republic. This period (from 1931 to 1939) provided a more propitious setting for the social liberation of women, allowing them to take on new challenges such as swimming or athletics, even though stereotypes of femininity continued to be perpetuated (Martin et al., 2017). For women, sport was an opportunity to escape from the domestic sphere. Soccer, however, was the exception. Conceptualized as the sacred temple of masculinity, women’s participation in soccer was relegated to the secondary role of spectator and admirer (Torrebadella-Flix, 2016).

Women’s sporting aspirations came to an end after the Spanish Civil War when sport became of interest to the State. The Franco dictatorship constituted a huge step backwards for women in this regard. In contrast to the achievements made during the Second Republic, the ideology of the regime, together with Christian morality, reinforced the 19th-century concept of feminine nature. The discourse of this period relegated women to the realm of the home and defended their legal dependence first on the family and then on the husband when they married, thus precluding females from participating in public life or working outside the home and hence from engaging in any type of leisure practice that involved using their bodies as a source of enjoyment, self-care, or sports performance (Martin et al., 2017). At the time, same-sex relationships between women were culturally unacceptable and therefore hidden from public view. In 1954, during the dictatorship, the Law of Vagrants and Thugs of 4 August 1933 that had been approved by the courts of the Second Republic was amended to criminalize homosexuality. Later, Law 16/1970 of 4 August 1970 on Social Dangerousness and Rehabilitation, which included “acts of homosexuality” among behaviors considered antisocial, was passed. Consequently, lesbians were made invisible to society in large cities and, of course, in rural areas until the dictatorship came to an end (Ribalta & Pujadas, 2020). At that time, some women found a sphere for socialization in sport, more specifically in soccer, which allowed them to escape together from the asphyxiating atmosphere imposed on them under the dictatorship. Teams became havens of respect where different sexual orientations coexisted and the networks created through sport allowed women to confront the prevailing homonegativism and heterosexism (Ribalta & Pujadas, 2020, 2023).

The turning point came during the transition to democracy and in the years that followed. From this time onwards, women became increasingly involved in sport and, according to Martin et al. (2017) also instilled their values and manner of doing things.

The legislative progress made in recent years in terms of LGBTQ+ rights has been unquestionable. Homosexuality ceased to be punishable in 1978 following the modification of the Law on Social Dangerousness and Rehabilitation, which eliminated the assumption of social danger associated with it. According to Moscoso and Piedra (2019), Spain has undergone a democratization of sexuality that has allowed the LGBTQ+ collective to progressively take part in public life.

This legislative progress has also had an impact on sports. Law 39/2022 of 30 December 2022 on sport has replaced the previous law (Law 10/1990 of 15 October 1990) and for the first time addresses the rights of LGBTQ+ people in two ways. First, the law eliminates all types of discrimination against people, who are protected under Law 19/2007 of 11 July 2007 against violence, racism, xenophobia, and intolerance in sport. Second, it mandates that sports must be safe and fully respect the principle of constitutional equality, regardless of one’s sexual orientation or identity.

In recent years, the Higher Council of Sports (HCP) of Spain has been strongly committed to defending the equality of all groups of people in sport, including women and LGBTQ+ people. The HCP has launched several campaigns to commemorate 19th February, the International Day against LGBT-phobia in Sport. The campaigns support equality, tolerance, and respect in sport and reject discrimination and stigmatization based on sex or gender. Within this framework of defending the rights of LGBTQ+ people, in 2022, the HCP launched the “Equal in Sport” strategy based on two public policy actions. On the one hand, it includes a specific budget item for the Social Plan for Sport to develop sports policies for inclusion and equality. On the other hand, it aims to implement awareness-raising measures through the Observatory for Equality in Sport; a body that will be responsible for ensuring good practices related to equality and non-discrimination in sport.

Despite these actions, forms of cognitive and affective rejection persist (Velez & Piedra, 2020), placing Spanish society in a state of pseudo-inclusivity, that is, a politically correct attitude that accepts sexual diversity but discriminates against sexual minorities (Piedra et al., 2017).

Literature Review

The Sports Paradox: A Haven for Lesbians and a Heteronormative Device

Sports can play a protective role and function as a social support network in which encounters between teammates and teams are viewed as moments and spaces where women’s different sexual orientations are accepted and respected (Anderson & Bullingham, 2015; Bullingham, 2016; Ribalta & Pujadas, 2023; Stigger & da Silveira, 2010).

Previous research has shown that participating in a space where most women make their lesbian identity visible can provide an environment for women to explore alternative belief systems about their sexuality. In these settings, coming out becomes easier for those who have not yet done so (Fynes & Fisher, 2016; Griffin, 1998; Kauer & Krane, 2006; Krane, 1996; Riemer, 1997; Robinson et al., 2013). They also provide women the opportunity to socialize and experiment with lesbians without having to make hasty decisions about or declare their sexual orientation (Davis-Delano, 2014). Lesbian athletes who have recognized themselves as such and express themselves freely can serve as role models for others and provide them the necessary support to counter feelings of shame and promote self-acceptance (Griffin, 1998; Kauer & Krane, 2006; Riemer, 1997). In this sense, sport can be viewed as a way to support the process of self-discovery or self-definition of sexual orientation (Davis-Delano, 2014).

Some authors have found that the association between certain sports and masculinity seems to attract some lesbians to sport (Cahn, 1993), while others have suggested that women decide to play a particular sport solely out of their personal interest in the sport (Riemer, 1997; Stigger & da Silveira, 2010). These findings have led some authors to explore whether lesbians participate more in certain sports than in others (Griffin, 1998). Here again, the results in the literature are inconclusive. While several studies have reported a larger number of lesbians in sports such as soccer, rugby, softball, and basketball than in sports considered feminine (Caudwell, 1999; Fynes & Fisher, 2016), other authors, such as Fasting and Scraton (1997), did not find a direct relationship between playing contact sports and women’s sexual orientation.

This issue has been little explored in the Spanish sporting context. Ribalta and Pujadas (2020) interviewed female athletes who played soccer in the 1970s during Francoist Spain and found that the women chose to play soccer based on their personal interest in the sport and not because of their sexual orientation. This has led us to question whether women who lived in the hostile climate of Franco’s dictatorship share the same perception of sport as women who were born (in their majority) during the current democratic regime.

Nevertheless, in heteronormative contexts, such as sports, homonegative attitudes and behaviors arise and develop. Homonegativism is understood as a set of negative stereotypes, biases, and discrimination against people who are not heterosexual (Krane, 1997). Female athletes who have dared to enter sporting spaces considered masculine and/or presented a lack of adherence to hegemonic femininity (Cahn, 1993; Riemer, 1997), have often been devalued, discriminated against, victims of homonegative attitudes (Kauer & Krane, 2006), and labelled as lesbians (regardless of whether they are lesbians or not). Cultural stereotypes associated with the uses of the body in relation to the abilities and skills of female athletes’ link sporting activities that require coordination, flexibility, and balance to the hegemonic femininity that is directly associated with heterosexuality (Lenskyi, 1994). However, when sports deemed to be masculine or appropriate for men are practiced by women, they are perceived as a universe of lesbian socialization (Metheny, 1965) in which their sexual orientation is automatically questioned (Cox & Thompson, 2000).

These homonegative attitudes and behaviors have negative consequences for female athletes in many regards. Several studies have identified that adolescent girls who are victims of these homophobic attitudes suffer mental health illnesses (DeFoor et al., 2018; Juster et al., 2016; LaRocca et al., 2023; Robinson et al., 2013; Rovira-Font & Vilanova-Soler, 2022; Sawyer et al., 2008), even when they have already recognized and accepted their sexual orientation (Petty & Trussell, 2018).

Additionally, those who come out of the closet may suffer internal and external conflicts as a consequence of homonegative attitudes. The most common conflicts in team sports occur within the group (Bury, 2012; Denison, Bevan et al., 2021; Denison, Jeanes et al., 2021; Gough, 2007). Unlike their heterosexual counterparts, several studies have found evidence that lesbian athletes face difficult situations and experience biased treatment due to their sexual orientation, such as not feeling safe to talk about their romantic relationships or personal lives (Griffin, 1993), not revealing their true sexual orientation for fear of homonegativism (Krane, 1996), feeling rejected by teammates who thought they were being watched while changing in the locker room, having to change rooms because a teammate had found out the person was a lesbian (Krane, 1997), being teased about their sexual orientation (Harris, 2005), or being excluded from leisure activities and team time (Anderson & Bullingham, 2015).

Given that sporting culture is a social microcosm that reflects societal changes in terms of both government policies and public opinion (Halbrook et al., 2019), the analysis of narratives of Spanish competitive female athletes can help to elucidate the possible relationship between team sports and the discovery of female athletes’ lesbian identity. This can help us gain a better understanding of the role team sports play as either spaces where women of lesbian sexual orientation are respected and accepted or as heteronormative devices in Spanish society.

Methods

Feminist Epistemology

This study approaches the reality of Spanish female athletes in the framework of feminist epistemology and the interpretive paradigm. Feminist research seeks to offer women explanations of the social phenomena they want and need by including their experiences in the research and placing the researcher on the same critical plane as the research subjects (Harding, 1987).

This research relies on an epistemology capable of rescuing and validating women’s discourses as scientific knowledge (Cala, 2004). The objective of the study is to give voice to and hear the experiences of women in the world of competitive sport using the standpoint theory approach developed by Harding (1987) and Harstock (1983). Standpoint theory allows exploring phenomena that directly affect women through the situated knowledge they have of their own lives (De la Mata et al., 2018). This approach requires mostly qualitative methodologies that do not limit the response possibilities and collect the voices of the women being studied (Cala, 2004).

To better understand the events and phenomena affecting the selected participants, a qualitative methodology based on an inductive approach has been used. According to Taylor and Bogdan (1987), this approach allows studying people and their settings holistically and in the context of their pasts and the situations in which they find themselves in the present. The inductive approach aims to better understand a social reality without the theoretical baggage or implicit theories that prevent researchers from seeing, hearing, and feeling participants’ responses to the research questions (Ruiz-Olabuénaga, 2012). This study specifically focuses on the subjective narratives and experiences related to the personal and sport lives of the participating athletes.

Participants

Forty-five participants living in the province of Cordoba, Spain, were selected according to three inclusion criteria: women; over 18 years of age; and, as a sports criterion, having participated in at least one Spanish championship in the case of individual athletes or, in the case of team sports, that the team played in a national division or was aspiring to be promoted. The sports represented in this study are athletics, swimming, fencing, handball, volleyball, and futsal. Two non-random sampling procedures were used to select the participants. For the team sports, the coaches of teams that met the research criteria and agreed to participate were contacted. For individual sports, some athletes known to the research team were contacted, from which the rest of the participants were included by snowball sampling. The sociodemographic characteristics of the participants are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Sociodemographic profile of the study participants
Full size table

Data Collection

The participants were organized into five focus groups based on three criteria: the sport played, whether it was an individual or team sport, and age. Three of the groups comprised players of team sports: the first included 8 futsal players (M = 20.88 years old, M = 10.75 years of sporting experience), the second 11 handball players (M = 23.18 years old, M = 11.64 years of sporting experience), and the third 10 volleyball players (M = 21 years old, M = 12.40 years of sporting experience). The two remaining focus groups comprised individual athletes: one with 9 younger women aged 20–38 in athletics, swimming, or fencing (M = 32 years old, M = 15.56 years of sporting experience) and the other with 7 women in athletics over the age of 45 and in the master category (M = 50 years old, M = 19 years of sporting experience). The inclusion of master female athletes permitted identifying possible intergenerational differences in the discourse. The groups were led by a researcher who acted as moderator, and although the sessions were initially guided using the same semi-structured script, the script was adapted according to the participants’ interventions and interactions.

Taking advantage of the features characterizing this group technique (Krueger & Casey, 2015; Morgan, 1997), the aim was to create a setting in which women could freely express their perceptions and lived experiences. To this end, the focus groups were designed and conducted in such a way as to facilitate open and spontaneous discussion where possible contradictions and differences among the participants or the different positions of the same participant could be accommodated. The sessions lasted approximately one and a half hours. All participants volunteered to participate in the study and signed an informed consent form. The research was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. It was reviewed and approved by the commission of the doctoral program in Social and Legal Sciences of the University of Cordoba.

Analytical Strategy

The grounded theory method (Strauss & Corbin, 2002) was used to analyze the data. After transcribing the participants’ discourses verbatim in their entirety, the open coding process began with the aim of identifying the main category of analysis, which was assigned the code “Coming out in team sports.” Open coding was inductive, emergent, and based on the subjective responses of the participants. Simultaneously, the main category was constructed for the axial coding and systematically linked to the different subcategories that emerged. Axial coding alludes “to the concrete physical-manipulative operation by which each of the units of meaning is assigned to the category or categories in which it is considered to be included” (Trigueros et al., 2018, p.24). In this case, the units of meaning were operationalized in turns and discursive excerpts. Turns are individual interventions that have meaning in themselves, while discursive excerpts are interactive sequences of several participants around specific analytical content and integrated by turns. The codes assigned to each of the subcategories were (i) team sports: safe havens, (ii) I fall in love with the person, (iii) I’m a lesbian and I play the sport I want, and (iv) boys stay in the closet. The codes were created to synthesize the feelings shared by the participants.

Triangulation was used to validate data from different sources (focus groups and sample variability) and by the research team during the axial coding process to introduce other observations and add interpretive depth (Denzin, 1970). The research was conducted according to criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability, thus ensuring the rigor of the study’s findings (Ruiz-Olabuénaga, 2012).

Furthermore, reflexivity is one of the key strategies to ensure quality assurance in qualitative research. This allows researchers to identify the subjective elements that they bring to the research process itself in order to achieve greater academic rigor, richness, and credibility in both the process and its results (Berger, 2015). In this case, the position of one of the researchers as a former practitioner of team sports triggered a process of in-depth reflection, since she shared part of her experiences with the participants in the study. This fact allowed us to understand the different dynamics and links established in women’s team sports from within. In addition, we understood that the participants would be more willing to share their experiences with a researcher who they would perceive as “more understanding” of their situation (De Tona, 2006). The fact that this researcher was heterosexual, in contrast, meant that she did not contaminate the analysis of the informants’ experiences with her own and was able to analyze them from a more external perspective. Within the reflexivity strategies, inter-rater triangulation was also chosen (Bradbury-Jones, 2007) using the analysis of the other authors, whose experiences lie outside the world of sporting competitions. The dual perspective of one of the researchers—insider as an athlete and outsider regarding sexual orientation—as well as inter-rater triangulation allowed us to control the tensions between involvement and distancing of the research team and the participants in order to add academic rigor and transparency to the analysis process (Bradbury-Jones, 2007).

Results

Inquiring into aspects of sexuality with people with whom one does not have a deep bond or friendship can initially be awkward, because it is an extremely intimate and personal topic. However, it was surprising to find that the participants expressed themselves in an open and relaxed manner. Perhaps the strong bonds forged between them as members of the same team allowed them to approach the topic in a natural and matter-of-fact way. None of them explicitly acknowledged that they were lesbians, nor was it of interest to us to have that information. The approach was based on Sykes (2007), that is, the participants were not asked directly how they identified themselves in terms of their sexual orientation but were allowed to describe their sexuality using their own language. The analysis was guided by two criteria: firstly, to analyze the narratives of female athletes in sports considered masculine in Spain (futsal and handball) versus those who played a sport considered neutral (athletics and swimming) or feminine (volleyball) and, secondly, to contrast the perceptions of master female athletes with those in the other age ranges to identify possible intergenerational differences.

Coming Out in Team Sports: Safe Havens

As mentioned in the literature review, female athletes recognize and affirm their lesbian identity in the sporting environment in which they operate. This occurs mostly in team sports, because they consider the team a safe haven in which to explore their sexuality. The protective network built among the players allows them to create a space in which to explore their sexual orientation, without having to quickly take a position on the matter and without being subjected to possible external biases. In this context, it is necessary to delve deeper into the characteristics that might differentiate team sports from individual sports and contribute to them being seen as safe and protective settings in which female athletes who wish to establish affective-sexual bonds with women can do so.

My Teammates Are Lesbians

The athletes mentioned certain features of team sports that contribute to them being perceived as safe havens where female athletes can explore their sexuality and dare to feel, such as participation in a community of women who recognize and make visible their lesbian identity. In a setting such as sports teams where sexual relationships between women are visible and treated with naturalness and respect, women dare to experiment and allow themselves to materialize the attraction they feel for other women. All the participants shared this perception, regardless of how their sport is labelled with respect to gender. As Lucía (volleyball player, 29 years old) commented:

For example, if I have to reveal my sexuality in a group that’s full of lesbians, me, if I’m sure about it [being heterosexual], that’s not going to help me at all. But, if I’m open to it, maybe at some point I’ll consider trying it, like some of my friends did… (Lucía, volleyball player, 29 years old).

Nerea (futsal player, 20 years old) emphasized the influence this had on recognizing her lesbian identity: “You have a group of friends who are [lesbians], but if you, if you were in another sport, you wouldn’t dare to…, maybe open up like you have with your teammates, you know?”. Her account reflects the importance of the type of sport played, in this case futsal. She recognized that if she had played another sport in which lesbian sexual orientations were concealed, she might not have dared to come out.

According to Miriam (futsal player, 26 years old), the reason why female futsal players are no longer afraid to explore their sexuality is because Spanish society has increasingly accepted same-sex orientations. In her opinion, these changes have been possible because the polarized notion that women who play futsal are lesbians and those who play other sports are heterosexual has been overcome:

I think because before, society, it was very, very, very separated in that a woman who played sports was homosexual, I mean, a woman who plays futsal is homosexual and a woman who doesn’t play soccer isn’t; before it was very much like that because of how it was viewed from the outside.

In her opinion, female athletes no longer fear materializing their lesbian desires in a setting such as futsal, which she herself categorizes as masculine and in which same-sex relationships are both frequent and visible. She emphasized that if sexual diversity had not been accepted, perhaps these players would not have dared to explore their sexuality:

So, I think that as the years have evolved and girls have begun to play this sport, [a] masculine [one] where there’s a lot of homosexuality, they have come to see it as more normal in their environment. So those girls who see homosexuality as being more normal, maybe they’re not afraid to say, well, I’m going to try it, maybe I’ll like it or maybe I won’t, I don’t know … something that a person who hasn’t experienced that, maybe wouldn’t even try (Miriam, futsal player, 26 years old).

Yolanda (handball player, 27 years old), however, pointed out that if women have relationships with other women, it is because—consciously or not—they had a previous disposition towards same-sex relationships, and that sport plays a role we describe as an “awakening of curiosity.” As she explained: “I think it incites curiosity…, and from there they are already inclined in that sense or not, […], I think it incites [them] but there’s a predisposition to…, to….”

The participants’ discourse, regardless of how the sport is labelled in terms of gender, indicates a climate of acceptance and respect for teammates who recognize and make their lesbian sexual orientation visible. Indeed, their narratives suggest that teams are spaces where different sexual orientations coexist in a climate of respect. In this regard, the naturalness with which the female athletes addressed this issue is remarkable; same-sex relationships between teammates do not seem to be perceived as taboo by the teams participating in the study.

I Fall in Love with the Person

Another reason female players may establish affective-sexual relationships with their teammates is because they spend much time together, allowing them to get to know each other in depth and feel a strong affective-sexual attraction, regardless of the person’s sex. As Paola (handball player, 31 years old) commented:

I think it’s also... I don’t know; that attraction you can feel for another person, I mean of the same sex, is also because you’ve shared so much with that person, they know everything about you, so when you fall in love with someone, why do you fall in love?. Because you know that person’s true self, you fall in love with that person, with the way they are. So, I don’t think it matters if it’s a man or a woman..., you simply fall in love with the person (Paola, handball player, 31 years old).

For Daniela (futsal player, 19 years old), this manner of seeing people for who they are (and not their sexual preferences) can lead a person to change their sexual orientation:

I don’t think that anyone is ever [totally] straight or homosexual, there can always be someone who isn’t... [...], who’s straight, but maybe someone comes along and..., changes you... [...], not physically, but because of what the person is like (Daniela, futsal player, 19 years old).

This discourse suggests that in romantic relationships or couples, what makes a person desirable from the viewpoint of love is what they signify as a person, not their sex.

This fact could be attributed to emotional bonding, understanding as such the affective feelings of tenderness, and falling in love in contrast to more physical variables such as sexual attraction, fantasies, and sexual behavior. In this context, we wanted to explore in greater depth whether one possible cause of this sentimental bond could be the practice of a collective sport. The results suggest that practicing a collective sport that involves a significant investment of time in training and competitions can help forge this type of relationship. Patricia (handball player, 26 years old) comments: “for the number of hours we spend together….”

Sharing the locker room is another aspect the female handball players referred to in their discourses. Locker rooms are a space where teammates can come together as players and as women, where they “undress” both physically and emotionally. As Yolanda (handball player, 27 years old) explained: “For me a locker room is a very intimate place, the locker room is your locker room and you share a lot of things there […], it’s intimate, that a person sees you as you really are physically….”. Her partner Esther (18 years old) added: “And personally too.”

These narratives reveal the emotional weight of team-related aspects for the players. Competitive sports require many hours of training, travel, shared routines, etc., which creates a family-like environment. The type of community they build, rooted in a lifestyle shared around sport, means that the players prefer to spend their free time with their teammates when they are not training. The similarities between them, mainly because of their schedules and common interests and topics of conversation, create bonds and inevitably lead them to compare the relationships they have with their teammates to those they have with people not involved in sport, as several handball players explained: “Because in the end you get along better with your team, since they have the same schedule as you, with other people it’s harder to make plans… (Esther, handball player, 18 years old). Bea (handball player, 23 years old) added: “And the topics of conversation, too…, you talk about everything with your team, […], [when] I talk about handball with my friends [who do not play handball], they stare at me like….

In this context, we wanted to explore in greater depth a question previously analyzed by Griffin (1998) and Fynes and Fisher (2016), which revolves around the widespread belief that in some sports (they referred mainly to two collective sports, softball and basketball), there is a higher percentage of lesbians than in others. Our results point, in this sense, to the investment of time-sharing, once again appearing as one of the main reasons for this proportion of homosexual relationships to be higher in collective sports. Bea (handball player, 23 years old) expressed the same opinion and pointed to the emotional closeness the players experience when traveling to competitions as a reason this might occur:

No, because the difference is clear, there are more lesbians in handball than in swimming…, there are more lesbians in handball than in individual sports because there is much more contact in handball…You spend a weekend on a bus surrounded by girls, and hugging a girl doesn’t seem so strange to you... A girl who plays a sport goes to Galicia by herself to compete..., well, maybe in that aspect, maybe they coincide... (Bea, handball player, 23 years old).

This generalized discourse around the belief that time spent with teammates may be conducive to relationships between women is also shared by the group of master athletes. As Sandra (master athlete, 49 years old) pointed out: “In team sports maybe it’s more common, right? […] I don’t know if it’s more because of the locker room thing, the thing… […] or because they train and spend more time together, I don’t know…”. María Luisa (master athlete, 58 years old) shared her colleague’s opinion: “[In] team sports [they] spend a lot more time together and interact more….”

In this regard, the time players share in team sports also supports the perception—regardless of how the sport is labelled or the participants’ age—that there is a higher proportion of lesbian players in team sports than in individual sports. As Sandra (master athlete, 49 years old) commented: “I’ve met more homosexual girls in team sports than in individual sports….”

As we can see, the general feeling of the athletes is geared towards emphasizing the value of the time shared on account of the intrinsic characteristics of collective sport, triggering feelings of love towards people who share training and competition experiences, regardless of their sex, a fact that leads to the perception that in team sports, there is a higher proportion of lesbians than in individual sports. Sandra (master athlete, 49 years old) sums it up with a Spanish idiom: “el roce hace el cariño” (close contact brings affection).

María Luisa (master athlete, 58 years old) introduces a very interesting nuance to an issue that will be examined in depth in the next section and which points to the enduring stereotype surrounding the lack of adherence to hegemonic femininity with the practice of sports considered masculine and the labeling of lesbian in the Spanish context. In her narrative, she adds to the complicity generated by the time shared in training, favoring coming out of the closet, her perception that female athletes who practice certain sports—those labelled as masculine sports—have more traits associated with masculinity. In this sense, she emphasizes that she knows other gay girls that, we deduced, fit in better with traditional notions of femininity, about whom it would not be possible to guess their sexual orientation.

I know many homosexuals who, unless they tell you, you’d never guess… So, women I think maybe those who practice certain sports have more masculine personalities and because they spend longer together, you know, and you run with one and you don’t know whether she is or isn’t … (María Luisa, master athlete, 58 years old).

In this analysis, we detect intergenerational differences that may be the result of the internalization of stereotypes regarding femininity and masculinity present in this athlete during her socialization process, an aspect that has not been detected in the discourse of other participants.

I’m a Lesbian and I Play the Sport I Want

On the question of whether having recognized and accepted being a lesbian can in some way condition female athletes’ decision to play a team sport considered masculine, the athletes’ narratives revealed that their choice of sport is due to an intrinsic motivation. That is, they choose the sport they want to play because of the pleasure and enjoyment it brings them, not because of their sexual orientation or because it will allow them to socialize with other lesbian athletes. Sofía’s account (volleyball player, 21 years old) revealed some interesting nuances regarding this question. She pointed out that lesbian girls who have been on her team chose volleyball (a sport identified as feminine in the context of this research) because they liked to play it. Likewise, when she explained that she has friends who play futsal for the same reason, she noted that most of them are lesbians:

I think it’s what they like…, […] because us, for example, we’ve had here..., [players] who’ve been homosexual and they’ve been here because they liked volleyball; me for example, I have some girlfriends who are playing futsal and most of them are homosexual and, for example, no?, they have a partner and it’s true in their case that it’s because they like futsal (Sofía, volleyball player, 21 years old).

Homosexual individuals are not limited to certain sports depending on whether the sport is identified as masculine or feminine. As Gloria (futsal player, 22 years old) explained, there are gays and lesbians in all types of sports: “I believe that homosexuality is present in all sports, whether they are men’s or women’s [sports].” Similarly, for María José (master athlete, 46 years old), whether a sport is played in teams is not what makes lesbians opt for the sport: “I don’t think that homosexuals seek out team sports….” A participant in her focus group shared the same opinion:

I don’t think that if they [female players] don’t like futsal they’ll do it just because they have a better chance of finding..., because there are opportunities to find women everywhere, in shops, on social networks... (Claudia, master athlete, 54 years old).

As the athletes’ accounts indicate, they are aware of the social progress that has been made in Spain regarding the acceptance of sexual diversity. However, they pointed out that lesbian athletes might have once used sport as a haven that allowed them to express their sexuality: “That has changed a lot, maybe they used it before as a refuge or maybe as something…” (María Luisa, master athlete, 58 years old).

For Sofía (volleyball player, 21 years old), heterosexual female athletes overcome both the negative social stigma that still hangs over women that play these sports (who are labelled “tomboys” or “butch”) and the fact that they may be considered gay. As she explained, they choose the sport they like:

and even if their team is like that, I don’t know how to say it, I mean... if they’re considered butch, they like it and they’re there, you know, [...] or in the locker room they see that they’re straight and instead of saying, if I join this team, they’ll say I’m homosexual or gay and if they like that, they’ll join that team (Sofía, volleyball player, 21 years old).

Similarly, from the narrative of this player, clearly, the stigma that associates “masculine” sports practiced by women with the lesbian label still endures in the Spanish collective imagination, although it does not seem to be a factor that conditions players when it comes to choosing which sport they wish to play. In these sports, women recount that they often receive insinuations about certain behaviors associated with lesbianism that, according to their social environment, occur in the locker room. Athletes consider that one of the main causes that people argue to support this claim lies in the traditional differentiation between sports appropriate for women considered to be female and sports for men considered masculine, which “condemns” women who choose ‘masculine’ sports to be classed as lesbians. Society presupposes that, if a woman is drawn to a sport that, in the collective imagination, is inappropriate for her because she is a woman, it is because she has internalized masculine characteristics, as in this case, the attraction towards women. The discourse of several handball players illustrates this as follows:

In handball even more so, in handball it is even more noticeable… (Patricia, handball player, 26 years old).

Yeah, yeah, you say I play handball and they say: “Wow, what about the locker room…” (Gema, handball player, 25 years old).

There are sports that have always been associated with men, and there are sports that have always been associated with women, there are women’s sports and men’s sports… […] So, unfortunately that’s the way it is in our society. So, the moment certain girls become involved in a masculine sport, those girls are thought of as masculine… (Julia, handball player, 31 years old).

This labeling process is also found among athletes who practice neutral sports such as athletics. In this case, we detected two causes that trigger this association. First, engagement in certain activities and their association with masculinity. Sport has traditionally been configured as an exclusively male practice, so when a woman practices it with a frequency that is considered excessive for a woman or with a competitive connotation, even when the sport is not labelled as masculine, they are assumed to have characteristics linked to men, including sexual attraction to women. In addition, the use of sportswear that challenges one of the main banners of hegemonic femininity causes female athletes to be labelled butch-lesbians. Susana (athlete, 35 years old) comments:

But I’ve seen that some people, especially in the past, think of doing lots of sport and being strong as something masculine, so they think that maybe you have alternative sexual preferences, an alternative sexual identity, they associate it with that …, […], for many people, seeing a woman dressed in sports clothes who spends so much of their day or their week doing sports, tends to be associated … yes it’s true, I think the concept is changing … (Susana, athlete, 35 years old).

However, this athlete brings an interesting nuance in that she perceives this stereotype to be changing in Spanish society. We interpret that her perception may be based on the fact that her sport is typified as neutral in the studied context and that she may not experience the same conditions as women players of sports perceived to be masculine. It seems, in this sense, that in Spain, there is a double sociocultural standard in the perception of sports and that sports considered to be neutral enjoy greater social acceptance, even though their practitioners deviate from the hegemonic canon of femininity. In this analysis, no intergenerational differences were detected among participants.

Boys Stay in the Closet

The accounts of two female handball players suggest that gay male athletes are not accepted on men’s teams and that the teams are not safe havens where these athletes can discover and openly express their gender identity, leading them to conceal their sexual orientation. Gema (handball player, 25 years old) said: “In men [men’s teams] it is hidden, in men [men’s teams] a million are hidden….” This athlete’s perception suggests that there is a cultural double standard regarding the acceptance of gay players in sports teams depending on whether they are men’s or women’s teams. A teammate supported Gema’s account and stated that she did not know of any gay men in handball: “in men… I don’t know…, in handball…, any man who is homosexual…” (Yolanda, handball player, 27 years old). In Spain, sport reflects the standards of hegemonic masculinity, a stereotype that is associated with the outright rejection of sexual minorities.

Discussion

This study explores female athletes’ perceptions regarding the relationship between competitive team sports and the discovery and experience of sexual orientation in the Spanish sociocultural context. The narratives of these athletes suggest that sports can be a space to discover one’s sexuality if it provides the opportunity to socialize with lesbian women who have already recognized and expressed their sexuality openly, as identified in previous research (Cahn, 1993; Fynes & Fisher, 2016; Krane, 1996; Ribalta & Pujadas, 2020, 2023). In this sense, Fynes and Fisher (2016) reveal that if affective-sexual relations between women occur within the sporting environment, it is because, consciously or not, they already had a predisposition to create bonds of this type with other women.

The narratives of the females’ athletes highlight that sports provide a protective setting in which these women feel safe to dare to feel, a space where they feel less shame and there is greater acceptance and support for them to explore their lesbian sexual orientation. This discourse is in line with what has been reported in previous studies (Anderson & Bullingham, 2015; Bullingham, 2016; Davis-Delano, 2014; Fink et al., 2012; Fynes & Fisher, 2016; Griffin, 1998; Kauer & Krane, 2006; Kivel & Kleiber, 2000; Mann & Krane, 2018; Martos-Garcia et al., 2023; Melton & Cunningham, 2012; Mennesson & Clément, 2003; Palzkill & Fisher, 1990; Ratts et al., 2013; Ribalta & Pujadas, 2020, 2023; Riemer, 1997; Robinson et al., 2013; Stigger & da Silveira, 2010; Stoelting, 2011; Xiong & Guo, 2023) and in contrast to the studies of Griffin (1992) and Herrick and Duncan (2018) in which female athletes suffered homophobic incidents that made them perceive sports and physical education as unsafe. It is striking how sports continue to be a safe setting where women can explore their sexuality in Spain, as was the case during the Franco dictatorship. During the Franco regime, the female soccer players that participated in Ribalta and Pujadas (2020, 2023) study created protective networks within their teams to defend themselves from the prevailing homonegativism. Currently, and although same-sex relationships have been decriminalized and there appears to be a general climate of acceptance and respect—a “pseudo-inclusive climate” in the words of Piedra (2015)—female athletes seem to feel more comfortable to explore and discover their sexuality within their teams.

The accounts of the participants in our study are in line with previous research showing that the amount and intensity of time women share can be conducive to same-sex relationships between women in team sports (Theberge, 1995) due to aspects such as sharing locker rooms or the emotional intensity they experience with their teammates, which is accentuated by time spent together in training, competitions, and travel, in addition to their similar interests, hobbies, and lifestyles (Davis-Delano, 2014; Griffin, 1998; Mennesson & Clément, 2003; Ribalta & Pujadas, 2020, 2023). These common bonds provide women the opportunity to get to know each other in depth and fall in love with the person, regardless of their assigned sex, as previously identified by Ribalta and Pujadas (2020).

The athletes’ narratives also suggest that their decision to play team sports and/or male-identified sports was not related to their sexual orientation or desire to encounter women with whom to establish affective-sexual relationships and bonds. Rather, these women decided to participate in team sports out of personal interest, in line with the findings of Riemer (1997), Stigger and da Silveira (2010), and Ribalta and Pujadas (2020). They perceive that currently lesbians have the opportunity to meet other girls in any area of life, suggesting that the acceptance and visibility of the LGBTQ+ collective have made great advances in Spanish society, perhaps the result of legislative progress.

The discourse of the women athletes interviewed here points to the fact that the stereotype of hegemonic femininity and its consequent association with the lesbian label, which has always been present in the sports context (Davis-Delano, 2014; Griffin, 1998; Harris, 2005; Kauer & Krane, 2006; Sykes, 1998), still endures in the Spanish collective imagination. As we have seen, in the field of sports, if an athlete fits the model of hegemonic femininity, it is assumed that she is heterosexual (Griffin, 1992; Lenskyi, 1994; Ravel & Rail, 2006). In contrast, women who participate in sports activities classified as masculine or, as in our case study, also in those of a neutral nature, are often victims of questions regarding their sexuality when participating in activities that cross the borders of what is appropriate for women (Donoso et al., 2020; Lenskyi, 1994; Martínez-Mina & Goellner, 2015), However, it does not seem to be a factor that conditions the sports choices made by girls. An interesting nuance to this question is identified in the perspective of one athletics practitioner, who perceives that this association seems to be changing, indicating that, at least from the perspective of athletics, the butch-lesbian stereotype might be being deconstructed.

Unfortunately, forms of cognitive and affective rejection persist in Spain (Velez & Piedra, 2020). The perceptions of the female athletes in our study are in line with previous studies showing that sports are not safe havens for gay men to openly express their sexual orientation (Fynes & Fisher, 2016; Hartmann-Tews et al., 2022; Piedra, 2015; Skogvang & Fasting, 2013; Velez & Piedra, 2020). While lesbians are allowed a certain license in this regard, the standards are much stricter for gay men, whose sexual diversity is met with social disapproval (Piedra, 2015).

Although policies on the rights of women and the LGBTQ+ community in Spain have had some impact on the sporting environment, the results of this study suggest that these policies need to be revised to ensure that gay male athletes can participate in sports with the maximum social protection. The study also underscores the need for research that gives the LGBTQ+ community a voice to explore factors that cause sports teams to be perceived as threatening and unsafe settings where these non-heterosexual players cannot explore their sexuality openly, an issue that has been little addressed in Spain.

Conclusions

The relationship between team sports and the coming out of female athletes is a topic that has been scarcely explored in Spain. This work tries to bridge this empirical gap and contribute to the knowledge of LGBTQ+ athletes in Spain.

The perceptions of the female athletes who participated in this study show that sports teams play a protective and liberating role in the discovery and lived experience of players’ sexual orientation. As they highlighted, teams in which lesbians are visible, accepted, and respected can provide a propitious setting for female athletes who wish to do so can dare to feel and establish affective-sexual relationships with their teammates. Time spent together, emotional closeness, and similar lifestyles are intrinsic elements of these sports that allow female teammates to create strong bonds with each other and develop same-sex romantic relationships. It is also important to note that some players referred to the fact that same-sex relationships are met with less acceptance in men’s teams.

The athletes’ discourse revealed that their choice of sport is not guided by their sexual orientation but by intrinsic motivations, that is, for reasons of affinity or for the pleasure of participating.

Unfortunately, both the butch-lesbian stereotype and the stigma that circles women who practice sports thought of as masculine, which leads to the automatic questioning of their sexual orientation, remain prevalent in Spanish society today. These forms of cognitive and affective rejection that remain anchored in the collective imagination must be the object of action by Spanish public policies. This would improve the mental health of young Spanish people in the LGBTQ+ collective and favor a free and safe sports practice for women.

The main strength of this qualitative study is that it includes a sample of 45 female athletes of different ages and sexual orientations involved in sports socially identified as masculine or feminine, thus allowing us to explore the topic from multiple perspectives. The study has two main limitations. Firstly, the sample was homogeneous in terms of the participants’ ethnicity, which did not allow us to include the experiences of female athletes who also suffer ethnic oppression. Secondly, given the sample size, it is not possible to generalize the results to a larger population.

Finally, we would like to highlight the important role of social scientists in supporting the LGBTQ+ community in their fight to achieve equality in sport.