{"id":3434,"date":"2018-12-13T14:35:45","date_gmt":"2018-12-13T14:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thebureaugh.com\/addons\/thegolferonline.com\/golfer\/?p=3434"},"modified":"2025-07-06T13:21:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T13:21:30","slug":"lpgas-mel-reid-announces-shes-gay-wants-to-be-authentic-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/blog\/2018\/12\/13\/lpgas-mel-reid-announces-shes-gay-wants-to-be-authentic-self\/","title":{"rendered":"LPGA&#8217;s Mel Reid announces she&#8217;s gay, wants to be &#8216;authentic self&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm\">Mel Reid, in her third year on the LPGA Tour, announced Monday her new role as an <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AthleteAlly\/status\/1072136643342229504\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Athlete Ally Pro Ambassador<\/a> and publicly came out as gay in a Q&amp;A with the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm\">Athlete Ally advocates for LGBTQ inclusion and equality in sports through education, policy and rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm\">\u201cI wanted to be part of Athlete Ally because I feel it\u2019s important for people to be themselves,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.athleteally.org\/mel-reid-comes-out-be-proud\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the 31-year-old Reid said<\/a>. \u201cJust because they love someone that may not be \u2018socially correct\u2019, it does not make them any less of a person.&nbsp;It\u2019s important for me to always fight for equality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm\">Reid is a six-time Ladies European Tour champion. Billie Jean King, who was honored by the organization in October, shared her support for Reid shortly after the announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm\">Reid said looking back she knew she was gay from a young age and is lucky to have a supportive family. She said she\u2019s experienced few issues on the tour, the main \u201cthat being gay is still illegal or frowned upon in certain countries we play in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm\">\u201cThere are also a lot of male-dominated sponsors that are looking for certain types of players, so that\u2019s why I have felt I can\u2019t be quite as open as I would like to be when it comes to my personal life,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-hc+g-w-4o+bv\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5759687560589944\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"5646705475\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script> <p class=\"canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm\">Reid, a native of England, said she kept her sexuality quiet for a long time to \u201chelp my career and get more sponsors.\u201d She was conscious of what terms she used to introduce her girlfriend depending on the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm\">Reid questioned that decision and said the advice she would give to young LGBTQ athletes is to be one\u2019s \u201cauthentic self\u201d no matter the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm\">\u201cThere is only one of you in the world and you have one life, so be the best version of yourself and be proud of who you are,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s when you attract the right people around you to make you better, and ultimately, happier.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm\">Reid told the organization she\u2019d like to see more women in business support the sport and have more equipment companies show women in stores and in ads to make the sport more inclusive and represented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Source: YahooSports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mel Reid, in her third year on the LPGA Tour, announced Monday her new role as an Athlete Ally Pro Ambassador and publicly came out as gay in a Q&amp;A with the site. Athlete Ally advocates for LGBTQ inclusion and equality in sports through education, policy and rights. \u201cI wanted to be part of Athlete [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-european-golf","8":"category-featured"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/img_2765-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3647,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3434\/revisions\/3647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}