Utee Chand, a 23-year-old Indian sprinter, has become the first openly LGBT professional athlete in her country after she told local newspaper, The Sunday Express, that she is in a same-sex relationship with a woman from her village in eastern India.
Her announcement comes less than a year after India’s Supreme Court struck down a 157-year-old law that criminalized gay sex. Chand, a member of India’s national track and field team, is known for winning a lawsuit in 2015 against the International Association of Athletics Federations for banning her from competing against other women because she has hyperandrogenism, a condition that naturally produces high testosterone levels. Many saw the rule as an example of international sports organizations policing women for having “masculine” qualities, according to the New York Times. Chand was the first Indian sprinter to reach a final at a global athletics event, the World Youth Championships in 2013, has competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and won two silver medals at the Asian Games in 2018, the BBC reported.
“I have always believed that everyone should have the freedom to love. There is no greater emotion than love and it should not be denied,”
