Similar to last week’s spotlighted female Jackie MacMullan, Kate Fagan currently appears on Around The Horn and writes for ESPN. Fagan is very well-known for her college basketball career. Fagan attended Colorado University where she could no longer hide her true identity. Playing for a university made up of mostly devout Christians, she felt conflicted.
One of her first jobs as a journalist was with the Philadelphia Inquirer. While there, she covered the Philadelphia 76ers for three seasons before moving to ESPN. Her job at ESPN has helped to have an even larger platform where she has not been shy on multiple topics, including helping the LGBT community, especially in sports. Her book, The Reappearing Act: Coming Out as Gay on a College Basketball Team Led by Born-Again Christians, focuses on Fagan’s life as she realized that she could no longer hide that she was gay and how she has settled into the reality of her life.
Her book was only the second time that Fagan ever talked about her sexuality publicly, but it helped blossom her into a great spokeswoman for female athletes. She tries to dispel all the stereotypes of female athletes such as female athletes being assumed as gay. She wrote, “But I think in women’s sports you’re also navigating this pre-assumption that all female athletes are gay until proven otherwise. There is this assumption that women’s sports has a lot of lesbians. So I think from day one, as a female athlete, you know what the stereotype is and you work really, really hard to not be that stereotype….” Fagan’s choice to talk about this issues makes her a positive role model for all female athletes regardless because she has the experience and perspective.
Fagan has appeared on different ESPN shows including Around The Horn, His & Hers and First Take. While on them, she brings a fresh and progressive stance on issues unlike some of the male panelists. She also co-hosts a podcast entitled “ESPNW’s The Trifecta” with Sarah Spain and Jane McManus where she is able to present her opinions with two other women who aren’t afraid to present different perspectives. Fagan’s presence at ESPN has helped to make the network better.
In addition to her television work, Fagan writes for ESPN, ESPNW, and ESPN The Magazine. Fagan brings life to a network sometimes boringly filled with the same stereotypical old male opinions. I see her as one of the best female sports writers we have right now and it can only get better from here.
