The candid, definitive biography of professional tennis’s first openly transgender player, Renee Richards, featuring never-before-seen archival photos and untold stories nearly lost to history, until now. Fifty years ago, tennis player Renee Richards made international headlines in her fight to compete in the women’s draw of the 1977 US Open-marking the first time a trans athlete sued to participate in professional sports in the gender category with which they identify. Renee eventually won her case. Though she lost in the first round of the singles tournament, she and her tennis partner made it to the finals in doubles, losing to Martina Navratilova and her partner. Finding Renee Richards chronicles Richards’s extraordinary life, moving from her tumultuous upbringing in Queens, New York, to her career as a successful eye surgeon; her years as a star tennis player to her role as a transgender pioneer. Now in her nineties, Renee remains a complex figure: A person who changed the sports world forever yet questions the place of trans athletes in that world today. GLAAD award-nominated sports journalist Julie Kliegman deftly probes these contradictions, drawing on intimate interviews and offering critical reflections on what is at stake for athletes, fans, and the queer community today, at a time when trans participation in sports is more hotly contested-and condemned-than ever before. Finding Renee Richards includes a 20-page photo insert featuring never-before-seen archival images.
