“It was very hard on me because I was outed and I think you have to do it in your own time,” she said. “Fifty per cent of gay people know who they are by the age of 13, I was in the other 50%. I would never have married Larry [King] if I’d known. I would never have done that to him. I was totally in love with Larry when I was 21.”
On keeping her sexuality hidden from the public, King said, “I wanted to tell the truth but my parents were homophobic and I was in the closet. … I couldn’t get a closet deep enough. I’ve got a homophobic family, a tour that will die if I come out, the world is homophobic and, yeah, I was homophobic. If you speak with gays, bisexuals, lesbians and transgenders, you will find a lot of homophobia because of the way we all grew up.”
Additional Interviews With Billie Jean King
King gave a lengthy interview to Owen Span on ABC Talk Radio on Nov. 17, 1986, to promote the Virginia Slims tennis championship and discuss her career accomplishments.
King appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition on Aug. 25, 2008, to speak about the 35th anniversary of the “Battle of Sexes.” “It’s funny how when a woman does something they always think we only affect half of the population, and people will come up to me and say thanks for what you did for women's tennis all the time, and I know they'd never say that to a guy. If they walked up to a male, they would just say thanks for what you did for tennis. And it's interesting: I think people perceive women that way all the time.”
King spoke with Marta Lawrence of the NCAA on Jan. 16, 2009, shortly after receiving the NCAA’s Gerald R. Ford Award. She reflected on her life of advancing feminist and gay causes, and talked of how the next generation can follow in her path.
To learn more about Billie Jean King, visit her profile on findingDulcinea.
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