Finding Renée Richards: the complicated past and present of a trans sports pioneer

In 1977, Richards sued to play in the US Open after transitioning. Now she supports bans on trans athletes in women’s sports. A new biography explores a complex legacy

It was a story that dominated tennis headlines back in 1977: Dr Renée Richards, an ophthalmologist who excelled as a male amateur player before a sex-change operation, was suing for the right to play in the women’s draw of the US Open. Where did Richards go for legal assistance? None other than Roy Cohn.

Better known for prosecuting suspected communists during the red scare and mentoring Donald Trump, Cohn turned his attention to fighting for Richards’s inclusion. His firm successfully argued the case – part of the narrative of a new biography, Finding Renée Richards: The Groundbreaking Story of Tennis’s Trans Pioneer by Julie Kliegman.

“The lawsuit was really significant,” Kliegman says. “Obviously, clearly, it was very significant for Renée. But the decision was limited to her, as opposed to setting a precedent for trans people going forward.”

For Kliegman – a sports journalist who is trans and non-binary – the project offered a chance to reexamine a 50-year-old cause célèbre and the topic of inclusion for trans people, in sports and in wider society, then and now.

“There are a lot of parallels,” Kliegman says. “What struck me the most is that if anything, the conversation and dynamics between athletes are amplified today by the hostility [that is] more powerful than anything Renée would have faced.”

Kliegman researched the story, in part, by accessing her subject’s multiple autobiographies as well as interview transcripts from another memoir project that never got published. They also interviewed Richards, now 92, in person multiple times. On one occasion, Richards showed Kliegman photo after photo of the celebrities who had posed with her over the years. Another time, the two met for lunch at the golf club where Richards still comes by regularly for a ladies’ day on the links.