Trailblazing LGBTQ+ Sports Advocates Helen Carroll and Kelly Burnette Celebrate Wedding After Decades of Activism

Veteran LGBTQ+ sports advocates Helen Carroll and Kelly Burnette have married, capping a partnership rooted in more than three decades of activism for inclusion in athletics. The couple, both widely recognized in queer sports circles, have worked across universities, national organizations, and grassroots efforts to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex athletes and coaches.

Carroll is best known nationally for her long tenure as sports project director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights , where she led landmark efforts to promote policies that protect LGBTQ+ athletes, including transgender student-athletes, from discrimination in college and high school sports. Before that role, she served as athletic director at Mills College in California, where she guided one of the first women’s colleges in the United States to adopt explicit policies welcoming transgender students. Burnette, for her part, has been active in campus and community sports inclusion work, including support for lesbian and bisexual athletes navigating homophobia and sexism in sport.

Their wedding comes at a time when the United States sports landscape remains sharply divided over the participation of transgender athletes and broader LGBTQ+ inclusion in school and collegiate athletics. According to the Human Rights Campaign, more than two dozen U.S. states have enacted laws restricting transgender students’ access to sports teams consistent with their gender identity, prompting legal challenges and advocacy campaigns from civil rights groups.

Carroll’s work at the National Center for Lesbian Rights has included advising school districts, athletic conferences, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association on inclusive policies, as well as serving as an expert in litigation challenging discriminatory rules. NCLR’s sports initiatives have highlighted the experiences of lesbian and bisexual women in college athletics, who have historically faced pressure to remain closeted or conform to gender stereotypes to maintain scholarships and coaching opportunities.

Carroll and Burnette’s relationship developed alongside the modern LGBTQ+ sports movement, which gained momentum in the 1990s and 2000s as more athletes and coaches came out publicly. During that period, organizations such as the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Women’s Sports Foundation, and campus-based LGBTQ+ centers began to address anti-LGBTQ+ harassment in locker rooms, unequal treatment of women’s teams, and the lack of protections for transgender student-athletes.

Outsports , which has chronicled Carroll’s work for years, has described her as one of the “foundational” figures in building policies that allow transgender athletes to compete according to their gender identity in schools and some athletic associations. The outlet has also reported on her role mentoring younger LGBTQ+ advocates who now lead inclusion efforts within major U.S. sports organizations.

Burnette’s advocacy has included support for women’s and LGBTQ+-focused sporting events and mentorship for lesbian and bisexual athletes navigating conservative or unsupportive environments. Their shared commitment has made them a visible couple at conferences, Pride in sports events, and educational workshops hosted by groups such as NCLR and campus LGBTQ+ centers.

The couple’s decision to marry also reflects the broader legal and cultural shifts that have transformed the lives of many same-sex couples in the United States since nationwide marriage equality was recognized in 2015 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges. Advocacy organizations including the Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal have emphasized that marriage equality, while significant, did not by itself secure full equality for LGBTQ+ people in areas such as employment, housing, and education.

In the sports context, groups such as Athlete Ally and GLSEN note that many LGBTQ+ youth still experience bullying, isolation, or exclusion from teams, which can limit access to the physical and mental health benefits of participation in athletics. Advocates argue that visible couples like Carroll and Burnette, who have long combined personal authenticity with public advocacy, can offer models of resilience and leadership to younger LGBTQ+ athletes, coaches, and administrators.

Carroll has spoken in prior interviews about the importance of centering transgender athletes and athletes with intersecting marginalized identities, including Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, in policy conversations that historically focused primarily on white lesbian and gay communities. Equality advocates say that approach is increasingly reflected in newer inclusion guidelines and training programs, which address racism, sexism, transphobia, and homophobia as interconnected barriers in sport.

As Carroll and Burnette mark their wedding, they do so in a climate where LGBTQ+ people in sports are both more visible and more contested than at any point in recent history, with out athletes competing in the Olympics, professional leagues, and college championships, even as state-level restrictions and hostile rhetoric intensify. Their union underscores how personal milestones for LGBTQ+ advocates are now inseparable from broader legal and cultural battles over whose identities and families are recognized and respected in sport and beyond.