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Lambily t1_j8gwh1h wrote

Women are less likely to be bigoted, exclusionary, and to bully other female athletes. It's a societal feature. The same reason heterosexual women can hold hands and complement each other, whereas men are seen as gay for anything remotely affectionate. Macho culture. Toxic masculinity. Call it whatever you want. It acts as a massive deterrent and a stressor to potential gay male athletes.

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everygoodnamehasgone t1_j8gxebb wrote

That would be a reasonable explanation were there a similar proportion of gay women in sport as there are in the general population. This isn't the case though, there is a far higher percentage of gay women in sport than there are in society. The only way your theory would make any sense is if they were also less accepting of straight women.

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