Too strong for other women? Why star runner’s case strikes a nerve at home
Growing up in rural South Africa in the 1980s, Hlengiwe Buthelezi got used to hearing that she was too much.
Too strong. Too fast. Too much like one of the boys – whom she regularly outmatched in neighborhood pickup soccer games.
The only way she saw to fight it was to keep quiet. To run faster and kick harder and just pretend not to hear the whispers: She likes girls. She wants to be a man.
Today, Ms. Buthelezi co-organizes a competition called the AfroGames for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex athletes (LGBTI). And this week, every time she turned on the TV or picked up
A national symbol‘I was born to do this’
