In 1977, Dr Renée Richards, an ophthalmologist and former male amateur tennis player, sued the United States Tennis Association (USTA) for the right to compete in the women's draw of the US Open. Her legal representation came from Roy Cohn, the lawyer known for prosecuting suspected communists during the red scare and for mentoring Donald Trump. Cohn's firm successfully argued the case, a story detailed in the new biography Finding Renée Richards: The Groundbreaking Story of Tennis's Trans Pioneer by Julie Kliegman.
The lawsuit and its limited precedent
"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 trans and non-binary sports journalist, the project offered a chance to reexamine a 50-year-old cause célèbre and the topic of inclusion for trans people in sports and 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."
Richards's current views on trans athletes
Kliegman researched the story by accessing Richards's multiple autobiographies, interview transcripts from an unpublished memoir project, and by interviewing Richards, now 92, in person multiple times. During these meetings, Kliegman discussed trans rights with their subject. "Renée today believes that trans women and girls should not be allowed to play girls and women's sports unless they have not undergone so-called male puberty," Kliegman says, describing this as a 180-degree shift from the lawsuit Richards filed in 1977. "She does not, overall, believe most trans athletes should be allowed to play girls and women's sports. It was an interesting point of tension between me and Renée."
Richards "cites research that shows trans girls and women may have an advantage over cisgender peers," Kliegman says. "My impression is that the research isn't conclusive enough."
A complex personal history
In writing the book, Kliegman made a decision that went against their journalistic training but aligned with Richards's wishes. "In recent years, you usually don't refer to someone by their former name, former pronouns, when they change it," Kliegman says, "even when referring to past points of their life. I came to understand [using their birth name when talking about their early life] was really important for [Richards] to fully depict the back and forth, the push and pull, Dick [Richards was formerly called Richard Raskind] and Renée." The decision to use he/him pronouns for Raskind and she/her for Richards "was a tough one for me," Kliegman says. "It goes against the journalistic norms I understand." Yet, the author adds, "[Richards] felt I could not describe it accurately without 'he' and 'her' pronouns … So much in the book, Renée did not have any say over. It's a journalistic project, not an authorized biography. Just about the only thing I think she needed a say over was [to] describe her respectfully."
As the book tells it, Raskind grew up in a Jewish-American family in New York City. His father was an orthopedic surgeon, and his mother was a psychiatrist. According to the book, Raskind was bullied by his older sister, who made him wear her clothing. As he entered young adulthood, matriculating at Yale University, he voluntarily began wearing women's clothing in private and presenting as female on visits to Greenwich Village. All the while, he played men's tennis. After medical school at the University of Rochester, he became an ophthalmologist in New York and joined the Navy, where he competed in service tennis tournaments and worked aboard submarines. Throughout college, med school and beyond, he dated women. Yet for a time, he discussed his conflict over his gender identity with several psychoanalysts.
"At the time, it was really, really difficult to get the care you needed as a trans person," Kliegman says. "Also, on top of this, Renée was uncertain she was a woman. Certainly, she was a trans woman. Certainly, she was Renée. But there were also these other pressures encouraging her in the direction to present as Richard Raskind, whether it be for his career, for his love life, different forces."
In the late 1960s, Raskind traveled to a clinic in Morocco that performed sex-change operations, yet decided against surgery. He subsequently met and married Barbara Mole, the woman who would become his wife and the mother of their son, Nicholas. After the marriage ended, Raskind decided to undergo a sex-change operation in New York in 1975. He chose the new first name Renée, French for "reborn".
Tennis career and later life
Richards began competing as a woman and had success. "As Richard Raskind, he was a great tennis player," Kliegman says. "He ranked as high as the top 10 in the eastern region of 35-and-over players. He was quite good, with a powerful lefty serve that people would talk about and recognize. Dick became Renée – and she remained a very good tennis player."
Then she was outed by broadcast journalist Richard Carlson, father of Tucker. With her background public, Richards's right to play women's pro tennis was challenged by the USTA, which questioned whether Richards was "genetically female", as quoted in the book. Officials demanded a test to see whether Richards had "the conventional XX sex chromosomes", according to the book. Eventually, Richards sued.
"Tennis is sort of the through line, one of the through lines of her life," Kliegman says. "At any age, she could contribute to it … It sustained her through difficult times in her life. I think it's what prompted the lawsuit – 'Why I can't I have this, this lifeline for me, a constant throughout my life, I should be able to play tennis, do the thing I love.'"
After a judge ruled in Richards's favor, she was allowed to compete in the US Open. In singles, Richards lost in the first round to the defending Wimbledon champion, Virginia Wade. In doubles, Richards had more success, joining Betty Ann Stuart to reach the final, where they lost to Martina Navratilova and Betty Stöve.
The difficulties for Richards did not end. Some female competitors treated her with hostility. The book credits Billie Jean King with convincing most of the women's tennis world to let Richards play. "Billie Jean King was a huge part of Renée's story," Kliegman says. "She took a little while to make up her mind. She was quiet on the issue for so many years, but I understand why … She ended up calling doctors, asking them questions. She was not super familiar with the concept of trans people at the time. She also met with Renée, which I think was really crucial … It convinced [King] that [Richards] was a woman like any other, who deserved a place on the tour. Billie Jean King showed support by playing doubles alongside Renée … which was huge, I think."
After retiring from professional tennis, where she was ranked at No 20 in singles at her peak, Richards went on to coach Navratilova in what the book describes as a successful but sometimes bumpy partnership. Richards also returned to practicing ophthalmology for a long career, with a list of clients that included sports and politics journalist Keith Olbermann. There was a late-in-life tragedy for Richards: her son Nicholas died by suicide at age 47 in 2019. "It's still raw for her," Kliegman says. "I don't think the tragedy of losing a child is something most people ever get over."
As Kliegman has gotten to know Richards, the author reflects that there is a little less daylight between their positions on trans rights, in part because of anti-trans policies of the Trump administration. "If I did not see her views on trans athletes themselves evolve, what I did see was that she now understands restrictions on trans athletes … are connected to this broader project the right wing has to try to eliminate trans people from public life," Kliegman says. "It's not a distinction she was making, and was comfortable with, before Trump was reelected."
