95-year-old Maybelle Blair is in a league of her own. She took the mic on a panel for the League of Their Own reboot TV series to come out as a lesbian for “basically the first time,” according to Blair. She was a player for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which inspired the League of Their Own movie and, now, TV show.
The Amazon Prime series goes where the ‘90s movie did not, examining both platonic and sexual relationships between the characters. The series examines racism, too, which was also not addressed in the movie.
(Also also: racism was not addressed in the ‘90s.)
(Same with lesbians.)
Blair consulted on the series and, after watching the first episode at the premiere, was inspired to come out. AdWeek’s Mollie Cahillane was in attendance and tweeted out the moment:
“Girls, there is a life for you, and follow it,” Maybelle says to a standing ovation from the crowd. [Series actors] D’Arcy Carden and Abbi Jacobson are crying (as am I). ‘I got into a lot of trouble with some of those ball players,’ she adds.”
