Betty Baxter

Who is Betty Baxter?

Betty Baxter is a Canadian athlete, activist and politician. She was a member of the women's national volleyball team at the 1976 Summer Olympics, and was later named the team's head coach in 1979. However, she was fired from that role in 1982, despite having been named the Canadian Interuniversity Athletics Union's coach of the year, after the media began to report rumours that she was lesbian.

Baxter was not actually out as lesbian at the time, but subsequently came out and served as a board member of the 1990 Gay Games in Vancouver. She also cofounded the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women in Sport and the National Coaching School for Women.

Baxter ran as a New Democratic Party candidate in Vancouver Centre in the 1993 federal election, in a high-profile race against Prime Minister Kim Campbell, but was not elected.