For
someone like me who has made a career advocating for the elimination of the
discrimination and harassment that LGBT people experience in sport, it has been
a dizzying two years of progress. The
topic of LGBT inclusion in sport is now a standard fixture in mainstream sport
media. Everyone seems to be speculating about when the first gay athlete in the
NFL, NBA, NHL or MLB will come out while he is still playing. More and more straight male professional
athletes are championing gay rights, speaking out against discrimination
against LGBT athletes and declaring that they would welcome a gay teammate.
It feels like every two weeks another
organization pops up with the purpose of making sports a welcoming place for
LGBT athletes: Changing the Game, Athlete Ally, You Can Play, The Last Closet,
GO! Athletes, Br{aching Silence, the Equality Coaching Alliance, the Stand Up
Foundation to name some, but not all of them.
Nike hosted a national LGBT Summit in June to which representatives of
all the major players in these and other sports and LGBT organizations gathered
to discuss how to maximize our effect in this LGBT sports “moment” we are in. I could go on.
Alas,
no progress comes easily or without steps backward even as we move forward. As
I celebrate the growth of what I call an LGBT sports equality movement, I have
had a nagging concern that has blossomed now into a full blown red flag of
frustration. It is this: Concern about homophobia
in women’s sports has somehow taken a seat on the bench as all the starters in
this game focus on men’s sports. Now,
don’t get me wrong, the silence about gay men in sport has been deafening for
far too long and I am thrilled that barriers for gay men coming out in sport
seem to crumbling at all levels. I love hearing about gay high school and college
male athletes coming out. I love it that the Toronto Blue Jays recently suspended
Yunel Escobar for painting an anti-gay message in his face black and that his
salary for the three days (around $80,000) will be given to two organizations
fighting for LGBT inclusion in sport. It’s
great that Escobar met with Patrick Burke of You Can Play and openly gay soccer
player David Fasto. I am thankful for straight male athlete allies like Hudson
Taylor, Patrick Burke, Ben Cohen and all of the male professional athletes who
are speaking out. It is all long overdue
and absolutely necessary to change men’s sports culture.
The
problem for me is that somehow with all of the attention focused on men’s
sports, homophobia in women’s sports is in danger of being treated as either a non-issue
or a less important issue. I’ve noticed
for some time that media coverage of “gays in sports” has focused almost
entirely on men’s sports. Women’s
sports, if mentioned at all, are dismissed in the first couple of paragraphs.
The final straw for me was an article on NPR.org this week which was a
thoughtful piece generally about homophobia in (men’s) sports with quotes from
male athletes. The writers had this to say about homophobia in women’s sports:“Today, (Billie
Jean) King is also an advocate for gay rights, but for most of her career, she
stayed in the closet. Now, it's not uncommon for a female pro athlete to come
out.”
That’s
it. Homophobia in women’s sports? It used to be a problem. No problem, today
though. Women’s sports are full of
lesbians, don’t you know?
Every
time I am interviewed by a reporter about LGBT issues in sports, I talk about
the differences in how homophobia is manifested in men’s and women’s sports. I
talk about the ways in which homophobia in women’s sports is still a huge
problem. The reporters listen politely
and then ask me another question about when I think a gay man will come out in
professional baseball or football. The article comes out – nada about women’s
sports.
I
know, I know. I should be used to women’s sports taking a back seat to men’s
sports in the media, even when the topic is homophobia.
But
it isn’t just the mainstream media, it is the LGBT community and our allies
too. This past weekend dot429 Magazine,
an LGBT publication, sponsored StraightTalk, “an annual event bringing together
LGBT influencers for a weekend of discussion and debate, where politicians,
business professionals, celebrities, and educators explore issues important to
the LGBT community. The event exemplifies dot429’s mission to connect and
engage our members so that together, we can move forward and achieve even more.”
StraightTalk
included a panel on, I quote, “LGBT in Athletics.” The panel was moderated by LZ Granderson, a
gay ESPN columnist and CNN commentator. The
panelists were Hudson Taylor, founder of Athlete Ally; Wade Davis, a gay former
NFL player; and Chris Mosier, a transgender male triathlete. Not one woman on the panel. I could name at
least five or six amazing women in the New City area alone who could have been
a part of this discussion. Were they asked? I cannot believe the organizers of
StraightTalk could not find a woman athlete for this panel. Don’t get me wrong.
I know and have great respect for every man on this panel, but how can a panel
that purports to address LGBT issues in athletics not include at least one
(token) woman?
I
need to ask Hudson, Wade, LZ and Chris if they knew about this omission before
the event. I need to ask if they called it to the attention of the organizers.
I need to know if they called it to the attention of their audience during the
panel.
Last
week Hudson Taylor wrote an article in the Huffington Post entitled, Sexism and
Homophobia in Sports. It’s a wonderful
description of the connections between homophobia and sexism in sport and how
they affect the ways women athletes try to counteract the masculine and lesbian
associations that are placed on them because of their athleticism. It’s a
great piece of writing by Hudson who is Straight Male Ally in Chief in my
book. Beyond the connections that Hudson
makes in his article about how homophobia and sexism lead many women athletes,
particularly straight women athletes, to defend themselves from the lesbian
label is this: Homophobia and sexism in women’s sports is at the root of on-going
discrimination and harassment of all women who are perceived to be or who actually
are lesbians. All is not well for lesbians in sport. Sport is not the lesbian
mecca some imagine it to be. This is what sports reporters, bloggers and even
LGBT conference organizers do not seem to understand or are not interested in.
Yes,
I would agree that many college and professional women’s sports teams are
generally open to and comfortable with lesbian teammates. Yes, many lesbian professional
athletes are out to their teammates and coaches. Of course, lesbians have always been
important participants in and advocates for women’s sports. On some teams lesbian coaches and athletes
are welcomed and invited to be as open about their sexual orientation as they
choose to be. Yet, as we celebrate this
openness, we must understand that situations like these are also true:
- College coaches of women’s teams still have “no lesbian” team policies
- Lesbian athletes are dismissed from college teams, find their playing time limited or are harassed until they quit teams solely because of their sexual orientation or gender expression
- College coaches of women’s teams still use negative recruiting tactics to insinuate that coaches of rival teams are lesbians
- College coaches who are lesbians are afraid to identify themselves out of fear that it would be used against them in personnel decisions and recruiting
- Only one Division 1 women’s basketball coach in the entire United States is publicly out as a lesbian (Sherri Murrell at Portland State University)
- Lesbian athletes are discouraged from being open about their lesbian identity lest it “tarnish” the entire team’s reputation
- Lesbian coaches, athletes and sports administrators are targeted with anti-LGBT vandalism and anonymous harassment
With
regard to the last item on this list, read this article about a lesbian high
school athletic director in California who is currently under attack by vandals
who are targeting her because she is a lesbian.
In
closing I want to offer a couple of challenges:
- To sports reporters, bloggers and others who are writing about homophobia in sport: Be inclusive in your coverage. If you are talking about LGBT issues in sports or homophobia in sports, remember that women play sports too and that homophobia in women’s sports is a serious continuing problem
- To straight and gay men who are speaking out about LGBT issues in sport: Educate yourself on how homophobia is manifested in women’s sports. Talk about how homophobia affects women’s sports in general and lesbians in particular. If you are on a panel about LGBT issues in sports and no women have been asked to participate, call out the organizers and make it happen. That’s what male allies do, whether straight or gay.
Let’s make
sure that we are advancing the cause of the LGBT sports equality movement and
not just the LGBT
sports movement.
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