Over the last several months an
impressive number of high profile straight men in sport have stepped forward to
speak out publicly in support of marriage equality and the inclusion of LGBTQ
people in sports as well as against anti-LGBTQ bullying in schools. NFL players Chris Kluwe, Brendon Ayanbadejo
and Scott Fujita; NHL players Sean Avery and Tommy Wingels, NBA players Grant
Hill and Steve Nash are among the increasingly visible straight male allies speaking
up publicly.
In addition, several MLB teams,
including the San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox, have produced
“It Gets Better” videos adding their voices to the thousands of others offering
hope to LGBT youth who are bullied by their peers. Recently, San Francisco 49er Coach, Jim
Harbaugh, spoke in support of gay football players on the eve of his team’s
appearance in the Super Bowl.
In addition to these expressions of
support, three straight male allies, Hudson Taylor of Athlete Ally; Patrick
Burke of the You Can Play Project; and Ben Cohen of the Stand Up Foundation,
have taken their LGBT advocacy to the next level by creating organizations that
focus on making sports a safe and inclusive place for LGBT athletes and coaches
and take strong stands against anti-LGBTQ bullying.
The visibility and outspoken
support of high profile straight professional team sports athletes and the
education and advocacy efforts of allies like Hudson, Patrick and Ben are a
vital part of making sports inclusive and respectful for people of all sexual
orientations and gender identities/expressions. Truly, the increasing
visibility of straight male allies in sports is astounding given the pervasive
silence and even hostility surrounding LGBT issues that was more typical of
men’s sports prior to the last couple of years.
I define allies as members of
privileged social groups in relation to a particular form of social injustice. For
example, white allies standing against racism, male allies speaking out against
sexism and straight allies fighting heterosexism/homophobia broaden the reach
of change efforts and serve as visible role models for others to act and speak
for social justice. Allies play a vital role in all social justice movements
including the LGBTQ sports equality movement.
Amid the celebration of visible
straight male allies in the burgeoning LGBTQ sports equality movement, however,
we must ask the question: Where are the high profile straight women allies?
What professional or Olympic straight women athletes are speaking out for
marriage equality and LGBT inclusion in sport? What high visibility college
women coaches are taking a public stand against anti-LGBTQ bullying and
discrimination in sports? Where are the
counterparts to Hudson Taylor, Patrick Burke and Ben Cohen starting advocacy
organizations to challenge anti-LGBTQ discrimination in sports?
It isn’t that there are no straight
women allies in sport. I have spoken to
many straight women coaches and athletes who decry discrimination based on sexual
orientation or gender identity/expression. Sherri Murrell, the only publicly
out lesbian coach in D1 women’s basketball, receives a lot of personal support
from her straight coaching colleagues. Straight women college and professional
athletes are embracing their lesbian and bisexual teammates on teams all across
the US. In working with college
student-athletes, I find that women’s teams are often much more open about and
comfortable with the sexual orientation diversity on their teams than the men
are.
The problem is that straight women
allies in sport are invisible and they offer their support privately. By confining their support to private
conversations within their teams or one on one to coaching colleagues, straight
women athlete and coach allies fall victim to the same old homophobia and fear
of association with lesbians that has plagued women’s sports since Senda
Berenson organized the first women’s basketball game at Smith College in 1893. Don’t get me wrong, private allies are
better than no allies. But we need
public allies who speak out consistently and boldly if we are to change the
culture of fear and secrecy that persists in women’s sport. To most effective challenge heterosexism and
homophobia in women’s sports, straight women allies must be willing to speak
out publicly.
When lesbian athletes and coaches
like Seimone Augustus, Megan Rapinoe and Sherri Murrell come out; we need their
straight teammates and coaches to publicly and privately support them. We need
straight women on NCAA panels speaking out against LGBTQ discrimination in
sport. We need straight women allies in
sport to take their place beside the lesbians and bi women, the straight men
and the gay and bi men, the transgender men and women who are already working
to challenge anti-LGBTQ discrimination in sport. Their absence speaks volumes
about the difference between heterosexism/homophobia in women’s and men’s
sports.
Several factors account for the
silence of straight women allies in sport.
Certainly sexism in sport combined with homophobia affect straight women
in ways that straight men don’t even think about. The lesbian label has a long
history in women’s sport of being used as an effective means of silencing,
intimidating and discounting women in sport as well as women’s sports in
general. Male athletes and men’s sports
are privileged in terms of resources, media access and gendered cultural
expectations. While individual straight men who speak out publicly against
LGBTQ discrimination in sport may be called “gay,” in an attempt to silence
them, the effects of this gay-baiting are not as damaging as they are under the
persistent shadow of negative lesbian stereotypes that still looms over women’s
sports and all women athletes. Negative recruiting based on actual or perceived
sexual orientation is still a reality in women’s sports. Lesbian coaches still lose their jobs because
of their sexual orientation. Lesbian athletes are still dismissed from teams or
shunned by teammates because of their sexual orientation.
It is also possible that straight
women allies do not get the media attention that male straight allies receive.
We know that women’s sports in general do not and that lesbian athletes who
come out publicly do not. It might be
that there are high profile straight women athletes publicly expressing their
support for LGBT people in sport, but it is not perceived as newsworthy by the
male-dominated sports media. Another
reason straight allies might not get the media attention they deserve is that
too many sports journalists assume that discrimination against lesbians and bi
women in sport is no longer a problem.
They assume, incorrectly, that we must focus all of our attention on
men’s sports and, they become obsessed (in my opinion) with when the first
major team sports professional male athlete will come out while he is still
actively competing. Given gender and
sexual orientation stereotypes, the public and the media see gay men and
straight male allies in sports as more surprising and therefore, more newsworthy.
This perspective often masks a more damaging fundamental belief that all women
athletes are lesbians so it isn’t news when a women athlete announces publicly
that she is what everyone assumed she was anyway.
These and other factors could offer
explanations for the relative silence of high profile straight women when it
comes to the public discussion of LGBTQ issues in sport. However, none of these factors excuses the
near total absence of straight women’s voices in this conversation. At a time when the President of the United
States welcomes the LGBT rights movement into the civil rights mainstream in
his second inaugural address, it’s embarrassing to say that I cannot name a
single high profile straight women athlete or coach who speaks publicly,
proudly and consistently on behalf of LGBT inclusion in sport.
Consider this an invitation. Consider this an
exhortation. Whatever it takes, we need the voices and faces of straight women
athletes and coaches to help us transform sports for all women and men. We need
you to join your straight brothers if we are to make sport an inclusive and
respectful place for all of us. Come out; come out, wherever you are!