tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17908328844001436032024-03-18T02:18:02.577-05:00Pat Griffin's LGBT Sport BlogCommentary on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in sport from a long-time educator and advocate for social justice in sports. I am also author of Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homophobia in Sport. The opinions expressed in this blog are solely mine and do not necessarily reflect those of any organization with which I am affiliated.Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.comBlogger312125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-836933127610341522016-05-02T10:26:00.000-05:002016-05-02T10:26:03.936-05:00NCAA Takes a Small and Disappointing Step to Address Anti-LGBT State Laws<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">On
Wednesday, April 27 the NCAA announced that the Board of Governors was
instituting a new requirement for sites hosting or bidding on NCAA events. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Current and future hosts for NCAA events will
be required to “demonstrate how they will provide an environment that
is safe, healthy, and free of discrimination,
plus safeguards the dignity of everyone involved in the
event.” </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">The
NCAA’s announcement comes in response to the recent rash of over 100 state laws
proposed or passed that single out LGBT people for discrimination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The NCAA had previously announced that it was
“monitoring” the situation in North Carolina where the most sweeping of these
laws was passed last month. With the announcement of their new requirement, the
NCAA finally broke its silence on the topic to belatedly join a chorus of other
private and public organizations and individuals speaking out against the
legalization of discrimination with boycotts, protests and strong public
statements against the law.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">While
the NCAA announcement is a step in the right direction, it is a timid and
ambiguous step unbecoming a national organization that claims to promote “inclusiveness
in race, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity as a vital
element to protecting the well-being of student-athletes, promoting
diversity in hiring practices and creating a culture of fairness.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">Some
media reports and LGBT rights organizations have inaccurately described the
NCAA announcement as an action that denies states that have enacted
discriminatory laws singling out LGBT people the opportunity to host NCAA
events.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, a close reading of the
NCAA announcement reveals that the new requirement actually is far less bold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The new requirement does not rule out the
selection of states with anti-LGBT laws as hosts of NCAA events. Instead it
asks potential hosts to demonstrate how they will “provide an environment that
is safe, healthy, and free of discrimination,
plus safeguards the dignity of everyone involved in the event.” How
this well-intended but vague directive will be implemented as part of the
bidding process is as yet undetermined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The NCAA national office has been directed by the Board of Governors to
figure this out. If the Board of Governors intended the new requirement to mean
that the NCAA will not schedule events in states with discriminatory laws, they
need to make that intention clear instead of talking in general terms about requiring
demonstrations of attention to the safety, health, dignity and freedom from
discrimination of all spectators and participants. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">The
ambiguity of the NCAA’s new requirement is particularly disappointing in light
of their clear policy denying schools that have offensive Native American
mascots and states that fly the confederate flag the right to host NCAA
events.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I applaud the NCAA for using
their influence as a powerful national sports governing body to take a firm
public stance against these pernicious symbols of racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The laws enacted in North Carolina, Missouri
and Tennessee, however, are more than symbols. These laws affect the legal
status of LGBT people and can have serious consequences for their safety,
well-being and quality of life. These laws deny an entire class of citizens the
right to live in a discrimination-free environment or the right to challenge
discrimination when it does occur. Surely, enacting laws that target a
particular group of people for discrimination warrants as strong a stand as the
NCAA has taken against symbols of injustice like Native American mascots and
the confederate flag.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">The
new requirement leaves open the possibility that a state that has enacted
anti-LGBT laws may host an NCAA event as long as they provide the NCAA with an
explanation of how event sponsors intend to create a safe and discrimination-free
environment. Apparently, the NCAA expects the school or organization sponsoring
an NCAA event in these states to create a “safe zone” of some kind that ignores
state law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What would need to be
included in this safe zone? Certainly the facility where an event is held would
need to be included, but what about hotels, restaurants, private businesses, public
bathrooms, medical facilities and other public accommodations that spectators
and participants in an NCAA event use during an event? </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">Will
this cone of safety and non-discrimination extend to harassment on the sidewalk
or in parking lots around the sports arena, hotel or restaurant? How will this
safe zone be enforced in a state where it is perfectly legal to decline service
to LGBT people based on personal religious beliefs, where state law requires
that transgender people use the public toilet that aligns with their sex
assigned at birth rather than their gender identity or where LGBT people have
been explicitly excluded from protections against discrimination by state law?</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">The
new NCAA requirement raises these and other critical questions that need
answers. Perhaps the biggest question of all is how an organization that
professes to have a strong commitment to LGBT inclusion could settle on such an
ambiguous and weak statement. It is hypocritical to award NCAA events to states
with discriminatory laws. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
unrealistic to believe that potential hosts for NCAA events can assure the NCAA
that they can provide a discrimination-free bubble for the event within the
broader climate of risk that LGBT people in that state face. </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">Perhaps
most disappointing, the NCAA has wasted an opportunity to stand firmly and
publicly against discrimination. This new requirement is an unacceptable,
unrealistic and empty bargain that allows the game to go on and enables the
NCAA to claim that it is acting on its stated organizational commitment to
diversity and inclusion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The NCAA can
and must do better than this if we are to take seriously their commitment to LGBT
inclusion.</span></div>
Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com48tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-62999910314660903302016-03-21T09:00:00.000-05:002016-03-21T09:00:11.354-05:00Seeking Common Ground: People of Faith and LGBT People in College Athletics<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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March 21, 2016</div>
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An Open Letter</div>
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From: The Common Ground Leadership Team</div>
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<br /></div>
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We are a committee comprised of
sports educators including members of the LGBTQ community and faith community
who work in college athletics. We come together to encourage respectful dialogue
and to build relationships across our differences. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our goal is to find common ground in policies
and practices that enable all people in collegiate athletics, regardless of
faith, sexual orientation or gender identity, to participate in a safe, civil
and respectful environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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We believe that student-athletes of
all faiths, sexual orientations and gender identities deserve a safe and
respectful athletic experience in which they can reach their full potential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Further, we believe that we have the best
chance of creating safe and respectful athletic climates by working together to
provide leadership and guidance to individual schools and national athletic
organizations about how to achieve this challenging goal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We believe in the power of engaging in
difficult conversations together to find answers that benefit us all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Finally, we believe that divisive
and polarized public debate pitting religious freedom against LGBTQ rights results
in zero sum solutions characterized by fear and defensiveness that prevent us
from recognizing our common values, commitments and humanity. We reject this conflict
model as a way to create the kind of inclusive athletic climates we envision. </div>
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We came together in November, 2014
as part of an event hosted by the NCAA and planned by members of the LGBT
Sports Foundation to engage people of faith and LGBTQ people in athletics in an
initial conversation about “seeking common ground.” As a result of that
positive and productive conversation, the Common Ground Leadership Team
evolved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are currently engaged in
planning a second Common Ground meeting in November, 2016 at NCAA headquarters
to which we will invite representatives from faith-based schools, people of
faith from secular schools and LGBTQ people to extend our conversations about
finding workable inclusive practice and policy that honors our differences and
creates the respect and safety essential for all student-athletes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our ultimate goals are to create and share a
process for individual schools and athletic conferences to engage in their own
common ground initiatives and to provide school athletic leaders with
recommendations for more inclusive practice and policy.</div>
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Although we have significant differences in our
perspectives on faith, sexual orientation and gender identity, we believe that we
can work together to create more inclusive college athletic climates in which
all participants can thrive while remaining true to our deeply held beliefs and
identities. To that end, we are committed to a process that respects the core
identities that our faith, our sexual orientation and our gender identity
represent as we seek ways to bridge our differences. We invite all to join us
in this challenging endeavor, always employing civility as we seek common
ground.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Signed, </div>
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The Common Ground Leadership Team:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Nevin Caple, Executive Director
Br{ache the Silence</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Helen Carroll, Sports Project
Director National Center for Lesbian Rights</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Pat Griffin, Professor Emerita
University of Massachusetts Amherst</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
H. “Skip” Lord, Director of
Athletics Houghton College</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Karen Morrison, Chief Diversity
Officer, University of Central Florida</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Gary Pine, Director of Athletics
Azusa Pacific University</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Amy Wilson, Director NCAA Office of
Inclusion</div>
Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-66709708470137397792014-05-05T12:39:00.001-05:002014-05-05T12:39:16.119-05:00The Reappearing Act by Kate Fagan<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">I highly recommend Kate Fagan's memoir. In fact, I would go so far as to say that anyone who wants to understand how homophobia affects women in sport, this is required reading.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">The
Reappearing Act by Kate Fagan (Skyhorse, 2014)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">The
Reappearing Act is a gripping memoir written with honesty and wry humor about
Kate Fagan’s painful, but ultimately triumphant journey to truth and
self-acceptance as a lesbian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a
college basketball player on a nationally ranked team Kate Fagan’s story
exposes the influence of Evangelical Christian sport ministries on young
athletes and the crushing fear of being publicly identified as lesbian that
holds so many women coaches and athletes hostage.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">I
started reading The Reappearing Act after the evening news one night and could
not put it down until I finished it in the wee hours of the next morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly part of the book’s appeal is how it
stirred memories of my own experiences as a closeted lesbian athlete and coach.
I relived the suffering along with Kate through fear, isolation and shame as
she wrestled with the growing realization that her feelings for other women
were more than those associated with intense friendships.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Noting a player from another team passing a
huddle of Kate’s teammates in the gym, she writes,</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">One of my teammates leaned into our
little huddle and said, “I heard she’s a lesbian.” “That’s so disgusting,” said
another of my friends, shaking her head, trying to fling the thought from her
mind. “Yeah,” said another, “Totally sickening.” “Totally,” I chimed in, the
flock of birds tearing through my insides.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">It
was depressing to think that, though I am about 36 years older than Kate Fagan,
our torturous journeys to self-acceptance had so many similarities. Despite progress
in cultural acceptance of LGBT people and our civil, parental and marriage
rights in the last 40 years, some young LGBT people still suffer through a
personal hell of self-hate as they strive to find peace and comfort with the
truth of their sexual orientation or gender identity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tragically, many never do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Fagan’s
struggles are complicated by her Evangelical Christian teammates’ condemnation of
homosexuality and her ambivalent, yet regular participation in weekly
Fellowship of Christian Athletes Bible studies with her teammates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her experiences raise concerns about the unquestioned
acceptance of Christian sport ministries in athletics at all levels, but
particularly in high school and college sports. Young people seeking to
understand and come to terms with their sexuality are the most vulnerable to
the pressure exerted by these sport ministries to deny their inner truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same time their straight teammates are
encouraged to “love the sinner and hate the sin,” which, in Kate’s case,
results in the painful loss of support from the friend and teammate she cared
most about. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">At
the depths of despair in Kate’s lonely journey to self-love, she endures the abandonment
of her best friend and teammate, estrangement from her parents and the loss of her
love for basketball. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Barely able to
function on or off the court, Kate engages in an internal war between what she
increasingly feels to be true about herself and the terror of what naming that
truth might mean. Her descriptions of this struggle are so vivid that I wanted
to step into the book to take her hand and show her the way out of her pain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">One
of the most poignant parts of this memoir is when Kate reaches out to her
closeted lesbian coach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is common
knowledge that her coach is a lesbian (Kate’s Christian teammates regularly
pray for her), but it is never spoken of in public.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One night Kate is alone in the darkened gym
after practice when her coach comes in and finds her there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kate suddenly realizes that here is the one
person in her life who might be able to help her see what the future could
hold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They go to the coaches’ locker
room where her coach tells Kate how she has survived as a lesbian in the highly
competitive world of college women’s basketball which relies on talking to
parents and recruiting their young daughters. Kate describes her coach’s answer,</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">She has little choice but to pack
away this part of herself – this intrinsic piece of her being –stuff it into a
suitcase and stash it deep in the closet, unpacking it only on safe occasions,
when people around her would understand all of what was inside.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">I
want to believe that, though this has been a necessary survival strategy for
lesbian coaches, its usefulness is now outdated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want to believe that we have grown enough
as a society to judge coaches (or politicians, teachers, or medical doctors) on
the basis of their competence and character rather than their sexual
orientation, but I fear that we have not. Not yet.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">It
leaves me wondering what kind of basketball player Kate, and other young
lesbian athletes like her, might have been if not weighted down by the fear,
shame and uncertainty she carried throughout her college career. It makes me
sad that so many lesbian coaches pass on this legacy of the closet to younger
coaches and athletes who yearn for a greater freedom to be true to themselves
and play or coach the sport they love. Burdened by such fundamental secrecy who
could possibly soar to reach their full potential and a coach, player or loving
human being?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">The
Reappearing Act is ultimately the story of Kate’s successful journey to
herself. As such it is a beacon of hope and a gauntlet laid down for current
and future generations of women athletes and coaches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As painful as her journey is to witness,
those of us who care about women’s sports and the lives of girls and women
athletes must take stock of how we pass on or challenge this legacy of
fear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">As
such The Reappearing Act should be required reading for anyone who hopes to
understand the crippling effects of homophobia for individual women of all
sexual orientations and for the future of women’s sports itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Near the end of the book, Kate describes the
long-term effects of living in the closet, even a glass closet, on individual
coaches or athletes, but it could easily apply to women’s sports in general,</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">You tell yourself that you’re just
wearing a coat, protecting yourself in public, against the elements. You tell
yourself that it’s just temporary, that someday you’ll take off the coat and be
the real you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But eventually, years
later, when the time comes and you’re finally ready to shed it forever, you
realize you can’t. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">The coat has become your skin.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Kate
Fagan’s courageous memoir provides readers with an opportunity to reflect on
the damaging effects that homophobia has had on women’s sports and on the
individual girls and women who love to play sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need a way out of the closet so that every
girl or woman whose heart sings at the clean swish of a ball through the net or
the crack of a ball off the bat can reach for her stars without the fear that
has cramped the dreams of so many who have come before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Reappearing Act helps us to understand
the urgency of that change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is up to
readers to help make the change happen.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com131tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-76509788210382261182014-01-02T13:47:00.000-05:002014-01-02T13:47:37.989-05:00Women in the LGBT Sports Equality Movement: New Year and Birthday Thoughts <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s the start of a new year and it’s my birthday. Both
are great occasions to reflect on the past and look to the future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have been an active and out lesbian LGBT
sports advocate and educator since 1982 when I spoke out for the first time
publicly about homophobia in women’s sports at a national conference on the
future of women’s sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you might
imagine, at that time, it caused quite a stir.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You just did not talk about lesbians or homophobia in sport above a
whisper or in public! I actually had a colleague ask me once if homophobia meant
fear of going home.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Billie Jean King had been outed by her former lover the
year before and lost all of her commercial endorsements. Martina Navratilova
had just been outed in a New York newspaper. She did not want them to publish
the article until she had received her US citizenship since sexual orientation
could have been used to deny her application.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Dave Kopay’s ground-breaking book was published 6 years before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Renee Richards was the only trans athlete we
knew of because she won her right to play in women’s competitions in 1977. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All in all, it was a fairly lonely and risky experience
to be a fledging LGBT sports advocate in 1982. I did have role models though.
Ellen “Lennie” Gerber and her partner, Pearl Berlin were my mentors when I was
getting my Master’s degree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
introduced me to Jan Felshin, a professor at East Stroudsburg, who was such an open
and outspoken lesbian that she both inspired and scared me.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In the early 90’s, I met and began working with Helen
Carroll, then athletic Director at Mills College and now director of the NCLR
Sports Project; Sue Rankin, then an openly lesbian softball coach at Penn State
during the Rene Portland anti-lesbian era and now a top researcher on LGBT
issues on college campuses; Dee Mosbacher, who produced the first educational documentary
about homophobia in women’s sports, Out for A Change, in 1995; Mariah Burton
Nelson, professional basketball player and author; and Mary Jo Kane, a sport
sociologist from the University of Minnesota specializing in research on media
images of women athletes. Each of these amazing women inspired me and we
supported each other in our efforts to challenge homophobia in women’s sports.
It meant everything to have friends and colleagues who cared as deeply as I did
about women’s sports and making sports a safe and inclusive place where LGBT
people could compete openly without fear of discrimination or harassment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With encouragement and support from these
women I wrote Strong Women, Deep Closets in 1998, the first book to explore the
depth of homophobia in women’s sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
am still humbled (and proud) when women athletes and coaches tell me that my
book changed their lives in some way or helped them to understand and speak out
against the destructive dynamics of heterosexism and sexism they experienced in
sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I probably wouldn’t have
completed the book without the support of my women’s support network.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Over the last fourteen years we have experienced an
incredible explosion of advocacy and change in the women’s and men’s sports
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The creation of LGBT sports
advocacy organizations and the emergence of young leaders of all sexual
orientations and gender identities who are creating change in sports at all levels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The success of the LGBT sports equality
movement is assured by these amazing young people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though we have many obstacles remaining
before the work is done, we are up to the challenge.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My work as an LGBT sports advocate grew out of my own
experiences as a closeted lesbian athlete and coach in high school and
college.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted to be part of a
movement that would insure that future LGBT athletes and coaches would be able
to compete and coach in the sports they loved without fear and discrimination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a high school and college woman athlete
who competed and coached pre-Title IX, I also am very sensitive to the need to
keep our focus on women’s and men’s sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Though we have made enormous progress, we have not yet achieved equality
for girls and women in sports on the playing field, in coaching, in sports
reporting or in sports administration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This fight against sexism is also a part of the LGBT
sports advocacy movement. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must not
succumb to the myth that homophobia is no longer an issue or less important in
women’s sports or let the media’s focus on men’s sports influence our agenda. Addressing
heterosexism and transgender oppression in women’s and men’s sports is equally
important. Heterosexism and transgender oppression sometimes manifest
themselves in different ways because of sexist gender expectations, but their
effects are equally devastating on women and men and boys and girls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our advocacy efforts must focus on both
women’s and men’s sports equally.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One of the most exciting aspects of the thriving LGBT
sports advocacy movement is the emergence of talented young women leaders whose
work is grounded in a commitment to challenging, not only sexism, but racism,
biphobia and classism both in and outside of the LGBT sports movement. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://annalaagenes.com/2013/12/31/14-lgbt-resolutions-for-2014/" target="_blank">Anna Aegenes</a>, the executive director of GO! Athletes;
<a href="http://freedomsounds.org/project/nevin-caple/" target="_blank">Nevin Caple</a>, executive the director of Br{ache The Silence; and <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/01/01/caitlin-cahow-gay-lesbian-sochi-olympics-winter-column/4262471/" target="_blank">Caitlin Cahow</a>,
the US Olympic ice hockey medalist and member of the Presidential delegation to
the Sochi Games are three young women who are providing the leadership that the
LGBT sports advocacy movement needs to successfully reach its goals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They, in turn, are inspiring other young
women who are working on their campuses, on their teams, in their schools to
follow their example. It is an honor to work with these young women and to
celebrate their successes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so the
cycle of supporting, mentoring and learning from women continues.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://annalaagenes.com/2013/12/31/14-lgbt-resolutions-for-2014/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"></span></a><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/01/01/caitlin-cahow-gay-lesbian-sochi-olympics-winter-column/4262471/"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></a><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I have always thought that the struggle for social
justice is like a relay race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Older
members of the team complete their leg and pass the baton on to younger
generations who continue the race to the finish line. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Women like Lennie, Pearl and Jan passed the
baton to me. I am inspired to know a younger generation of women leaders, exemplified
by Anna, Nevin and Caitlin, as teammates who are taking the baton and running
their leg with the kind of fierce determination and power we need to win and
making sure that women are part of the race and the victory.</span></div>
Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com197tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-39218655100224326822013-07-24T11:02:00.001-05:002013-07-24T11:02:36.374-05:00Making Connections: White Privilege in the LGBT Sports Advocacy Community<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Last week I just happened to turn on CNN at the exact moment
that President Obama walked into the White House press conference to make a
surprise statement in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin Murder trial
outcome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I almost never watch TV during
the day, but it was blazing hot and wicked humid out and I was stuck in the
house enjoying the AC. A little bored, I turned on the TV just in time to hear
the president make his extraordinary personal statement placing the reactions
of many African-American people to the Zimmerman acquittal in the larger
context of race and racism in the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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As someone who considers myself a white ally on issues of
race and racism, I was impressed by Obama’s statement and his intentional
injection of race and racism into the conversation about the Zimmerman trial. I
am so sick of hearing white people proclaim that racism is over and that this
particular incident had nothing to do with race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am outraged that John Roberts and the
majority of the Supreme Court believe that it is no longer necessary to monitor
individual states’ efforts to make it difficult or impossible for poor people
and people of color to vote because racism is over according to their white
privileged world view.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I am angry that when African-Americans or other people of
color point out how race and racism are still prevalent and relevant in the
United States these efforts are attacked by white people as divisive attempts to
revive racial tensions of the past or dismissed as “biased” or “too sensitive.”
That is exactly what happened when Obama spoke out yesterday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The twitter world lit up with white conservative
politicians and pundits dismissing and criticizing his heartfelt statement.</div>
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The problem is not calling attention to race and racism and
demanding that we address the on-going institutional manifestations of it. The
problem is our inability as a nation and as individual citizens to acknowledge
that racism is still deeply embedded in the fabric of our culture and
ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is NOT calling attention
to the on-going significance of race and racism that is divisive; it is the
refusal to consider the effects of racism that is divisive. It is the dismissal
and erasure of the perspectives of people of color about their experiences in a
white-dominated culture that are problematic.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I do not expect blatant white racists to change their
perspectives any time soon. Neither do I expect the white conservative pundits
who claim that we live in a post-racial society to understand the complacent
naiveté of the white privilege embedded in their smug pronouncements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I do expect is that white allies, me and
white people like me who claim to abhor racism, will stand up and speak out
alongside our friends and colleagues of color about the disturbing dismissal of
race and racism in our national and personal conversations about justice, both
legal and social. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is simplistic and not productive to think that it is
enough to see oneself as a “good” white person who does not participate in or
condone overt acts of racism. This perspective places white people outside of
racism looking in. It separates white people from the need to engage in
self-reflection or action. This perspective enables “good” white people to
stand on the sidelines without confronting our own ignorance, fear, guilt and
privilege when it comes to difficult conversations about racism and the ways we
good white people are complicit in perpetuating it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The truth is that white people, all white
people, benefit from racism. Those of us who claim to believe in social justice
need to confront this uncomfortable reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Conversations about racism among white people are often complicated by our
guilt, fear and ignorance. Avoiding conversations about racism because we feel
guilty, afraid or uninformed is unacceptable. It is the nature of privilege
that it is difficult for those who have it to see it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Becoming aware of one’s privilege can be a
painful, yet liberating process. It is a process white people who claim to be
allies must engage in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>President Obama called
this process soul searching. Unless “good” white people are willing to take on
this challenge (and the choice to refuse the challenge grows out of our
privilege), we will never effectively achieve racial justice and never
understand our roles in either perpetuating or eliminating racism.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Time Out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are wondering why, in an LGBT sports blog, I am
talking about racism, then you are exactly who I would like to engage in this
conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A national conversation
among white people about white privilege and our roles in perpetuating racism,
consciously or unconsciously, is not only about the larger cultural issues of
racism and legal justice, voting rights, gun violence or poverty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to integrate these conversations into
our everyday lives including our LGBT sports advocacy, education and research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To the extent that we unconsciously think of whiteness as
the “default” when we are talking about LGBT inclusion and discrimination in
sports, we are guilty of privileging white people and ignoring the experiences
of LGBT people of color. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Every time we plan an LGBT educational panel, conference
program, research project, course syllabus or workshop and fail to talk about
race and racism or include the voices of people of color, we perpetuate racism.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we sit silently at LGBT sports educational or advocacy
events that do not include people of color or don’t even notice this lack of
representation, we are perpetuating racism.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we leave it up to colleagues or friends of color to
speak out about racism or to remind us to include voices of color, we are enjoying
our white privilege.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we discount the perspectives of people of color as “too
sensitive” or “seeing racism everywhere,” we privilege our own perspectives and
experiences over theirs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we congratulate ourselves for including a few people of
color in our programs without challenging our white privilege, we are
perpetuating racism. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If, when challenged about our ignorance, fear or lack of
action about racism, we let our discomfort or hurt feelings silence us, we are
retreating into our privilege.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we claim to be white allies, but have not really taken on
the challenge of educating ourselves about racism and the white privilege
racism enables, then we are not really engaged in the kind of soul searching
that is required to reach our goal of full LGBT inclusion in sports.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the keys to social change is identifying our spheres
of influence and taking action to address social injustice in those
spheres.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must start with ourselves
and talk to other white people about white privilege and racism and then work
with people of color to challenge racism with the individuals and organizations
we are a part of. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That would be one way that we in the LGBT sports advocacy
world can challenge the white lie that race no longer matters and that racism
is no longer a problem in or out of sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I am in. Are you?</div>
Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-45502713011290001812013-04-03T13:50:00.000-05:002013-04-03T13:50:30.400-05:00Psychotic Coach Behavior: Have We Really So Totally Lost Our Way in College Athletics?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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On Tuesday Outside the Lines<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/03/us-usa-rutgers-coach-idUSBRE93200V20130403" target="_blank"> aired a segment</a> featuring a
video of Mike Rice, the Rutgers men’s basketball coach, physically, emotionally
and verbally bullying players on his team during practice. Not just one time at
one practice, the video was a montage of several instances of the coach’s rages
over a two year period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His tirades
included homophobic slurs directed at players, shoving, kicking, yelling and
throwing the ball at players’ heads, shins, groins at close range. It was a
disgraceful display of rage. The coach’s behavior resembled temper tantrums one
would normally only expect from a two year old child.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The OTL segment provoked an immediate response from everyone
from Chris Christie, the Governor of New Jersey, to LeBron James, to your
average social media savvy sports fan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On
Wednesday, the day after the video went public, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/sports/ncaabasketball/rutgers-fires-basketball-coach-after-video-surfaces.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0" target="_blank">Mike Rice was fired</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mike Rice’s behavior was appalling enough, but the question
now is why wasn’t he fired in November when the video came to the attention to
the Rutgers Athletic Director, Tim Pernetti, and the University President,
Robert Barchi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their decision at that
time was to suspend Rice for three games, fine him $50,000 and make him go to
anger management<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>classes AND to keep the
whole thing a secret.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t until
the video became public this week that Pernetti and Barchi started backtracking
and finally decided to fire the coach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Pernetti described his initial punishment for Rice as an attempt to “rehabilitate”
the coach. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If anyone on the street engaged in the actions Rice directed
at his athletes, they would be arrested for assault and battery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a professor at any university treated a
student in class the way Rice treated his team, they would lose their job
immediately. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a men’s or women’s golf
coach had treated their athletes like Mike Rice did, they would have been
looking for a new job the next day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
College coaches have way too much power, especially men’s
football and basketball coaches. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
<a href="http://washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/mike-rice-tim-pernetti-and-the-leadership-madness-at-rutgers/2013/04/03/094f4bca-9c7f-11e2-a941-a19bce7af755_story.html" target="_blank">school leaders tolerate abusive and discriminatory coach behavior</a> or respond to
it with a slap on the wrist, or rationalize it away as coach being “fiery,” or “competitive,”
or “intense,” we can be sure that that school has sold its soul to the devil of
the mighty dollar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In soulless and
hypocritical athletic programs like this, student-athletes are pawns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their welfare is not important. Protecting
the school’s reputation through secrecy and dishonesty is the priority. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Protecting the cash cow is the priority. Can
you say “Penn State?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The bigger question now is what should happen to Tim Pernetti
and Robert Barchi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can Rutgers not
hold these administrators accountable too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They badly mishandled their responsibility to protect student-athletes
from the irrational behavior of an abusive coach. These men showed incredibly
poor judgement in responding to the video of Rice’s behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That they failed to immediately see that
Rice needed to be fired in November when they first saw the video, is a
testament to the ways that money, the quest for winning teams and big time men’s
college athletics can skew your values. Whatever their personal reactions to
the video, they decided to take the sleazy way out and hope for the best.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I bet they’d love to have that decision back
now.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I also bet that there are other coaches, athletics directors
and college presidents who are wondering if similar videos of their team
practices are floating around. Unfortunately, Mike Rice is not the only practitioner
of the abuse and humiliate model of coaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I guess we can hope that fear of the public embarrassment that Rutgers
is now living through might motivate other schools to rethink their values and
enforce higher standards of coaching behavior from their overpaid diva coaches.
Unfortunately, I doubt it. Winning and the money and attention it brings
inspire cowardice and hypocrisy in too many college administrators, like
Pernetti and Barchi, who’d rather hedge their bets and sell their souls, than
do the right thing, at least until their moral compromise hits the evening news.
</div>
Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com106tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-6351937901181064872013-03-26T14:07:00.002-05:002013-03-26T14:07:57.070-05:00Coaches, Athletes and Sex: Not a Good Game Plan<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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In December, Bev Kearney, the highly successful women’s
track and field coach at the University of Texas, was looking forward to a new
contract from the university with a substantial raise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In early January she resigned to avoid being
fired for having a consensual relationship with a woman on her team in 2002. It
is unclear who brought the relationship to the attention of the university, but
Kearney acknowledged that she did have a relationship with a student-athlete.</div>
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Anyone familiar with athletics knows that some coaches do
have sexual relationships with their athletes. It happens at all levels – youth
sports, high school, college and professional.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At the youth and high school levels, it is a criminal offense. At the
college or professional levels, it may not be a criminal offense, but it is a
breach of coaching ethics and an abuse of power by the coach, even when the
relationship is consensual.</div>
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I believe that coaches who engage in sexual relationships
with athletes on their teams should be fired. I draw a hard line on this issue.
It doesn’t matter what the gender or sexual orientation of the coach is, it’s
wrong and should not be tolerated.</div>
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What complicates Bev Kearney’s situation is that, in the
wake of her resignation, the University of Texas has now publicly acknowledged
that an <a href="http://deadspin.com/5981066/texas-assistant-coach-major-applewhite-was-disciplined-for-inappropriate-consensual-behavior-with-an-adult-student-four-years-ago" target="_blank">assistant football coach </a>who had a sex with a female student team
manager was treated quite differently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Major Applewhite, a former quarterback for UT and now an
assistant football coach admitted to having sex with the student during the
Fiesta Bowl in 2009.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition to
keeping his breach out of the media, Applewhite, who was married at the time,
was disciplined, had his salary frozen for eleven months and received
counseling, but retained his job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
incident was minimized as a “one night stand.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Though the <a href="http://espn.go.com/espnw/commentary/8830139/espnw-make-bev-kearney-departure-university-texas" target="_blank">ethics and/or criminality</a> of sex between coaches
and athletes should apply equally to all coaches – male or female, gay or straight
– often the reactions and punishments assigned to the coaches do not. The
University of Texas’s differential responses to Applewhite and Kearney
highlight the problem.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Applewhite, a white, married heterosexual man coaching
football was protected from public embarrassment. His breach of ethics was
minimized as a one time lapse of judgement punished lightly and he continues to
be employed in good standing by the university. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Kearney, an African-American lesbian track and field coach,
was immediately offered the choice of resigning or being fired for her breach
of ethics eleven years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is no
longer employed by the University of Texas. Over. Done.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Even given the differences in the specifics of each
situation, UT’s wildly different responses to the two coaches’ ethical breaches
is apparent. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kearney has <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.dallasvoice.com/lesbian-coachs-discrimination-complaints-allege-double-standard-ut-10142298.html" target="_blank">filed a lawsuit </a>against the University charging race and gender discrimination based on
the different sanctions meted out to Kearney and Applegate<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I suspect Kearney might have also included
discrimination based on sexual orientation too, but Texas has no laws
protecting against this kind of discrimination).</div>
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<br /></div>
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The UT board of regents met earlier this month to discuss
personnel matters "regarding legal issues concerning individual athletic
personnel and legal issues related to inappropriate relations between employees
and students." I bet they are talking about Kearney’s lawsuit too.</div>
Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-42407162753355390112013-02-28T13:49:00.001-05:002013-02-28T13:49:31.672-05:00The Power of One Sentence: Heterosexism in Coaches’ Biographies<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If you peruse professional biographies for coaches,
administrators and other staff on collegiate athletic department websites, you
will notice a common characteristic of the vast majority: At the end of the
description of each staff member’s professional accomplishments, a one sentence
paragraph describes the person’s family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For example, “Coach Smith lives with his wife, Nancy, and their two
children in Small Town, USA,” or “Coach Jones and her husband Frank have two
children, Jane (2) and Linda (4).”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes
this sentence is accompanied by a photo of the coach or administrator with
her/his family.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This personal information added to a professional
biography is intended to provide the reader with information that rounds out
the professional profile with a glimpse into the person’s family life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No big deal, right? Just a little piece of
personal information volunteered by the staff member or elicited by sports
information personnel.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I want to make the case that this common practice in
sports media guides or on athletic department websites is actually quite a big
deal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The decision whether or not to include
this one sentence description of family in a professional profile is inextricably
tied to heterosexism whether intentional or not, and provides an incredible
opportunity to reflect on and take a stand against heterosexism in sports.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Researchers Austin Stair Calhoun, Nicole LaVoie and
Mary Jo Kane at the University of Minnesota completed a <a href="http://www.cehd.umn.edu/tuckercenter/projects/default.html" target="_blank">study </a>examining online collegiate head coaches’ biographies
in the Big 10 Conference. They found that 72% of the bios noted an opposite-sex
husband/wife and 28% of the bios made no mention of a significant other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They also found that none of the bios noted a
same-sex spouse/partner. Not one.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">While some coaches and other athletic department
personnel outside the Big 10 do note same-sex partners in their bios, this
practice is rare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One exception is Kirk
Walker, an openly gay assistant softball coach at UCLA, whose bio includes this
ending sentence, “The Woodland Hills, Calif. native has a daughter, Ava, with
his partner of 16 years, Randy Baltimore.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even publicly out lesbian and gay coaches often do not include
information about their partners in their bios. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bio for Sherri Murrell, the publicly out
lesbian head coach of women’s basketball at Portland State University, includes
information about her children, but leaves out any information about her
partner: “Murrell welcomed twins Halle Jane and Rylan Patrick into her family
on February 24, 2009.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My point is that the research on this topic as well as
an informal search of athletic department websites and media guides shows that
the practice of including information about family and the gender of significant
others is largely a heterosexual thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Check it out on your favorite athletic department website.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Let’s look at the decision whether or not to include a
description of one’s family in a professional bio through the lens of
heterosexism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a heterosexual married
coach or athletic administrator, this decision is relatively minor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being heterosexual and married with children
is what is expected and accepted. Heterosexuals freely share this information in
a million little ways every day: wearing a wedding ring, placing family photos
on a desk in the office, having casual conversations with colleagues about
family, bringing family to department social and sports events. Why wouldn’t
she or he want to include this information in a bio? There is no real down side
to providing information about a heterosexual spouse and children. To the
contrary, in a sports world where many high school recruits and their parents,
athletic directors or the general public still view non-heterosexuals in
negative ways, this “evidence” of heterosexuality can be read as a big plus,
whether intended as such or not: The coach is not gay!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Through the same lens of heterosexism, the factors
affecting the decision of lesbian, gay or bisexual coaches in same-sex
relationships to include their family information in a professional bio are
quite different from those of their heterosexual colleagues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their decision is a big deal in ways that it
is not for heterosexual coaches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is
why – Lesbian, bisexual and gay coaches carefully consider this decision
because it can open the coach to professional and personal risk in a world
where heterosexism is the norm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only 16
states and the District of Columbia have laws that prohibit employment discrimination
on the basis of sexual orientation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
are no federal laws that prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation. Many coaches work in schools that do not even have
institutional non-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation or
gender identity. As a consequence, most lesbian, bisexual and gay coaches have
no legal protection against discrimination based on their sexual orientation. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Only nine states and the District of Columbia legally
recognize same-sex marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All but 14
states have enacted constitutional amendments or statutes banning same-sex
marriage or barring civil unions or other official recognition of same-sex
relationships.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A federal Defense of
Marriage Act prohibits same-sex couples, even those with legally recognized
marriages in those states that allow it, to receive the over 1,000 benefits of
marriage enjoyed by heterosexual married people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a consequence, the relationships of most
coaches in same-sex relationships have no legal standing. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Beyond the lack of legal and institutional
non-discrimination policy protections, lesbian and gay coaches must ponder the
professional consequences of coming out in a professional bio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will this information put them at risk of harassment
or mistreatment within their athletic department? Will it affect their ability
to work with colleagues? Student-athletes? Parents of athletes? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Even working in an athletic department among supportive
colleagues does not assure that the decision to include a same-sex relationship
in a professional bio will not have negative consequences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will this information be used as basis for
negative recruiting by rival coaches? Will it affect a coach’s ability to
recruit new athletes (and their parents) that they need to win, which in turn
affects their job security? Could it affect their ability to get a position in
another school’s athletic department should they decide to leave their current
situation? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Making this decision is a catch-22 for lesbian, gay and
bisexual coaches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they do not include
any family information in their bios, this omission, in contrast to the
pervasive inclusion of family information in the bios of their heterosexual
colleagues, can be used against them by those who interpret this omission (often
correctly) as confirmation that the coach is gay. If they choose to include
same-sex family information, that openness also can be used against them.
Either way, lesbian, bisexual and gay coaches or administrators risk
discrimination and in 36 states have no legal recourse to challenge it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most heterosexual coaches have not even
considered this dilemma.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It simply is
not part of their experience.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">All of these factors are at play in the deceptively
simple decision, at least from a heterosexual point of view, to include a one
sentence description of family at the end of a professional biography. This
difference highlights an important fact: In a heterosexist society,
heterosexuals have privileges not available to non-heterosexuals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Proudly listing one’s family at the end of a
professional bio without concern for the professional risk that might accompany
such openness is one of them. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One of the exciting developments over the last couple
of years is the emergence of straight allies in sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These straight allies understand the roles
they can play in making athletics a safe and respectful place for people of all
sexual orientations and gender identities. These straight allies include administrators,
coaches and athletes who are taking public stands to help make athletics an
inclusive experience where everyone is welcome. Their active support for
respect in sports regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity is
essential to changing sports culture.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I have an invitation for these straight allies that I
believe is a way to move to the next level of “allyship” beyond signing an ally
pledge or speaking out against anti-LGBT language. The invitation is to look at
that one sentence at the end of professional bios through the lens of
heterosexism and see it for what it is: a small piece of heterosexual privilege
that places non-heterosexual coaches and other athletic staff at a disadvantage
and can put them at risk of being discriminated against.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The next step is to do something about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Part of being a straight ally is recognizing
how heterosexual privilege works and understanding the powerful statement
allies can make in refusing to take advantage of privilege as one way to
eliminate heterosexism in sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The ideal would, of course, be that every member of an
athletic department, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, could
choose to publicly claim their families without the possibility that this
information could be a professional risk. Unfortunately, we are not there yet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What a powerful statement it would be for the
elimination of heterosexism in sports for straight allies in an athletic
department to omit that one sentence at the end of their bios until such time
as their non-heterosexual colleagues can also legally marry and acknowledge their
same-sex families without the potential risk of discrimination or negatively
affecting their careers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a powerful
statement for an athletic director to demonstrate a departmental commitment to
ending heterosexism in athletics. Mount Holyoke College, under the leadership
of Athletic Director Laurie Priest, is the only college athletic department I
know of that has taken this position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Understanding the heterosexual privilege inherent in
the decision to include this one sentence at the end of a professional bio and
then doing something to level the playing field is one small step for
heterosexuals, but a huge leap toward eliminating a tangible example of heterosexism
in sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Straight allies, are you in
for leaving it out?</span></div>
Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-84048525116893623442013-02-18T09:25:00.002-05:002013-02-18T09:25:25.141-05:00From Russia, But Not With Love<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Russia is sending a message to LGBT people, but it is
definitely not a love note.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As much of
the western world is moving toward greater acceptance and legal protections for
LGBT people, Russia is moving in the opposite direction. National polls tell us
that average Russian citizens are largely anti-gay already, but now the government
in cahoots with the Russian Orthodox Church has proposed a nation-wide <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/01/25/russia_poised_to_pass_sweeping_anti_gay_law/" target="_blank">anti-gay law</a> outlawing “gay propaganda.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The law
is expected to pass. </div>
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What constitutes “gay propaganda” is unclear and that is
part of the disturbing nature of this proposed legislation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It could include wearing a rainbow pin or
holding hands with a same-sex partner. It could include a parent speaking out
for an LGBT child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would most
definitely include organizing of any kind for gay rights or holding a gay pride
celebration. It could mean anything the authorities choose to say it means.
This backward step is consistent other efforts to curtail civil rights in
Russia and quash free speech that challenges the increasingly oppressive
Putin-led government and would be disturbing enough in and of itself.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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However, given that Russia is hosting the 2014 Winter
Olympics in Socchi, these developments have <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2013/02/06/russia-gay-rights-sochi-olympics/1897021/" target="_blank">international implications </a>for LGBT
athletes and their allies who are planning to compete or spectate at
Socchi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Russian judge has already
ruled that there will be no Pride House in Socchi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first Pride House in Vancouver and the
second in London, provided, at the least, a symbolic foothold for LGBT open
inclusion at the Olympics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though, so
far, the Pride House is financed privately and sponsored by local groups, and not
officially affiliated with the hosting Olympic Committee or the IOC, it does
provide some initial visibility that can be built upon in future games.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not in Socchi though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having a Pride House would, in the judge’s
opinion, threaten the future integrity of Russian civilization.</div>
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The <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/14/olympic-wrestling-canceled-gay-conspiracy-russian-coach-controversial-claim_n_2680518.html" target="_blank">Russian national wrestling coach</a> has even blamed the
pending elimination of his sport from the 2020 games on a vast “gay conspiracy”
to dismantle masculinity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can’t make
this stuff up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Taken together: the
outlawing of the Pride House, the anti-gay attitudes of the Russian public, as
illustrated by their deranged wrestling coach and the impending passage of a
scary anti-gay law, the Socchi Olympics is shaping up to be a big step back for
LGBT athletes and the LGBT sports equality movement internationally.</div>
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<br /></div>
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If the “gay propaganda” law passes, which it probably will
well before the Olympics, what does this mean for LGBT athletes competing in
Socchi? Will they be at risk of arrest or fines if they are open about their
sexuality? When asked about their reaction to the ant-LGBT climate in Socchi,
the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/13/international-olympic-committee-gay-rights_n_1593107.html" target="_blank">IOC representative responded</a> with a boiler plate statement about their
commitment to non-discrimination and inclusion, but declined to specifically
address the outlawing of Pride House or the impending Russian legislation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The same is true for the USOC who are, thus
far, silent about the anti-LGBT climate in Russia in general and the Socchi
Olympics in particular.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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If the Olympic movement is truly committed to equality and
inclusion, this is a great opportunity for the IOC and the USOC as well as
other national Olympic Committees around the world to speak up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, the IOC does not consider a
potential host nation’s record on LGBT rights when choosing where the Olympics
will be held. If they did, we would not be having this conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is time for the IOC to stand up and use
the power they have to address the human rights records of host countries
rather than reciting a meaningless commitment to equality after they have
endorsed discrimination by choosing host countries that openly flout the ideals
that the Olympics are supposed to stand for.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I understand that
expecting either of these sport governing bodies to actually take some
leadership on ensuring that ALL athletes and their fans are welcomed and treated
with respect is folly, but we can hold them accountable for their hypocrisy,silence
and complicity.</div>
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Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-74489216990041520782013-01-28T13:01:00.000-05:002013-01-28T13:01:09.240-05:00Straight Women Allies in Sport: Rare Sightings of An Important Species<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
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. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
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?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where are the
counterparts to Hudson Taylor, Patrick Burke and Ben Cohen starting advocacy
organizations to challenge anti-LGBTQ discrimination in sports? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
It isn’t that there are no straight
women allies in sport.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The problem is that straight women
allies in sport are invisible and they offer their support privately.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t get me wrong, private allies are
better than no allies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To most effective challenge heterosexism and
homophobia in women’s sports, straight women allies must be willing to speak
out publicly.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Several factors account for the
silence of straight women allies in sport.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
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. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, none of these factors excuses the
near total absence of straight women’s voices in this conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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!</div>
Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-83271127096451543482012-10-15T13:37:00.001-05:002012-10-15T13:37:07.920-05:00The Incredible Omnipresent Yet Invisible Lesbian Athlete<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could go on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is all long overdue
and absolutely necessary to change men’s sports culture.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve noticed
for some time that media coverage of “gays in sports” has focused almost
entirely on men’s sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Women’s
sports, if mentioned at all, are dismissed in the first couple of paragraphs.
The final straw for me was an article on <a href="http://npr.org/">NPR.org</a><a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/10/13/162862945/a-shifting-playing-field-coming-out-as-a-gay-athlete" target="_blank"></a> 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.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">That’s
it. Homophobia in women’s sports? It used to be a problem. No problem, today
though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Women’s sports are full of
lesbians, don’t you know? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">But
it isn’t just the mainstream media, it is the LGBT community and our allies
too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";"><a href="http://dot429.com/straighttalk/" target="_blank">StraightTalk</a>
included a panel on, I quote, “LGBT in Athletics.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The panel was moderated by LZ Granderson, a
gay ESPN columnist and CNN commentator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
panelists were Hudson Taylor, founder of Athlete Ally; Wade Davis, a gay former
NFL player; and Chris Mosier, a transgender male triathlete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">Last
week Hudson Taylor wrote an <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hudson-taylor/sexism-and-homophobia-in-sports_b_1938038.html" target="_blank">article</a> in the Huffington Post entitled, Sexism and
Homophobia in Sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a
great piece of writing by Hudson who is Straight Male Ally in Chief in my
book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, lesbians have always been
important participants in and advocates for women’s sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On some teams lesbian coaches and athletes
are welcomed and invited to be as open about their sexual orientation as they
choose to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, as we celebrate this
openness, we must understand that situations like these are also true:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">College
coaches of women’s teams still have “no lesbian” team policies</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">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</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">College
coaches of women’s teams still use negative recruiting tactics to insinuate
that coaches of rival teams are lesbians</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">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</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">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)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">Lesbian
athletes are discouraged from being open about their lesbian identity lest it “tarnish”
the entire team’s reputation</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">Lesbian
coaches, athletes and sports administrators are targeted with anti-LGBT vandalism
and anonymous harassment</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">With
regard to the last item on this list, read <a href="http://sdgln.com/causes/2012/08/17/gay-athletic-director-prep-school-targeted-hate-crimes" target="_blank">this article</a> 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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">In
closing I want to offer a couple of challenges:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">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</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">Let’s make
sure that we are advancing the cause of the LGBT sports equality movement and
not just the L</span><span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">G</span><span style="font-family: "Euphemia","sans-serif";">BT
sports movement.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com295tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-1608652472807132182012-09-07T13:08:00.001-05:002012-09-07T13:08:27.146-05:00Purple? Man, That’s So Gay!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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This is what the banner said. The banner was held up by
student spectators at a nationally televised high school football in Alabama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can read about it<a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/nationally-televised-alabama-football-game-features-stupid-homophobic-181430769.html" target="_blank"> here</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The purpose of the banner was to insult the
opposing school team whose team color was purple. The thinking goes like this: In
most high schools (and many colleges too) being called gay is an insult. You
never call something gay as a compliment. “Gay’ is a substitute for stupid,
boring, ugly or anything that is seen negatively. If the color purple is gay
and your school football team wears purple, then we can insult your team by
calling it gay. </div>
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Two years ago a <a href="http://pamshouseblend.firedoglake.com/2010/10/18/ohio-hs-football-crowd-chant-powder-blue-faggots/" target="_blank">similar incident</a> occurred in Ohio when
student football fans chanted, in response to the light blue uniforms of their
opponents, “Powder blue faggots!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Calling
opposing players anti-gay names or yelling other insulting comments from the
stands happens in professional and college sports too. I assume many high
school sports fans learn this behavior from watching these events.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is nothing new or unique about any of
these incidents, unfortunately.</div>
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Some people excuse this fan behavior as harmless expressions
of school spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Others claim that “gay”
as an insult has become so pervasive that it no longer has any association with
being homosexual so it’s use as a putdown does not hurt anyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few years ago, a college athletic director
claimed that school attempts to control sports spectators’ use of anti-gay slurs
was an infringement of free speech. I am not kidding. This was in response to
an incident when now NBA star, Kevin Love and his family were subjected to unrelenting
anti-gay harassment during an entire game. </div>
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I know it will come as no surprise that I disagree with
those who excuse or defend anti-gay, or any other fan behavior that is racist,
sexist or in any other way meant to be insulting or demeaning. I think it is important
for all schools and professional sports organizations to set and enforce
standards of appropriate behavior for sports spectators. It is particularly
important for schools to take the climate at athletic events seriously. If it
isn’t ok to yell out slurs and insults in the school hallways, locker rooms or
cafeterias, why is it ok at school-sponsored sports events? Excusing or
ignoring this behavior contributes to a school climate of disrespect and hostility
for all students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one is learning
anything good when mean-spirited and thoughtless behavior is tolerated. For
students, like many LGBT students, who might already feel marginalized, the
effects of a hostile school climate can be devastating, even life-threatening.</div>
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You don’t have to take my word for it. Read the recently
released <a href="http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/library/record/2897.html" target="_blank">2011 GLSEN School Climate Survey</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Two items from the survey illustrates this point: 84.9% of LGBT students
surveyed heard “gay” used in a negative way frequently or often at school.
91.4% reported that they felt distressed because of this language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even more disturbing, 56.9% of students reported
hearing homophobic remarks from their teachers or other school staff.</div>
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A couple of other items specific to athletics: </div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>LGBT students cite the locker room as one of the
least safe areas in schools.</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>More than half of the LGBT students in the
survey reported being bullied or harassed in physical education classes.</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>LGBT students are half as likely to play
interscholastic sports as their heterosexual peers.</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>5% of the LGBT students who do play sports
report being harassed or assaulted while playing on a school team.</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Of all the adults in schools, coaches and PE
teachers are the ones that LGBT students are least likely to feel comfortable
talking to about LGBT issues.</li>
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Sports are a central part of high school culture. At their
best, they are positive and engaging opportunities to experience a sense of
belonging, develop social, physical and psychological skills and express school
spirit. The potential for school sports to provide these positive results for
students makes it all the more disappointing when these opportunities are
tainted by coach or student behavior that makes some students unwelcome and
unsafe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Name-calling, hazing, bullying
and harassment in the hallways or on the athletic field or in the stands are
unacceptable and schools that do not take these actions seriously or who throw
up their hands in response to them are not serving their students, any of them,
well.</div>
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The point is not to blame the students or the adults
affiliated with schools that experience these problems. Instead, we need to
find better ways to help all schools create a school climate, in and out of
athletics, in which respect and safety are the prevailing norms for everyone. Check
out <a href="http://www.glsen.org/" target="_blank">GLSEN</a> and their <a href="http://sports.glsen.org/" target="_blank">sports project</a> – Changing the Game - for resources for
K-12 schools. </div>
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Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-2396195600565156982012-07-17T08:09:00.000-05:002012-07-17T08:10:25.349-05:00The Olympics Are Coming!<br />
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The London Olympic Games begin in a little over a week so,
of course, speculation begins about the number of openly LGBT athletes will be
competing. <a href="http://www.advocate.com/travel/summer-loving-london/2012/07/16/team-lgbt-goes-gold-olympics" target="_blank">This Advocate article</a>
identifies a handful of openly lesbian and gay athletes who will be competing
and I am sure this number will increase as we get closer to the opening
ceremonies. This number has topped out
around 13-14 openly LGBT athletes in past Olympics and I hope that number will
increase in London. Though the number of openly LGBT athletes is a small
percentage of the thousands of athletes who will competing in London, it is
safe to assume that there are many other LGBT athletes who will competing from
the closet. </div>
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Apparently, a <a href="http://www.advocate.com/travel/summer-loving-london/2012/07/15/australian-athletes-claim-there-are-tons-gay-olympic-couples" target="_blank">heterosexual married couple</a> who are on the
Australian shooting team believe that there are huge numbers of same-sex
couples who will rooming together in the Olympic village. They claim that they are being discriminated
against because, as heterosexuals, they are not allowed to room together in the
athletes’ village and are <a href="http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog/2012/07/16/australian-olympic-couple-mad-they-cant-stay-together-at-olympic-village-blame-gays/#more-25521" target="_blank">making a big deal out of it.</a> Please.
Is this really how they want to spend their time preparing for their
competition? Is this how they are making their mark on the London games? </div>
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Like the Vancouver Olympics there will be a <a href="http://pridehouse2012.org/" target="_blank">Pride House</a> in
London open to all athletes and other visitors. Pride House is not sponsored by
the Olympics, but by a local group as was true in Vancouver. Nonetheless it
does provide some LGBT visibility at an international sporting event. </div>
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Why does it matter if athletes come out publicly or if there
is a Pride House at the Olympics? It’s about visibility and role models. It’s
about athletes not needing to spend energy hiding and keeping secrets and using
that energy to focus on the competition. It’s about being honest with teammates
and true to yourself. It’s about sending
a message to young LGBT athletes that the world is changing and their future in
sports looks better and better. </div>
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Oh, and
that Aussie couple? Instead of crabbing about sleeping arrangements, they should
count the many other privileges they have as married heterosexuals and stick to
trying to shoot straight.</div>
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<br /></div>Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-18231970510067917462012-07-12T08:19:00.001-05:002012-07-12T08:19:27.047-05:00Keelin Godsey talks about his experience as transgender athlete<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Keelin Godsey is a world class athlete who competes in the
women’s hammer throw. Keelin recently placed fifth in the US Olympic Trials,
narrowly missing the cut for the team going to London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keelin is a transgender man who has not made
a medical transition so that he can continue to compete in the women’s hammer
throw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not making a medical transition means
that Keelin is not taking testosterone and has not undergone any surgical
procedures as part of his transition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span>Keelin sat down for an interview with Ann Schatz after the trials:</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/7Nvlz2nfNvQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span> </span></div>
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Many people are confused by the thought that a transgender
man would want to or be allowed to compete in women’s sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some would say, “Ok, if you are a man,
compete in the men’s hammer throw.” One of the many powerful parts of this
interview is to hear Keelin talk about the importance of his identification as
an athlete, and even more specifically, an elite hammer thrower. He talks about
how being an athlete saved his life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
talk about how being a hammer thrower is such an important part of his identity
and a source of his positive feelings about himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t see how you can listen to Keelin talk
about this and not understand how devastating it would be to take away his
opportunity to compete in his sport, women’s hammer throw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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You also can get a little insight into the process of
deciding to transition, whether that is a social transition and/or a medical
transition. You also get a small insight into the internal struggles and social
obstacles that transgender people face in and out of sport just to live their
lives as their truth demands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You feel
the pain, the struggle, the courage and the determination to define yourself in
opposition to powerful gender expectations that push us all into little boxes
that limit our ability to see ourselves in any way that defies the gender
binary we are taught is “normal.”</div>
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Keelin’s interview should be required viewing for anyone in
sports who wants to learn, up close and personal, what it is like to be transgender
and an athlete and to insist on the right to honor both parts of that
identity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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It is also important to recognize that Keelin’s story is
his. Every trans athlete has her or his own story and that Keelin’s story is
only one of a larger mosaic of transgender experience that is as diverse and
personalized as any of our stories. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
recommend taking the 20 minutes necessary to watch and, more importantly,
listen to Keelin. I promise you will come away with a deeper appreciation for
what it means to be a transgender athlete.</div>Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-35850309473991897892012-07-03T12:27:00.001-05:002012-07-03T12:28:56.235-05:00U.S. Soccer Star Megan Rapinoe to the World: I’m Gay.<br />
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Megan Rapinoe, in <a href="http://www.out.com/entertainment/sports/2012/07/02/megan-rapinoe-womens-soccer-lesbian-girlfriend" target="_blank">an interview</a> with Out Magazine, clarified
a statement she made in an earlier interview with <a href="http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/326777/71/US-womens-soccer-player-Im-gay" target="_blank">Kick TV</a> that seemed like she
was coming out, but only if you paid close attention. The thing is she was not really closeted, but
she wasn’t public about it either. That
has changed and it’s a great thing she is doing by coming out publicly now before
the Olympics. Megan Rapinoe is a great
athlete and a very popular member of the US women’s soccer team. She decided to
come out publicly in part because she <a href="http://www.autostraddle.com/megan-rapinoe-is-probably-gay-should-call-you-maybe-137448/" target="_blank">understands her status</a> as a role model
for young people and wants to be part of changing the world for young LGBT
people in sports.</div>
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She is comfortable with who she is. She has been out with
teammates, friends and family for a while. Making the decision to be public
about being gay feels like the right next step and why not? I can only hope
that more women and men in sport make similar decisions about coming out
publicly. I am not in favor of outing
public figures, but I love it when they decide to come out. We need their visibility
to help change the sports world top to bottom.</div>
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Megan discusses some of her perceptions about the
differences between coming out for female and male athletes: She believes that
it is easier for women athletes to come out and be supported by their teammates
than it is for gay men in sport. I agree
that it seems like women’s teams at the college, professional and Olympic
levels are more accepting in general of lesbian teammates and coaches. However, I think we also need to acknowledge that
things are changing fast in men’s sports.
We cannot assume as we did a few years ago that it would be unthinkable
for a gay man in a pro team sport to come out.
Cyd Zeigler’s <a href="http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog/2012/05/23/a-dozen-nfl-players-tell-outsports-they-would-support-a-gay-teammate/" target="_blank">interviews</a> with NFL players indicate a big change among in
pro football and these changes are mirrored in comments by other male pro team
sport athletes as well. Change is afoot in men’s sports. </div>
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Sometimes the media greet
lesbian athletes’ coming out with a big yawn, as if it only matters now when
gay male athletes come out. Witness the
incredible media frenzy recently when Wade Davis, a long retired NFL player came
out as compared to the <a href="http://www.advocate.com/print-issue/current-issue/2012/05/15/reasons-have-pride-2012-part-1?page=0,0" target="_blank">coming out</a> of WNBA Star and Olympic team member, Seimone
Augustus. Wade Davis – interviews on CNN
and hundreds of articles in the mainstream media. Seimone Augustus? Crickets chirping in the
night. Do you seriously think her coming
would have the same media response if she were an NBA player?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We cannot also assume that everything is cool for lesbians in
women’s sports. That would be a
dangerous assumption. In the last two
years, we can point to several instances of discrimination against lesbian
athletes or coaches in high school and college sports. Golf coach, Katie Brenny’s <a href="http://www.ittakesateam.blogspot.com/2010/12/more-lesbian-coach-discrimination-at-u.html" target="_blank">lawsuit</a> against the
University of Minnesota is still going through the courts. Let’s not forget Texas high school softball
player, Skye Wyatt, who was <a href="http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2010/12/kilgore_softball_lesbian.php" target="_blank">kicked off her team</a> and outed to her mother by her
coach, whose actions were backed up by the school committee. Remember Niki Williams the high school
basketball coach (also in Texas) who was <a href="http://www.ittakesateam.blogspot.com/2011/11/why-we-need-state-and-federal-non.html" target="_blank">dismissed</a> before she coached her first
game because school administrators realized that she is lesbian. Oh, yeah, and soccer coach <a href="http://www.ittakesateam.blogspot.com/2010/12/howe-about-equality-belmont-university.html" target="_blank">Lisa Howe</a> at Belmont
University who was dismissed when school administrators found out her partner
was having a baby. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Negative recruiting based on perceived sexual orientation is
still an issue in women college sports. Sherri
Murrell is still the only publicly out lesbian basketball coach in division 1
college hoops. Only 42% of women’s
college teams are coached by women these days. That makes it difficult for
lesbian coaches to come out if they think it might jeopardize their jobs or
their ability to recruit which will also jeopardize their jobs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Maybe we do not see the same level of anti-gay name-calling
in women’s sports that we do in men’s sports, but it is there. Among softball players you might have noticed
an increase in hair ribbons worn during games? There is a saying among women
softball players, “No bow? Lesbo.” One
softball player told me about a straight teammate who freaked out when she
realized that she forgot to bring her bow to an away game. What kind of welcoming climate do you think
that makes for a gay softball player?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I could go on, but
I hope you see my point: Megan Rapinoe’s coming out matters. We still have prejudice and discrimination to
fight in women’s sports. Let’s not forget that it still takes courage and a
willingness to be in the spotlight for something other than your athletic
ability for an athlete who is actively competing to come out, female or male. Thank you, Megan. Let’s hope your coming out empowers
more LGBT athletes and coaches to do the same.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We still have work to do in women’s and men’s sports before any athlete, male or female, coming out is not a big deal.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com86tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-5087098561546637902012-06-20T10:29:00.002-05:002012-06-20T10:29:23.507-05:0040 Years and Counting: Title IX and the Road to Equality<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This week we celebrate the
40<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the passage of Title IX.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For anyone who still does not know what Title
IX is – it’s a federal law passed in 1972 that prohibits sex discrimination in
education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps the biggest area of Title
IX’s impact is high school and college athletics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will leave it to others to cite the vast
increase in the participation of girls and women in sports since 1972. It is
impressive. The sports landscape for girls and women in the United States as a
result of Title IX is much improved over the last 40 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Despite this progress,
girls’ and women’s sports have still not achieved parity with boys’ and men’s
sports, both of which have continued to grow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No matter the facts, Title IX opponents claim that Title IX has a negative
impact on sports programs for boys and men.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">When athletic programs cut
men’s sports teams, the administrators making these decisions often blame Title
IX rather than accepting responsibility for their decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too often the force behind these decisions is
the increasingly untenable believe that men’s football and basketball programs
must be protected at all costs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In fact, we are in the
midst of an unprecedented arms race in which colleges are spending buckets of
bucks to upgrade men’s football and basketball. The folly of these decisions is
that few college football programs actually make money and their<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>revenues do not support other sports. Most
football programs produce revenue, but they do not make a profit. Football in
the vast majority of schools is a costly sport to maintain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This phantom profit is used as the
justification for spending more and more money on football.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is much easier for administrators to blame
Title IX for the elimination of so-called men’s “minor” sports like wrestling,
swimming,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tennis and even baseball than
to own up to the greed and duplicity that drive these decisions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Title IX has the
overwhelming support of the general public. This includes the moms and dads who
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</span>At its most fundamental level Title IX speaks to these parents who
wouldn’t think of discriminating against one of their children at the expense
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">My favorite test of
assessing equity between men’s and women’s sports programs in a school is this:
Would the participants and coaches in one gender’s athletic program happily
trade places with and participate in the athletic program of the other
gender.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If all resources, media
coverage, scheduling, support mechanisms, etc. are equal, this would be an easy
decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, in many schools
the truth is that boys and men would never trade because they know it would be
a step down to accept what the girls and women have.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">So while we celebrate the
progress Title IX has brought, let us not forget that we are still on the journey
to equality in sports for women and men. We still have a lot of work to
do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We still need to be vigilant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those of us who are committed to equality and
social justice in sport should take a moment to celebrate how far we have come
and then get back on the road to achieving real equality in sport.</span></div>
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<br /></div>Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com57tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-27840716510972742572012-05-31T09:40:00.004-05:002012-05-31T09:40:40.397-05:00Nike Hosts LGBT Sports SummitI am very proud to be a part of a first ever event - A Summit on LGBT sports hosted by Nike. Read the blog that Helen Carroll of NCLR, Cyd Zeigler of Outsports and I wrote about this event <a href="http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog/2012/05/30/nike-sponsors-first-ever-lgbt-sports-summit/" target="_blank">here</a>.<a href="http://here./"></a>Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-12268112694962347182012-05-09T13:44:00.002-05:002012-05-09T13:44:25.521-05:00Update on Lesbian Golf Coach’s Lawsuit Against the University of Minnesota<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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In <a href="http://www.ittakesateam.blogspot.com/2010/12/more-lesbian-coach-discrimination-at-u.html" target="_blank">December, 2010</a> I blogged about a lawsuit filed by Katie
Brenny, a lesbian golf coach at the University of Minnesota who alleged that
she was discriminated against on the basis of her sexual orientation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Included in the lawsuit were charges against
the Director of Golf at the time, John Harris.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Minnesota Court of Appeals has <a href="http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_20566982/appeals-court-deals-legal-setback-former-u-golf" target="_blank">dismissed the charges</a> against Harris,
who is no longer at the U.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brenny's
lawsuit also includes charges of discrimination against the Board of Regents,
alleging violations of the Minnesota Human Rights Act, and one count against both
the university and Harris, alleging that they misrepresented the job to her in
violation of Minnesota law. These part of the lawsuit are still active.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brenny’s lawyer minimized the importance of
this dismissal since Harris’s actions will be examined by the court as part of
the lawsuit that is still active.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More
on this as it unfolds.</div>Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-66762826331586870502012-05-08T13:26:00.002-05:002012-05-08T13:27:28.614-05:00Coaching and Preaching: When the Football Field Becomes A Church<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">Ron
Brown, an assistant football coach at the University of Nebraska, has been on
the public hot seat since he spoke against a proposed Omaha city ordinance
banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In his testimony, Brown listed his address as
Memorial Stadium and lectured the city council about their lack of adherence to
Biblical principles and the dangers of protecting people that he believes God
says are an abomination. Brown has
received lots of media criticism for his public rant and has prompted several
LGBT sports advocates and mainstream sports commentators to call for his
firing. In response to criticism, Brown self-righteously proclaimed that it
would be an honor to be fired for his religious principles. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">First,
is there any question in anyone’s mind whether anyone would give a rat’s patoot
what Ron Brown thinks if he were not a University of Nebraska football coach? Is there anyone who seriously believes that
Ron Brown is not using his position as a football coach as a platform to
publicly express his personal beliefs?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">The
question is not whether Ron Brown has a right hold and to express his personal religious
and political views. Of course he does. Ron Brown and others who try to turn
this into an issue of religious discrimination are completely missing the point
here. The issues at the heart of this
controversy are twofold: One, where do we
draw the line when a public employee, such as a football coach at a state
university, holds personal views that are in conflict with the policies of the
public institution where he is employed. Two, what are the expectations with
regard to a public employee’s expression of personal religious beliefs in her
or his professional role.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">The
University of Nebraska has a non-discrimination policy that includes sexual
orientation. Public school employees,
which Ron Brown is as a coach at a public university, are subject to the
Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the US Constitution meaning that
as a public employee he is required to be neutral with regard to religion in
the carrying out of his professional duties.
The university President has publicly distanced himself and the
university from Brown’s statements while acknowledging Brown’s right as a
private citizen to express his views as he chooses. Fair enough, but that is
not what is going on here.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">It
seems there is some confusion at Nebraska about what “religious neutrality”
means: Ron Brown’s outgoing voice message on his university office phone
includes a liberal dose of his religious beliefs. He listed the university
football stadium as his home address when he spoke before the Omaha city
council. His bio on the Huskers football
web site includes the following:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">“Off
the field, Brown and former Husker Stan Parker are co-founders and co-directors
of a statewide Christian ministry called Mission Nebraska. This ministry
stewards MY BRIDGE RADIO, which consists of numerous Christian radio stations
and translators across Nebraska. Mission Nebraska also facilitates a statewide
Christian endeavor called FreedMen, which challenges and inspires men and boys
to take a strong courageous Christian stand in the public square. The
54-year-old Brown spent the four years prior to his return to coaching serving
as the Nebraska State Director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. While
he relinquished that duty to return to the Cornhuskers, he continues as a
regular columnist for FCA's National Magazine "Sharing the Victory."
Through Mission Nebraska, Brown also hosts a weekly statewide cable TV show
called "Truth Vision", along with daily radio spots…He has authored
several books on Christian character and growth. He is an outspoken advocate on
many issues, including adoption, abstinence and drug and alcohol education,
race relations and anti-pornography, to name a few.”</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">Brown
freely acknowledges that he routinely sprinkles in Biblical references in his
coaching and conversations with his players. He claims that his religious talk
does not bother his athletes. Really? How would he know? What does he expect them to
say to their coach, someone who has power over their access to playing time? What about the Jews or Muslims or atheists on
his team, how do they feel about his open promotion of Christianity on the
football field? How free do they feel to
challenge the coach?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">Brown
is also now vowing that he would <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/07/ron-brown-anti-gay-football-coach-tolerate-lifestyle_n_1496380.html">not discriminate</a> against a gay player on the
football team despite his opposition to homosexuality and laws that protect
them from discrimination. Am I missing
something? He publicly condemns anti-discrimination laws, yet he expects us to
believe he would have no problem coaching a gay player?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">This
is not the first time Ron Brown has been accused of violating his position as a
prominent public employee. He has also come
under fire in the past from the American Civil Liberties Union for promoting
Christianity in speeches at public schools. Ron Brown is not the first and
certainly won’t be the last coach to be so public about his private religious
views. Coaches mixing religion and
sports in public educational institutions is a common practice despite the
constitutional principle of separation of church and state. Athletes have long
tolerated coach-led team prayers; team prayer breakfasts; coaches urging athletes
to attend Bible studies; coaches using Biblical quotes mixed in with the
motivational speeches; unlimited access of sports ministries, like the
Fellowship of Christian Athletes, to athletes on school teams; as well as
outright discrimination against or condemnation of lesbian and gay coaches and
athletes – all in the guise of “saving” souls. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">Ron
Brown is a fervent Christian who believes he and others who believe exactly
what he does have a direct line to God.
He has somehow confused the football field with a church and his
position as a coach with that of a pastor. The problem is that we are wasting too much
outrage on Ron Brown for this. We should
be spending a lot more attention focused on the head football coach and the
university president at the University of Nebraska. The head coach’s silence and the university
president’s bland assurances that Ron Brown has a right to his personal views
even if the university does not agree with them ignore the blatant disregard
for federally mandated expectations that Ron Brown’s actions exemplify. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">Brown
was mixing Cornhusker football and Christianity in clear violation of his
obligations as a public employee before he decided to testify against city
ordinances protecting LGBT people from discrimination. The evidence is there on his office phone
voice message, in this coaching bio, in his own acknowledgment of his use of
Biblical quotes in coaching. What more
do Nebraska officials need? What does it
take for them to demand that their employees, including assistant football
coaches, adhere to the requirements and expectations of religious neutrality? Clearly, if the rights of students of all
religious and all sexual orientations are to be protected in public schools,
administrators need to make clear what is expected and take action if any
employee violates the principle that every student, athlete or not, has the
right to attend a public school free of religious influence from their
professors and their coaches.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">Other
Christian coaches may believe homosexuality is a sin, but also believe that
everyone on their team should be treated with respect. They live their faith, but they do not shove
it in the faces of their athletes. They do not advocate against legal
protection for those they see as sinners or use their position as coaches as a
pulpit from which to preach their religious beliefs. They live their faith,
especially the part about treating others with love and respect, without
proselytizing. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif";">Ron
Brown does not understand this distinction and his employers have failed to
insist that, in order to abide by the law, he must. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-62529445488327513722012-05-02T10:05:00.000-05:002012-05-02T10:08:02.523-05:00Measuring LGBT Equality in SportsYesterday <a href="http://www.campuspride.org/outtoplayproject.asp">Campus Pride</a> launched their Out To Play Project, an initiative focused on fostering LGBT equality in collegiate sports, with their first ever list of “The Best of the Best” college athletic programs that are “LGBT friendly.” The schools included on this inaugural list are Bates College, Bowdoin College, Bucknell University, Columbia University, Indiana University, Ithaca College, Kennesaw State University, New York University, Stanford University and Whitman College.<br />
<br />
The cool part is that I’ve already seen press releases from several of these schools announcing their inclusion on the list and using it as a point of pride, complete with supportive quotes from athletic directors and student-athletes.
Though the criteria for inclusion on this list is not completely clear, Campus Pride does ask for information about “policies, programs and practices” as well as for instances of individual coaches, athletes and teams exemplifying the goal of being LGBT-friendly. Campus Pride is already making plans for their next list and invites submissions of candidates for future lists of the best of the best.<br />
<br />
In a similar call for evaluating LGBT friendly sports programs, Hudson Taylor recently wrote a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hudson-taylor/athletics-equality-index_b_1436349.html">column</a> for the Huffington Post calling for an Athletic Equality Index for professional sports teams based on the Human Rights Campaign’s <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/corporate-equality-index-2011">Corporate Equality Index</a>.<br />
<br />
The time is right for school and professional sports programs to assess the climate for LGBT people. Where once the results of such efforts would have yielded uniformly bad news highlighting hostility and discrimination in athletics, we can now celebrate schools like the ones included on the Campus Pride Out To Play Project list. Some good things are happening, not just in these schools, but in others across the US as well. It is a great idea to reward these athletic programs and to help set a standard for other school athletic programs that are not so LGBT-friendly.<br />
<br />
The challenge will be to identify some measurable criteria that are based in athletic department policy, practice and programming rather than on individual team, coach or athlete actions. My experience is that, in any given school, the range of LGBT-friendliness is quite broad. While some teams are viewed by the athletes in that school as open and welcoming to LGBT students and coaches, others at the same school are viewed as decidedly hostile to LGBT people. We cannot leave the responsibility for creating and maintaining an inclusive, safe and respectful athletic climate up to individual teams, coaches and athletes.<br />
<br />
Coaches come and go as do athletes and LGBT friendliness can come and go with them. Real change, substantive change that is sustained even with the transience of coaches and athletes, must take place at the departmental level.
Coaches and athletes who come into an athletic program need to know departmental expectations for diversity and inclusion for which they are responsible. That is how real change can be sustained.<br />
<br />
Athletic administrators need to take a stronger leadership role in making sure that everyone in the athletic department is aware of and responsible for maintaining an LGBT-friendly climate as well as for making explicit what that means in every day practice.<br />
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Campus Pride’s Out To Play Project and the “Best of the Best list is a great start toward reaching this goal.Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-60954380788968403582012-04-23T10:43:00.004-05:002012-04-23T10:46:56.401-05:00Bully Documentary Sends Powerful and Urgent MessageI saw the documentary <a href="http://thebullyproject.com/">Bully</a> yesterday. It is a powerful film that should be required viewing for every K-12 educator and all students preparing to be K-12 educators. It is also important for students and their parents as well as other community members to see.
We hear a lot about bullying these days. We know that some young people have committed suicide because they feel so hopeless and helpless in the face of relentless torment at the hands of their classmates. When school systems and the adults that are supposed to protect young people in schools and in their communities and homes fail, this is the tragic result.
The simple truth is that, despite the recent attention to bullying in schools and the best intentions of educators and advocates, far too many young people are not safe when they walk through the front doors of their local school. Going to school for some young people is like going into a war zone every day. Riding the bus, going into the locker room, walking down the hallways, eating lunch, walking home, sitting in the classroom all can be like running a torturous gauntlet, trying to be invisible, trying to escape the attention of bullies and their followers.
Young people are bullied for lots of reasons, but it all boils down to one common denominator: being perceived as different and vulnerable. That could mean being a child with a disability, a child whose gender identity or expression doesn’t fit the norm, a child who is perceived to be or is gay or lesbian, a child who speaks a language other than English, a child who is not Christian, a fat child, a child whose physical appearance sets them apart in any way. The trigger for bullying could be anything and falling from the grace of “normality” as dictated by the in-group in schools can happen overnight yet bullying can go on for years.
One of the painful truths is that though two-thirds of adults in schools are aware of bullying, only one third of students believe that adults do anything to stop it. The GLSEN Climate survey tells us that:
• Perceived sexual orientation and physical appearance are two of the most common reasons for bullying.
• Eight out of 10 LGBT students in schools experience harassment or hear anti-LGBT name-calling frequently or often in schools
• Sixty-two percent of LGBT students who were bullied did not report it to adults, believing it would do no good
• Over half of LGBT students could not name six supportive adults in their school
These are appalling statistics that should bring a sense of shame and outrage to all of us, not just for LGBT students, but for all students who are bullied. It is painful to watch the young people in Bully who are fighting to survive. It is frustrating to watch the adults who are clueless or who blame the bullied, treat bullying as an inevitable rite of passage or as just kids being kids.
In the film, the parents of bullied children, some of whom have lost their children to suicide, and the young people themselves tell harrowing stories of violence and abuse at the hands of classmates. We actually witness some of these acts of violence in the film. We also witness the inept attempts of educators to respond to bullying.
It is easy to feel outrage when witnessing educators ask bullied students to shake hands and make up with their bullies or who in one breath admit their awareness of the problem, but in the next proclaim their helplessness to stop it. It is easy to feel anger at educators whose “solutions” to the problem of bullying are so completely anemic in relationship to the damage and pain we see in the faces of the students who are bullied.
Feeling outrage at these educators, however, is too easy. It lets the viewer off the hook. It gives us a scapegoat on which to vent our anger, but does nothing to take our piece of the responsibility for what is happening in schools. Yes, educators are a key part of making schools safe for every student, but they must be supported with skills and policies. They need to be empowered by school systems that take a comprehensive approach to changing school and community climate at every level so that all students are safe. Individual educators cannot change the school climate when parents and community members are not fully committed to the change too. It takes school administrators and school boards with the guts to stand up, even in the face of community opposition, and provide the leadership that will make change.
The bottom line is for each of us to think about is this: What am I doing to make my community and the schools in my community places where every student who walks through the door is, at the very least, safe from physical and psychological assault. What am I doing to make sure that all students are respected and feel a part of their schools and community no matter who they are.
What kind of nation do we live in where some of our children cannot go to school and be safe? What kind of people are we that, though we know that some children are not safe, we do nothing to take our part of the responsibility to address the problem?Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-67073622884941190622012-04-17T08:59:00.000-05:002012-04-17T08:59:29.308-05:00It Gets Better? Not For Women Coaches.<a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=theGlassWall">Here</a> is an excellent article that explores the state of women in coaching and discusses the disturbing statistics that tell us the number of women coaching women’s teams has declined even as the numbers of women athletes participating in college sports has risen. On the other side, women are still not considered serious candidates for coaching men’s teams. The result is that men now coach almost all men’s teams and 58% of women’s teams.<br />
<br />
This article discusses many factors that must be considered in understanding why this is happening. One factor the authors explore is the continuing effects of that lethal combination of sexism and homophobia in sports. This climate discourages women from seeking coaching positions and results in many women who do have coaching positions either leaving the field or being let go and, in effect, banned from the coaching field.<br />
<br />
This state of affairs is particularly difficult to reconcile given the increase in the number of straight male straight allies who have stepped up to challenge homophobia in sports. In contrast, there is a pervasive silence among straight women in sport. It is difficult, even for someone like me who keeps up with this kind of information, to name straight women equivalents to Hudson Taylor, Patrick Burke or Ben Cohen. Anyone who wants to begin to understand why this is so should read this article. <br />
<br />
I’ve had some really interesting conversations with several men who are LGBT sports advocates who tell me that gay men coaches and athletes coming out over the few years are receiving a positive reaction from their teams and colleagues. It’s just not a big deal. It seems that it is getting better for gay men in sport. <br />
I don’t want to discount the fact that there are also lesbian athletes and coaches who are out to their teams and colleagues. Things are getting better in women’s sports too, a little. But things are getting better in women’s sports despite the pervasive effects of homophobia and sexism. The problem is that homophobia and sexism and the fear these evil twins engender keep women from challenging discrimination against all women and against lesbians in sport. They keep lesbian athletes and coaches, especially from high profile programs, in the closet. They keep straight women allies silent. Homophobia and sexism discourage talented women athletes who might be great coaches from considering coaching as a viable career option. They do not want to live in the closet or they don’t want to battle men’s teams for a fair share of the resources. <br />
<br />
I co-led a workshop on LGBT issues in women’s basketball at the recent Women’s Basketball Coaches Association in Denver. Hearing the coaches who attended the workshop talk about the continuing effects of sexism and homophobia on their lives makes it difficult to believe that the gains made in addressing homophobia in men’s sports are equally true for women’s sports.<br />
<br />
Read this article. It will help you understand why it doesn’t seem to be getting that much better for women coaches, especially when those coaches are lesbians.Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-57536150021099963202012-04-11T08:53:00.000-05:002012-04-11T08:53:01.624-05:00NYU Athletics Department Delivers Inspiring “It Gets Better” MessageFirst, let me apologize for my absence. I needed to take a break from blogging for awhile, but I am rejuvenated and back. <br />
<br />
This It Gets Better <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/10/it-gets-better-new-york-university-athletics_n_1415845.html">video</a> made by the NYU Athletics Department is a great way to reenter the blog world. It is an inspiring and important message from athletes, coaches, administrators, gay and straight. I truly believe that this video and the message it sends are the way of the future in athletics. We still have struggles and too many programs in which LGBT athletes and coaches cannot compete openly, but we are moving ahead. Watch it and enjoy. I dare you not to smile.Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-89419777719638585582012-02-14T14:01:00.000-05:002012-02-14T14:01:01.209-05:00Sexist Tweets, OK. Racist Tweets, Not So MuchIn the space of two weeks reporters for national media have gotten themselves into hot water for tweets about sporting events. First up – <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/post/cnns-roland-martin-suspended-for-homophobic-tweets/2012/02/08/gIQA3F8OzQ_blog.html">Roland Martin</a> of CNN who was disturbed by the David Beckham underwear ad broadcast during the Super Bowl. His homophobic tweet calling for a little causal violence directed toward men who like the ad was roundly criticized by GLAAD, the LGBT media watchdog organization, as well as others. He was suspended as punishment.<br />
<br />
<br />
Now, ESPN commentator, <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2012/02/fox-sports-jason-whitlock-apologizes-for-jeremy-lin-tweet.html">Jason Whitlock</a> is on the hot seat for making the following comment about the great play of the New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin: “Some lucky lady in NYC is gonna feel a couple inches of pain tonight.” After the outrage his stupid and insensitive tweet caused, including an open letter from the Asian Journalist Association, Whitlock offered up a quasi-apology. Apparently ESPN is satisfied that Whitlock’s contrition is genuine and requires no further sanction.<br />
<br />
<br />
Similarities between these two sports-related tweet uproars are apparent. Both Whitlock and Martin are African-American men. Both, at least initially, had no qualms about posting offensive tweets and apparently didn’t anticipate or care about any negative reactions. Whitlock, who often takes on what he sees as racism in sport, does not seem to get the contradiction of speaking out about racism when it applies to black people, but feeling totally comfortable expressing racist sentiments about Asians.<br />
<br />
Both situations say a lot about sports culture, especially men’s professional sports culture. The association of masculinity with violence is a troubling theme. Martin recommends “smacking the ish” out of other men who enjoyed the David Beckham underwear ad. Whitlock, in addition to using an ugly stereotype for Asian men, seems to think that inflicting sexual pain on women is an appropriate way of celebrating a great athletic performance. <br />
<br />
The reactions to Whitlock’s tweet focused almost entirely on pointing out how racist the comment was. It seemed to go right over the heads of most commentators that there was also a huge dollop of sexism in his comment also. Whitlock’s comment is offensive to Asian men and all women. Why haven’t more men who object to Whitlock’s racism also criticized his sexism? <a href="http://www.local10.com/news/Opinion-Man-to-man-defense/-/1717324/8774490/-/rq53lf/-/">Here</a> is one exception.<br />
<br />
<br />
If the answer is that most commentators did not see how his comment was equally offensive to women as it was to Asian men, then we have a mighty long way to go before we can hope for any real change in the culture of men’s sports that incites, accepts and condones violence against women or lesbian and gay people.Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790832884400143603.post-52840343941490567562012-01-29T13:39:00.002-05:002012-01-29T13:39:54.480-05:00Power, Penn State and Joe Paterno’s LegacyThis week Joe Paterno, the former Penn State iconic football coach, was laid to rest. In his 46 years as the Nittany Lions coach, he accomplished athletic goals most coaches can only dream of: National championships, the winningest record in college football, the undying devotion of current and former members of his teams. He was known for his insistence on “winning with honor” and on making sure that most of his players actually graduated. He was never cited for NCAA violations and he had a reputation for promoting good old fashioned values of hard work and integrity.<br />
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There is no question that Joe Paterno loved Penn State and that, for the most part, Penn State loved him back. What was not to love? The success of the football program put Penn State on the map. As the coach of one of the 14 or so college football programs in the US that actually make a profit, Joe Paterno, as the head coach in charge of a multi-billion dollar enterprise, wielded incredible power in State College. It is impossible to visit this small college town in the middle of rural Pennsylvania and not feel the influence and presence of Joe Paterno everywhere. If he was not a God in State College, he was a king. It is fair to say that nothing of consequence, certainly nothing that might affect the football program, happened without the stamp of approval from “JoePa,” as he was called by many students in State College. <br />
<br />
Gordon Spanier was president of the university, but Joe Paterno was the king. He put Penn State on the map and everyone on campus, regardless of their institutional power or position, deferred to him. A few years ago, Paterno was encouraged to step aside by Spanier and members of the Board of Trustees. “Encouraged” is the operative word here because, it was out of the question that anyone but Joe Paterno would make the decision about when it was time to go. When the meeting was over, Joe Paterno was still the coach and the administrators to whom he, in theory, reported, were sent packing back to their little offices somewhere not in the football kingdom over which he ruled absolutely.<br />
<br />
Paterno once referred to himself as a “benevolent dictator.” He knew his power and he protected and used it as he saw fit. He saw fit to use his power to protect Rene Portland, the former women’s basketball coach at Penn State. Portland’s “no drugs, no alcohol, no lesbians” team policy was a well-known “secret” among many coaches and fans. As described in “Training Rules,” the excellent documentary on this sad 25 year period of prejudice and discrimination, Portland had free rein to destroy the dreams of any player she perceived to be a lesbian. The same cast of administrators who failed to act when told of the allegations of child rape against former football coach, Jerry Sandusky, also failed to take action against Portland. Because she had Joe Paterno’s protection, Penn State defended and protected her.<br />
<br />
According to <a href="http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7268172/penn-state-nittany-lions-former-officer-questioned-joe-paterno-player-treatment">this interview</a> with former VP in charge of judicial appeals at Penn State, Vicky Triponey, she resigned in part because of Paterno’s interference with university process and procedures when football players were charged with serious violations of the student conduct code. Paterno had no qualms about inserting his power into these proceedings to demand, apparently at the top of his lungs as he saw fit, that football players receive special treatment. He did not want the university disciplining his players. Triponey acknowledges that her decisions about disciplining football players were overruled on more than one occasion by university administrations who bowed to Paterno’s pressure. <br />
<br />
Somewhere along the line, Joe Paterno’s stature in State College entered in to the mythical realm. He was treated as a living legend. Somewhere along the line protecting Penn State football and Joe Paterno’s legacy became more important than acting on information that threatened that public legacy of “winning with honor” and his vaunted reputation of integrity. Somewhere along the line, Joe Paterno, the king of State College, lost his moral compass. Ask the women’s basketball players whose careers Rene Portland ruined. Ask VP Vicky Triponey who absorbed the wrath of Paterno’s power over her enforcement of the student conduct code with football players. Ask the victims of the Jerry Sandusky scandal who must listen every day to the defenders of Joe Paterno who have made a child sex abuse scandal all about Joe and HIS mistreatment at the hands of the Board of Trustees who fired him. <br />
<br />
It is difficult to reconcile the Joe Paterno who was king of Penn State with the Joe Paterno who claimed he didn’t know what to do when he learned in 2002 about the allegations against Jerry Sandusky. Joe Paterno always knew what to do. Joe Paterno never was reluctant to use his power to get what he wanted. When it came down to it, Joe Paterno acted as he always did: He acted to protect his own and Penn State football’s public image and legacy. He did what was legally required of him, but no more. He reported it to his “superiors” and then forgot about it. It was out of his hands.<br />
<br />
This time, however, the enormity of the allegations against Sandusky and the lack of response to these allegations by Paterno and all the administrators involved, brings to light the hypocrisy of Penn State football’s claim of “winning with integrity.” The truth is if Joe Paterno had used his power, as he had in so many other situations, to insist on a serious investigation of the allegations against Sandusky at the time when he first learned of them, it would have happened. Period. If Joe Paterno had used his power as boldly as he always had, other young men might have been spared becoming victims.<br />
<br />
If ever there was a message about the dangers of ceding power to college football or basketball coaches because of their winning records and ability to bring in the bucks to a university, this is it. If ever a scandal exposed the myth of integrity and honor in big time college sports, this is it. In this, the defining moment of his career, Joe Paterno was no hero and he did not win with honor.Pat Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10294124976259446788noreply@blogger.com4