Pat Griffin's LGBT Sport Blog

Power, Penn State and Joe Paterno’s Legacy

2012-01-29T13:39:00.002-05:00

This 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.

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.

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.

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.

According to this interview 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fired Lesbian Coach and School Reach Settlement

2012-01-13T13:06:00.000-05:00

In November, I posted an article about a lesbian high school coach who was fired from her teaching and coaching position. Here is that post.

Apparently the coach and the school have reached a settlement agreement. It is unclear from the article what the terms of the settlement are, but I hope that, at the very least, Nikki was able to have her letter of termination rescinded so that she can find another teaching/coaching position.

As I pointed out in the original post about this situation, teachers and coaches in Texas who are fired or discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity/expression have no legal recourse. It was only due to the protests of students and parents at the school and pressure from LGBT advocates and others who were appalled and outraged at the school's discriminatory actions that anything close to a happy ending came of this.

It is probably too much to ask that the school officials who fired Nikki learned anything or changed their policies. Maybe they learned that they can no longer count on the silence of LGBT educators when they are discriminated against. Maybe they learned that most students and parents care more about the quality and integrity of their teachers and coaches than they do about their sexual orientation or gender identity. I suppose that is a start.

I hope Nikki will find another position coaching and teaching where she will be appreciated and where she can continue to inspire the young people she works with.

Update on Lawsuit Filed by Kilgore, TX Lesbian Softball Player and Her Mother

2012-01-04T10:51:00.000-05:00

Last January I started the year describing a situation in a Kilgore, TX high school where a lesbian softball player was, according to allegations in her lawsuit against the school, athletic director and coaches, treated outrageously by her coaches.

Skye Wyatt’s lawsuit alleges that her softball coaches violated her right to privacy by outing her to her mother. The case is the first in which the 5th U.S. Circuit — which covers Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas — has identified a constitutional right to privacy for sexual orientation information.
The lawsuit claims that the coaches:

1. Called Skye to a fake team meeting
2. Locked Skye in the locker room alone with the coaches
3. Berated Skye about being a lesbian and accused her of spreading gossip about one of the coaches being lesbian
4. Called Skye’s mother to the school and outed Skye to her mother
5. Kicked Skye off the softball team

The School district is mounting a full defense of the coaches’ actions claiming that they followed school policy by outing Skye. From the article, “In court documents, the defendants allege that Skye Wyatt had been openly gay for several years and never attempted to keep her sexuality secret. They also argue that the coaches had a legitimate interest in revealing Wyatt’s sexual orientation to her mother, because they were concerned about her safety. The coaches said they believed Wyatt was in a potentially illegal relationship with an 18-year-old woman.”

The coaches’ outing of Skye to her mother caused a rift in their relationship and began a downward spiral of depression for Skye, whose dreams of playing college softball and possibly coaching some day were destroyed.
The claim that the coaches acted out of concern for Skye seem ridiculous. How is calling a high school student to a fake meeting, in effect to trick her into the locker room, and locking her there to confront her about her sexual orientation an expression of concern for her safety by any stretch of the imagination?

How is telling her mother about Skye’s sexual orientation, in what feels like retaliation for Skye’s refusal to admit that she was spreading gossip about the coach’s sexual orientation, in any way an act of concern, support or care? It looks to me like that this decision by the coaches was malicious and punitive, not an expression of concern for Skye’s safety.

Then there is the issue of kicking Skye off the team. How is that an expression of concern for her safety and well-being? If the coaches cared about Skye, you’d think they’d want to keep on the team, participating in a school activity she loves.

With all the progress in addressing LGBT issues in sport we witnessed in 2011 - Several major men’s professional leagues adding sexual orientation to their non-discrimination policies, the NCAA adopting a policy enabling trans athletes to participate on sex-separate teams, high school and college LGBT athletes coming out right and left, straight athlete allies stepping forward to publicly support their LGBT teammates - this case is a sad reminder that we still have lots of work to do.

When a school district anywhere defends the actions of coaches who carelessly abuse their power and position in ways that damage the lives and dreams of the young people they are supposed to protect and nurture, we still have a big problem. Skye and Barbara Wyatt’s courageous lawsuit shines a light on the disconnect between the high profile actions we celebrated in 2011and the day to day reality of discrimination that far too many young LGBT athletes continue to face. We have come a long way, but until lawsuits like this one become unnecessary to achieve fairness and justice for LGBT students, we still have important battles to fight.

A judge has rejected the school district’s motion for a summary judgment and the case will go to trial in mid-January. I will keep you posted.

Opening the Last Closet

2011-12-26T11:53:00.000-05:00

Dee Mosbacher and Fawn Yawker, the producers of the outstanding video documentary, Training Rules, are at it again. They asked if I would post the following on my blog:

The producers of a web campaign and video project in progress - The Last Closet - are searching for a young gay athlete (Jr. High or lower grade High School) who has dreams of becoming a pro. This young man would be “out” to his friends, family and team.

There has never been, in all of US sports history, a gay athlete in any of the top five professional sports, who has come out publicly while they are still actively playing. Our film and web campaign is a quest to find out why this is so and a vehicle to pave the way for this historic event to unfold.

Our young athlete would act as co-interviewer on some of our strategic shoots, including the commissioners of all five sports. We have already secured interviews with some well known players and others in the sports world.

The Last Closet, is being produced by Woman Vision - producer of ten award winning documentaries, including the Academy Award nominated "Straight from the Heart” and most recently the highly acclaimed “Training Rules”.

If you know of anyone fits the description above please contact us at your earliest convenience.

contact:

Fawn Yacker at - TheLastCloset@gmail.com

The N-Word: Not Racist Anymore?

2011-12-14T19:01:00.001-05:00

This is a story about insensitivity, stupidity and racism all rolled up in one high school girls' basketball team. It seems that the girls had a pregame locker room ritual cheer which went like this, "1-2-3 N-Word," only they said the N-word rather than using this "polite company" variation. What, you might ask, does this have to do with basketball or getting the team psyched for the game. I have no idea. You'd have to ask the team.

When the one black girl on the team objected to the chant, her white teams told her it was just a joke and that they were not racist. Really? You could've fooled me.

Anyway, the whole thing came to light when the black player had a fist fight with one of her teammates in the school hallway over it. She also told school officials that the team used racist slurs during practice directed at her. The team was suspended for two days. The black player was suspended for fighting for five days. Hmmmm. The team also has to undergo "cultural sensitivity" training. How about a racism awareness training instead.

This news report is interesting in that a former player who is biracial is interviewed in the video and defends her former teammates. I wonder how the reporter came up with the idea of featuring this student excusing the use of a racist slur. It puts an interesting spin on the story. Is this some new and warped kind of "equal time"?

I wonder where the coach was during practice or in the locker room when the pregame chants were used? She was not available for an interview for the article. She should have been front and center making it clear that she would not condone this kind of behavior on her team and saying what she is going to do to make sure that nothing like this happens again. Instead she is MIA. What a missed opportunity for the girls' team to get something right.

After a week of sports news about pedophile coaches, brawling basketball players and performance enhancing drug using baseball players, I guess a little racism on a girls' basketball team rounds out the picture of what's wrong in sports quite nicely, don't you think?

Reflections on the Death of a Young Black Lesbian Athlete

2011-12-08T13:19:00.002-05:00

It is difficult to put my white, middle class, middle-aged and lesbian feet in the basketball shoes of a young black lesbian athlete from the projects. I know nothing about what Tayshana Murphy’s life was like. I do know something about keeping secrets. I hid my own lesbian identity for years before coming out in my 20s. However, I had the advantage of class and race privilege to help buffer the effects of the homophobia I faced as a young lesbian athlete. I did not live with violence in my neighborhood on a daily basis. I lived in a home where my parents were comfortably able to provide for my brother and I. When I looked around at my classmates in school, most of their faces were white like mine and their families also enjoyed similar middle class status. Most of us assumed we would go to college. I could afford to be oblivious to the challenges facing the few classmates of color I had.

I wrote about Tayshana's murder in early October when I first learned about it. In this insightful article, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan invites us all to ponder the effects of racism, sexism, classism and homophobia and their interconnected impact on young black women athletes from the projects. The tragedy of Tayshana’s senseless murder is evident in the loss of a talented young woman athlete who had the potential to leave the cycle of poverty and violence that most of her classmates will never escape. The hidden tragedy that Mecca Jamilah Sullivan invites us to think about is that Tayshana’s murder is largely unnoticed outside her local community.

She asks, “What are the relationships between athlete culture and LGBTQ identity for youth of color in 2011? Why does the principle of the open secret persist for youth athletes, even as institutional structures like ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ long convicted in the court of public opinion, have finally fallen away? And what are the roles of race in all of this? We know white men’s lives and deaths get wildly disproportionate media coverage, but what happens when responsible journalism means frank discussions of sexuality, outness, and homophobic violence? If Murphy had been white, or male, would we know more of her story? And would more people know about her in general?”

Advocates for LBGT athletes and coaches must make a commitment to think beyond our own personal experience. Men must understand the role of sexism as it affects the experiences of lesbians and bisexual women in sport. White people must examine how racism mixed with homophobia make the experience of LGBT athletes and coaches different from those of us who can ignore racism even as we benefit from it. Those of us who have enough food, safety, shelter and access to financial resources need to ask ourselves what we are going to do in response to Tayshana’s death? How will we make sure this kind of tragedy never happens again.

We can make all the “It Gets Better” videos in the world, but how will they touch the lives of young women like Tayshana who probably don’t even have access to a computer to watch them? Every time we speak out, we need to consider how race, class and gender filter the experiences of young LGBT people and make sure our interventions take into account the challenges they face. We owe it to the memory of Tayshana and to the future of her sisters whose names we do not even know.

Team Hazing, Respect and Sports

2011-11-29T13:13:00.000-05:00

The Andover High School boys’ basketball team began their season this week under a cloud of public scrutiny resulting from allegations about team hazing that occurred this summer while the team was attending a privately operated sleep-away basketball camp.

According to news accounts, two older players initiated a disgusting “game” with younger players in which the loser had to eat an Oreo cookie covered in what the news article delicately described as “bodily fluids.”

The incident is being investigated by school officials and the police. Hazing is illegal in Massachusetts. Those convicted of hazing face up to a year in jail and a $3,000 fine. Anyone who witnesses hazing but does not report it faces a $1,000 fine. The Andover boys’ coach claimed, through his lawyer, that he reported the incident as soon as it came to his attention in mid-November.

Despite school anti-hazing policies and even state laws prohibiting hazing, high school and college athletes, both male and female, continue to participate in these degrading and often dangerous activities. In the name of “team building” and “initiating new team members” many athletes and some coaches fail to see the harm in this enduring sports ritual. Every so often, when a death occurs as a result of hazing, as was the case recently with the Florida A & M marching band, we pay attention for a minute.

Hazing is still an active part of sports (and marching band and Greek) culture that is difficult to eliminate. High school and college athletes see pro teams hazing rookies. It seems like there is mounting pressure each year to top the previous year’s hazing activities to be more disgusting, more humiliating, more dangerous. Plus, there is the “pass it on” revenge mentality of hazees who want to be hazers the next year. A disturbing part of some of these team hazing rituals is the prevalence of simulated sex acts, rape with broomsticks, nudity or, as in the case at Andover, the ingestion of sperm. All of these hazing activities are based on a toxic mix of homophobia, humiliation and the need to exert power over other younger or smaller teammates.

Hazing, though a kind of bullying, has a different purpose than typical bullying. Rather than reinforcing a student’s outsider and inferior status and making it clear that the student being bullied will never be accepted into the bully group, hazing is framed as a rite of passage that must be endured before a student is accepted into the group. Hazing is often defended by both hazers and hazees and framed as a positive activity: team building.

What does it take to change this deeply rooted aspect of sports culture? Laws help. Education helps. Public exposure helps.

The real route to change, however, requires a much deeper change in athletics. Hazing will always be with us unless we can make respect a key underlying core value in athletics. Respect for self, teammates, referees, opponents and the game. As long as sports are thought of as a metaphor for war and the process of competition is framed as battle of masculine domination and subordination, hazing will continue to be an accepted part of sport culture. I am not talking about respect as it is often used in sports. I am not talking about perceived slights to one’s manhood as disrespect or earning respect because of one’s dominance as a feared physical presence on the field.

I mean respect as a baseline expectation of all coaches and athletes in all aspects of athletics. Respect as a core value would mean never tolerating hazing, bullying, name-calling, taunting, stomping or any of the other cheap ways that athletes and coaches seek a superficial imitation of respect.

I love sports and competition. They have been a part of most of my life as a high school, college and adult athlete. I have not always been respectful myself in my interactions with opponents or teammates, but perfection is not the goal. The goal is learning to be respectful when it is most difficult. The heat of competition challenges us to live up to our ideals, but when athletes and coaches do it, they earn a deeper kind of respect. Respect begets respect.

We need coaches who can teach this to young athletes. We need pro athletes who set an example of what true respect looks like. We need to teach young athletes that hazing is not only illegal, it is disrespectful and unacceptable on a much deeper level . I hope every high school coach in the country takes this opportunity to sit down with her or his team to talk about hazing and respect and makes it clear that being a teammate is not about enduring humiliation and degradation or inflicting pain and embarrassment. It is about respect and support. It is about the collective pursuit of excellence with honor.

Sadly, in sports, we too often accept a pale and distorted definition of respect that in its fragility and artificiality, actually promotes behaviors that we profess to abhor.

Why We Need State and Federal Non-Discrimination Laws That Include Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

2011-11-23T09:16:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the clunky title, but I couldn’t figure out another way to get the point across in a snappy clever way in fewer words. Nikki Williams has been teaching geography for three years and was an assistant volleyball at a public charter school just outside Dallas, TX for three years. She was about to realize a lifelong dream of coaching basketball this season too. From all accounts she is a popular and successful teacher/coach supported by students and parents. She has received positive performance evaluations and a letter of commendation from the superintendent. It all sounds good so far.

But just before basketball season started in October, Nikki was fired. Nikki filed a grievance with the school claiming that she was fired because she is a lesbian. Apparently school officials became aware of this when Nikki’s partner began attending volleyball games this fall.

Students and parents have rallied to support Nikki pressing school administrators to explain their decision. The parents and students are unconcerned about Nikki’s sexual orientation. They are upset that a popular and successful young teacher/coach is suddenly gone. A petition for her reinstatement has been signed by over 100 parents and 50 students. The total school enrollment is 300.

Administrators have denied that Nikki’s “gender preference” (I assume they mean “sexual orientation”) played any role in their decision to dismiss Nikki. Parents and students asked what did prompt her firing. Administrators, hiding behind claims that they are prohibited from discussing the reasons by “privacy concerns” did a little evasive dance justifying their decision and refusing to reconsider it. They later claimed that her firing was due to a single incident in school when Nikki did not report some students who were skipping class. The parents think firing Nikki is an extreme and disproportionate reaction to the incident. I agree. To add insult to injury, administrators have tapped a former football coach to coach the girls’ basketball team. He has never coached basketball or girls and apparently resigned a previous coaching position because a grievance of some kind was filed against him. I guess school officials are reassured that there is probably not much of a chance he is a lesbian. Surely an unqualified man with a questionable professional record must be a better role model for the team, right?

Back to the title of this post – The saddest part of this situation is that Nikki may have no legal protections to challenge her dismissal. Texas is one of 29 states that do no protect its citizens from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. No federal laws prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity either.

Bigotry and stupidity looks like it might win this round in the long term fight to have coaches and teachers evaluated on the basis of their work and personal integrity rather than who they love. Nikki’s students and their parents get this. Too bad the school administrators don’t.

This article includes contact information for the Life School Waxahachie administration if you want to let them know your thoughts on this.

Revival of the Horse’s Patoot Salute!

2011-11-15T09:14:00.001-05:00

I haven’t awarded a Horse’s Patoot Salute in a while, but I have a new winner for you. The Horse’s Patoot Salute is my personal award for coaches, athletic administrators, physical education teachers and athletes who demonstrate stunning levels of intentional or unintentional homophobia, sexism and transphobia such that it can only by explained by arrogance, stupidity or some combination of the two.

Drum roll, please….The Horse’s Patoot Salute goes to Pat Lynch, (former) football coach at Buffalo High School in Wyoming.

Ex-coach Lynch earned his way into the Horse’s Patoot Salute Hall of Fame for creating and distributing a “Hurt Feelings Report” to his team before a playoff game recently.

Apparently ex-coach Lynch believes that his athletes should not have hurt feelings because it is not manly. The sarcastically worded “survey” lists several reasons for his athletes to check off as reasons for filing the report of hurt feelings. Among the reasons he included on the survey are:
I am a pussy.
I have woman-like hormones
I am a queer
I am a little bitch
I am a crybaby
I want my mommy

The survey then asks for the “little sissy” filing the report to sign his name and asks for the name of the “real man” who “hurt your sensitive little feelings.”
After Lynch’s survey became public and the school received complaints, Lynch resigned his coaching position, one he had for 13 years, and apologized to the school board. Unfortunately, the superintendent excused the coach’s actions by saying that he “just made a mistake and meant no harm.”

The final irony though is that ex-coach Lynch will remain in his position as a guidance counselor. Really? He’s a guidance counselor? You can’t make this stuff up.

Congratulations, Mr. Lynch, on your Horse’s Patoot Salute.

Thanks to Outsports.com where I first saw this story.

Yet More Dot Connecting By Gwen Knapp

2011-11-11T19:52:00.000-05:00

Here's another article picking up on the connections between the current Penn State scandal and the cover up/protection of Rene Portland by the same cast of university officials.

More Dot Connecting On Penn State

2011-11-11T19:23:00.000-05:00

Mechelle Voepel writes another excellent article connecting the dots at Penn State.

Connecting the Dots at Penn State

2011-11-11T09:59:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to write a blog post about the Penn State Football Scandal, but life is really crazy right now and I just didn't get to it. However, I found a great article that expresses my thoughts as well as I could have. Luke Cypher, an ESPN writer does a great job here making the connection between Penn State's complicity in allowing a sexual predator free rein in the football complex and and in enabling Rene Portland to discriminate against lesbians on her basketball team for 27 years. It all all reflects the same failure and the same hypocrisy. Thank you, Luke.

Skirting the Issue of Femininity in Women’s Boxing

2011-10-28T20:02:00.001-05:00

Just when I think women’s sports are making some progress, some goofball comes up with an Assinine (or Backasswards, take your pick) proposal that reminds me how long the slog toward sex equality in sport is. The step forward in this case is the inclusion of women’s boxing in the 2012 Olympics. The step back is the proposal by the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) that the women’s boxers should wear skirts. They even provided the skirts.

Why skirts you may ask? Apparently some people are having some difficulty telling the difference between men and women in the boxing ring. Thank goodness the AIBA has come to the rescue of the gender confused and disoriented spectators who are panicking about their inability to distinguish men from women in the ring. Skirts should do the trick. That is unless Scottish male boxers decide to wear kilts.

The Polish and Romanian teams were actually required to wear skirts at last week’s European Championships. "By wearing skirts, in my opinion, it gives a good impression, a womanly impression," Poland coach Leszek Piotrowski told BBC Sport. "Wearing shorts is not a good way for women boxers to dress.” Really?

"At the world championships in Barbados, Romania wore skirts from AIBA. We decided to design our own, they're more elegant."

Elegant? That’s the look I am sure women boxers will be going for at the Olympics as they deliver a vicious left hook to the jaw.

It will be a great day when women athletes can just be athletes without having to demonstrate their femininity and heterosex appeal, But, alas, it seems we are not there yet. Not even close.

Respect. Just Do It. Swooshing Toward An LGBT Inclusive Sports World

2011-10-17T10:19:00.000-05:00

Last spring just after GLSEN launched Changing the Game, our new sports project, I got an email from Edward Tylicki from Nike. Edward is a member of Nike’s LGBT and Friends Network. Edward sought me out as director for the Sports Project because he wanted to know how Nike could support Changing the Game. My initial reactions were complicated. On one hand, getting the support of a huge corporation like Nike was exciting and held enormous possibilities for helping us to get our message of safety, respect and inclusion in K-12 sports and physical education out there in a big way. On the other hand, I worried about what it would mean to accept the support of a company that had been targeted as a participant in taking advantage of “sweatshop” labor in their factories around the world. I have not bought anything with a swoosh on it for years in my own personal attempt to send Nike a message about this.

So, I did some homework. In addition to going to the internet to read more about this, when I finally met Edward at GLSEN’s Respect dinner in May, I asked him to talk about Nike’s current labor policy and practices and about how Nike responds to these criticisms. What I learned is that, over the last 10 years, Nike has taken some significant steps to monitor and correct the problems that labor advocates have been protesting. In addition, Nike has initiated a “better world” campaign to focus on their “eco-conscious, people- and planet-improving goals” and, most importantly, Nike is putting its money where its mouth is.

Specific to LGBT issues, Nike works in collaboration with GLSEN Oregon to bring GSA students from Oregon schools together at the Nike Headquarters for an annual leadership day. In just the last year, the Nike LGBT and Friends group has sponsored several events at their world headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon including talks with straight ally, Ben Cohen and lesbian and gay college coaches, Sherri Murrell and Kirk Walker.

Nike had a strong presence at Portland Pride Day last spring and donated all of the proceeds from the sale of their pride tee shirts to Changing the Game – 18K, to be exact – an amazing demonstration of support for GLSEN and Changing the Game.
So when Edward asked me to participate on a National Coming Out Week event at Nike headquarters on Thursday, October 13 focused on straight allies and their role in making a sports great place for LGBT participants, I was more than excited to say yes.

In addition to me, representing GLSEN and Changing the Game, Nike also invited straight allies Hudson Taylor of Athlete Ally and Jessica Mendoza, a two time Olympic gold medalist and professional softball player. Hudson also serves on the Changing the Game Advisory Group and Jessica is a Changing the Game All-Star. When we arrived at the Nike campus, we were greeted by a wonderful exhibit of statements on larger colorful posters throughout the Nike complex of buildings. Some posters described what an ally is. Other posters were quotes from Nike executives about what being an ally means to them personally. A TV monitor ran a continuous loop of Hudson, Ben Cohen and me talking about the importance of making sports safe and respectful for LGBT participants.

After an impressive tour of Nike Headquarters, Hudson, Jessica and I did a lunch time talk about straight allies for about 50 Nike employees. Hudson and Jessica talked about how they came to be straight allies and told some personal stories about their experiences. As a lesbian athlete, coach and advocate, I talked about the important roles that straight allies play in eliminating homophobia and transphobia in sport and what straight allies can do to be most effective. We fielded some great questions from the group and enjoyed a great sense of support and interest from the Nike folks who came to hear us speak.

I have to say that for a veteran LGBT sports advocate who has been doing this work for over 30 years, it was an amazing experience to listen to Hudson and Jessica speak with such passion and commitment about their commitment to LGBT inclusion in and out of sport. It bodes well for the future that young straight allies like Hudson and Jessica are providing athletes and coaches with such terrific examples of how to be a straight ally. As I said at the panel, no social justice movement is ever successful without the participation of allies. Whether we are talking about racial equality, women’s equality, the disability rights or any other social justice movement , informed and committed allies fighting shoulder to shoulder with the people who are targeted by injustice make a huge positive difference.

We found out that, in a coincidence of scheduling, Kobe Bryant was also on the Nike campus that day. Our paths did not cross, but Edward gave one of Nike’s ally tee shirts to Kobe’s representative and expressed hope that Kobe would join Nike’s efforts to make sports a better place for LGBT people. You never know. The seeds of change can be planted in all kinds of different places.

Later that afternoon Nike hosted a community reception and invited several LGBT community advocacy groups from the Portland area: GLSEN Oregon, HRC and PFLAG, to name a few. Hudson, Jessica and I again spoke to the group of about 125 people. As part of the event, Edward gave me a check for the proceeds of the Nike Pride tee shirts in support of Changing the Game. We also announced that Nike has awarded a 14K Community Grant to GLSEN Oregon to support training for Portland area K-12 coaches and physical education teachers to be led by Changing the Game in collaboration with GLSEN Oregon. The training, which will occur in the spring, will focus on providing coaches and teachers with information and best practices for how to ensure that their teams and classes are safe and inclusive for students of all sexual orientations and gender identities/expressions.

Throughout the day we were greeted by and talked with Nike employees and leaders who expressed support and genuine commitment to making the sports world a better place for LGBT people. We talked about the ways that Nike is already taking a leadership role in supporting the efforts of LGBT sports advocates and the ways they can take an even more powerful and visible role in the future. The possibilities are amazing. At the end of the day, as I walked back to my hotel room in my new Nike Pride sneakers, I felt that LGBT sports advocates everywhere have a new super star member of our team. I kept thinking of this tee shirt that said, “Respect. Just Do It.”

A Long Road to Safety, Let Alone Freedom: The Murder of a High School Basketball Star

2011-10-06T12:54:00.004-05:00

In mid-September nationally ranked high school basketball star, Tayshana “Chicken” Murphy was shot to death by three young men in the hallway of her apartment building. At first, police assumed the murder was a case of mistaken identity. Tayshana had on a hoodie and police thought she was mistaken for another young man who was the actual target of the murderers.

It was tragic enough that the promising life of a young Black woman was cut short by a senseless case of mistaken identity. It is scary enough that she, like so many other young Black people in urban areas, was not even safe from gun violence in her own apartment building. Now, the police are investigating the possibility that Tayshana’s murder was not a case of mistaken identity, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but a hate crime.

Tayshana was, according to “sources” cited in the news account, a lesbian. Her friends had placed candles and memorials in the hallway where she was shot, but recently new anti-gay and threatening graffiti was written on the walls. The messages were apparently so hateful and so violent that they were immediately painted over, but still serve as a warning and threat to other residents in the complex. That someone could so hate lesbians that they would desecrate her murder scene memorial with violent anti-gay graffiti is almost as chilling as the murder.

Pending the investigation of Tayshana’s murder by the NYPD hate crimes unit, it is unclear why a young basketball player’s life was taken. Whether it was a case of mistaken identity or an assassination of a woman who was or was assumed to be a lesbian, we still lost a young woman who was looking forward to a promising future.

If this was an anti-lesbian hate crime committed by three young Black men, the resemblance to the “corrective” rapes and murders of young lesbian athletes in South African that have occurred over the last few years is a reminder that we have lots of work to do right here in the good old USA before we focus our outrage on LGBT hate in South Africa, Nigeria or any other country.

My heart goes out to Tayshana’s family and friends. I am sick of the senseless hate and fear of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

WSF Releases Position Statement on Intersex Athletes

2011-09-22T11:28:00.000-05:00

The Women’s Sports Foundation has released a position statement this week on the Participation of Intersex Athletes in Women’s Sports. The primary authors of the position paper, Nancy Hogshead-Makar and Erin Buzuvis, are to be commended for articulating a position that is clear, reasoned and based on the science of what we know about intersex conditions and competitive equity rather than the hysteria, sexism and prejudice that too often guide discussions about the participation of intersex athletes.

The WSF position statement stands in stark contrast to the “improved” policy recently announced by the IOC and IAAF. These organizations have struggled to correct the shameful treatment of South African runner, Caster Semenya, at the 2009 World Championships. Unfortunately the revised policy they have produced requires medical “treatment” of women athletes who have intersex conditions in order for them to be eligible to compete. The IOC and IAAF revision does eliminate the possibility that competitors can challenge an athlete’s sex because of, what they perceive as, masculine appearance or performance. This is a huge step in the right direction, but only a step. Moreover, the policy is inherently sexist because it does not address men’s sports at all. Male competitors who have exceptional athletic performances or who have exceptionally high levels of naturally produced testosterone are not regulated. To the contrary, they are celebrated as stud athletes and champions. Only intersex women who may have higher than typical levels of testosterone are regulated. I wrote more extensively about about the IOC/IAAF policy here and here.

As the WSF position paper clearly states, testosterone levels are only one determinant of athletic performance. In addition, the testosterone levels of non-intersex women athletes (and male athletes) vary widely. To require medical intervention for women athletes with intersex conditions is to pursue a paradoxical goal of competitive balance when achieving a competitive edge is the whole point of trying to win any athletic competition.

The WSF position statement is a sane and humane alternative for sports organizations seeking guidance in formulating their own policies on the participation of intersex athletes. If your school, athletic conference or sport governing organization is contemplating the adoption of such a policy, I highly recommend taking a good look at the WSF position statement.

NCAA Adopts Trans-Inclusive Policy

2011-09-14T10:20:00.000-05:00

The NCAA announced a policy yesterday that clarifies their position on the participation of transgender student-athletes in sex-separated sports. The policy is largely based on recommendations included in On The Team: Equal Opportunities for Transgender Student-Athletes, which I am proud to have co-authored with Helen Carroll of the NCLR Sports Project.

The NCAA should be applauded for being proactive in adopting the policy and for developing comprehensive educational materials for school administrators, athletic directors and coaches to assist them in understanding transgender identity in general and the NCAA policy and medical bases for it. The coupling of the policy and educational materials will be an essential part of ensuring a positive and informed response from NCAA member schools. I’ve found in working with coaches and sports administrators that most have extremely limited information about transgender identity and lots of misinformation and concerns about what it means to enable transgender athletes to participate on sports teams according to their gender identity. The NCAA resources provide college sports leaders with the basic information they need to follow the NCAA policy.

This is especially important because the NCAA policy applies only to post-season competition, which is what the NCAA sponsors. Individual schools and athletic conferences must also adopt policies that govern regular season competition. The educational resources that the NCAA has provided will be extremely important as individual schools and athletic conferences follow the NCAA’s lead in adopting their own policies.

The goal should be for administrators at all levels – individual school, athletic conference and NCAA - to all adopt the same policy. The ball is now in the court of individual schools and athletic conferences to make sure that this happens.
The NCAA policy enables transgender student-athletes to participate according to their gender identity and “maintains a relative balance of competitive equity among sports teams,” as stated in the NCAA press release.

The NCAA can be criticized for getting a lot of things wrong as they work to manage the complexity of the business of college athletics, but they got this one right.

In The Life Episode on LGBT Issues in Sport

2011-09-02T09:43:00.001-05:00

In The Life is featuring an episode on LGBT issues in sports in September. Look for the local TV listings for PBS stations in your area to see when it will air or you can watch it here:

SMU Settles Lawsuit with Former Women's Baksetball Player

2011-08-07T11:42:00.000-05:00

Here is a news report on the conclusion of a lawsuit I first wrote about in September, 2008. You can see that blog post here for more specific information about the former player's allegations.

The university and coach Rompola will not comment and the university claims it did nothing wrong in this case. The settlement provides the player, Jennifer Colli, with a $19,213 settlement which is the equivalent of one semester of financial aid.

Who knows what really happened here. I guess we can hope that the fact that a player stepped forward to challenge what she perceived as anti-lesbian discrimination by her coach and the failure of the university athletic department to properly investigate her allegations will serve as a warning to other coaches and schools: Athletes and their parents these days are more likely to object to and challenge what they experience as discrimination in sport based on sexual orientation.

Schools and coaches that hope to avoid discrimination lawsuits should educate athletic staff, adopt policy that protects athletes and coaches from discrimination based on sexual orientation and then follow through to make sure these policies are followed by everyone in the athletic department.

The tendency when an athlete charges sexual orientation discrimination against a coach, it seems to me, is for the athletic department to close ranks around the coach rather than conduct an impartial and thorough investigation of the charges. The same seems to hold true for cases in which coaches charge the athletic department with sexual orientation discrimination: The school closes ranks around the AD, as appears to be the case in the Katie Brenny lawsuit currently on-going at the University of Minnesota. It would be a lot less expensive and result in less negative publicity and attention if schools would take a proactive stance on education and policy development related to discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Hat Tip to Women's Hoop Blog for bringing this to my attention.

Sex And Selling Women’s Sports

2011-08-04T14:07:00.001-05:00

The Nation magazine has a special issue on the role and impact of sport on U.S. culture edited by Dave Zirin. One of the articles in this issue is “Sex Sells Sex, Not Women’s Sports” by University of Minnesota sport scholar Mary Jo Kane. Kane has conducted research using focus groups differentiated by gender and age to debunk the common assumption that sexualizing woman athletes or downplaying their athleticism are necessary to sell tickets, especially to the demographic coveted by corporate sponsors who advertise to sport audiences : Young males. You can read her article here and see a short slide show of the different ways women athletes are portrayed in the media here.

Kane’s research shows that sex does not sell women’s sports. Sex sells sex. Young men who think Serena Williams, Lindsay Vonn and Danica Patrick are hot don’t necessarily become fans of women’s sports. They just become fans of sexy pictures of these women. Moreover representations of women athletes in sexy, pornographic or non-athletic poses turn off women’s sports core audience: women and older men.

Some of the comments in reaction to Kane’s article reflect how resistant many men and some women are to the results of Kane’s research. Kane is derided as a humorless feminist who should lighten up and stop trying to take the fun and titillation out of women’s sport.

I want to challenge these folks to watch a replay (if they didn’t watch it live) of the USA matches against Brazil and Japan in recent Women’s World Cup. Depending on your preferences, you might think Hope Solo or Amy Wambach are sexy women, but the riveting, heart stopping, scream yourself hoarse reaction to these games came from the competition itself and how well the amazing athletes on all teams played the game. It wasn’t about the make-up, the pony tails (actually some women actually had short hair), who had a husband and children or who posed naked in Playboy. It was about tough and determined athletes playing their hearts out and keeping us on the edge of our seats (or in my case leaping around the living room trying to help them get the damn ball in the net).

That, my friends, is what sells tickets and garners high TV ratings, not seeing Hope Solo or Amy Wambach lying half-naked on a beach with soccer balls placed strategically in front of her breasts and pubic area. Can we please learn something from the Women’s World Cup and from Dr. Kane’s research: Exciting competition, whether the athletes are men or women sells sports. Portraying athletes in the media as the strong, tough, talented, competitive people they are sells sports.

You young guys who are fixated on seeing women in stale, posed soft porn photo shoots, go somewhere else to get your porn fix. You are not a real sports fan unless you can appreciate excellence regardless of the gender of the athletes you are watching. Plus, athletic women playing at the top of their game are pretty sexy just as they are. One doesn’t exclude the other, but if powerful women are scary to you, it might not be your cup of tea.

Hudson Taylor: An Amazing Straight Athlete Ally

2011-07-21T13:47:00.000-05:00

If I were 40 years younger and straight, I would fall in love with Hudson Taylor. What an amazing straight ally. Watch this video and be inspired by him and his message.

Sherri Murrell: Pioneer and Role Model

2011-07-20T08:53:00.000-05:00

Here is a great article about Sherri Murrell, the openly lesbian women's basketball coach at Portland State University. The emails that she receives from closeted coaches are particularly moving.

Lessons Sheryl Swoopes Is Teaching Us

2011-07-14T16:34:00.000-05:00

Sheryl Swoopes has announced that she is engaged to a man. This news might be confusing to some people who remember that Sheryl revealed that she was a lesbian in 2005 in an interview with LZ Granderson of ESPN. Prior to this public announcement, she had been married to a man and had a son with him before they were divorced.

I remember that, in 2005, Sheryl stated that she believed that her relationship with a woman was a choice and that she did not believe that she was born a lesbian. This created some consternation in some parts of the LGBT world where it is often accepted orthodoxy that we were all “born that way” as Lady Gaga sings it to us. Some folks believe the claim that we are born gay is a good argument for why we should not be discriminated against: After all, if we are born that way, how can discrimination based on an innate characteristic we have no control over be fair?

On the other hand, many anti-LGBT rights activists insist that being LGBT is a choice, not unlike choosing to drink too much alcohol or using drugs or stealing merchandise from a store, and is more akin to an additive unhealthy behavior than a sexual orientation. If you believe sexual orientation is nothing more than a behavioral choice, it is easier to think that, with a little counseling, prayer, change of scenery or, in the old days, a little electro-shock “therapy” you can change your sexual orientation if you reallllllly want to. Of course, it’s a one-way street; only changes from homo to hetero are celebrated. This argument is often based on an assumption that being heterosexual is the default orientation, being lesbian, gay or bi is an aberrant behavior. Also, I’d like to ask any heterosexual folk about there: When did you choose to be straight?

I believe that the “born that way” argument is not a strong position from which to fight for equality. I have no idea if LGBT people are born that way or choose who they are or some combination of factors. No matter how we get to where we are, we have a right to live our lives according to our own sense of what is true for us and we have so many different truths.

I was thrilled when Sheryl Swoopes came out as a lesbian in 2005. I was not one of the LGBT community who was upset by her not adhering to the LGBT orthodoxy that we are all born “that way.” I was thrilled, not because it was another woman coming over to our team, so to speak. I was thrilled because Sheryl Swoopes, as an African-American woman and as an accomplished athlete, is such a great role model for young people. Countering stereotypes and invisibility is an important part of what LGBT athletes and coaches who choose to be public about who they are help us to do. That is what I was happy about in 2005.

I think sexual orientation is way too complex to be characterized in simple either/or ways: We are born the way we are or our sexual orientation is a choice. It also leaves out a huge number of whose sexual orientation does not depend on the gender of the person they are attracted to. Bisexual people are open to relationships with people of any gender. Maybe Sheryl is bi. I don’t know. I have a feeling she, like many people, might be uncomfortable with all of the labels.

I do know that what I fight for as an LGBT rights advocate, in or out of sport, is that every one of us should be free to live our own truth and be respected for whatever that is. Some of us identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual. Some of us are more comfortable with other ways of describing ourselves: same-gender loving, two-spirit, queer and many other equally valid descriptions of our personal truth. Others identify as straight or heterosexual, that’s fine too.

The point for me is that, no matter what our personal truth, we must learn to respect the personal truth of others. Whether we identify as gay, straight, queer, lesbian, bisexual or something else, we should all have the right to legal and social recognition and protection, both individually and for our relationships, both in and out of sport.

Sheryl Swoopes, in choosing to be public about her relationships with men and women, reminds us all that sexual orientation is not simply about being “born that way” or making “a lifestyle choice.” I hope that her personal journey has made her an advocate for equality for everyone regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. That is what I hope for the LGBT community. For Sheryl, hope she is happy and I wish her well.

A hat tip to Cyd Zeigler and Outsports.com for bringing this to my attention.

More On UMinnesota Discrimination Lawsuit

2011-07-06T11:53:00.000-05:00

Former women’s golf coach Katie Brenny and members of the women’s team have widely different accounts of what transpired in their conversations with former director of golf, John Harris and his son-in-law, Ernie Rose about Katie Brenny and her sexual orientation. The university, so far, is defending Harris and Rose in this lawsuit.

The accounts provided by the athletes back up Brenny’s claim that Harris demoted Brenny to secretarial duties when he learned that he had hired a lesbian and promoted Rose in her place. The athletes also say that, before Brenny filed her lawsuit, they told athletic department administrators that they believed Brenny was being discriminated against based on a conversation they had with Ernie Rose in which they say he told them as much. These administrators now do not recall this meeting with the athletes. Assuming the meeting took place, nothing was done to investigate the athletes’ claims.

This is an ugly situation. Rose is accusing the athletes of lying. He claims it was the athletes who raised concerns about changing clothes with a lesbian coach present. Harris claims that Brenny was “insolent,” and defiant. He claims she is an opportunist who filed the lawsuit merely for the opportunity to make a financial gain. He claims she was not a good coach. Harris has quit his job. Both Harris and Rose stand accused of blatant discrimination against a lesbian coach. The university is accused of not acting on concerns expressed by Brenny and two senior athletes.

The University of Minnesota has a lot at stake here. It will be interesting to see if the university continues to back Harris and Rose and the athletic administrators who are being accused of failure to respond to Brenny’s and the athletes’ complaints about Harris and Rose. If they had investigated the situation and addressed their concerns in a timely way and consistent with their own non-discrimination policy, maybe this mess could have been avoided.

The athletes’ account of what happened supports Brenny’s claims. Their account also indicates some serious administrative indifference to allegations of discrimination based on sexual orientation. Are we to believe that both Brenny and the athletes are lying? You have to ask why two young women golfers would lie about this? By stepping forward, they have absolutely nothing to gain and are inviting a lot of serious blowback from Harris, Rose and the University. At a time when they should be enjoying their recent graduation and looking forward to what’s next in their lives, they are embroiled in an ugly discrimination lawsuit in which their honesty and integrity, along with Katie Brenny’s, are being challenged.

It is truly a shame that the athletic department did not address this situation before it came to this. It is difficult to see how anyone truly wins, no matter what the outcome is.

Homophobia and Sexism in Soccer

2011-06-29T08:01:00.000-05:00

This is an excellent article commenting on homophobia and sexism in soccer. Given the start of the Women's World Cup games and the recent anti-lesbian rant from the Nigerian women's coach, it is both relevant and right on target.

I particularly want to call your attention to an online petition calling on FIFA to condemn the Nigerian coach's actions. Please consider signing it.

Update on Discrimination Lawsuit Filed By Lesbian Golf Coach

2011-06-27T11:16:00.000-05:00

Last December I blogged about a situation brewing at the University of Minnesota in which a lesbian, Katie Brenny, hired to coach the women’s golf team filed a sex discrimination lawsuit against the university and the director of golf, John Harris. Brenny charged that she was demoted from coach to paper pusher and push up leader one month into the school year when Harris discovered that Brenny is a lesbian. He replaced her with his son-in-law in a questionable personnel move at a higher salary that Brenny’s.

Harris has resigned citing the need to (surprise) spend more time with his family. He is adamant that his resignation has nothing to do with Brenny’s lawsuit. All who believe this raise your hands. The university had vowed to back Harris with the stipulation that they would withdraw that support if Harris violated any university policies in his actions with Brenny. Since the U has a strong non-discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation, I wonder if Harris had a premonition that he was not going to be able to count on the university’s backing in the long run. He hired his own lawyer.

He is charging that Brenny is “defaming” his reputation “unfairly” and is only out to get her hands on some of the millions he has earned playing pro golf. I am thinking she might be defaming his reputation fairly.

Here’s what I think happened: John Harris came into the position of golf director at the U as a golden boy alum with lots of money and connections. He is used to working in the private sector and being a big wheel. He thought he was hiring a nice attractive straight young woman with great golf credentials to coach the women’s golf team. A month into the semester, he discovered that he had instead hired a nice attractive lesbian young woman with great golf credentials to coach the women’s golf team. Being the BMOC that he is, I think Harris disregarded or was ignorant of university policy and went about correcting his” mistake” by demoting Brenny to secretary/fitness instructor and promoting his son-in-law to women’s golf coach without attending to the niceties of university hiring policies. According to media accounts, Brenny was completely baffled by her demotion. Once she figured out why she was no longer coaching, she got a lawyer and sued. Sounds like a plan to me.

This is speculation on my part, but it makes the most sense to me. I just don’t see how the U can explain Harris’ actions in any way that makes sense other than this.

It will be interesting to see how the U proceeds now that Harris is out of the picture. The AD at University of Minnesota was already under heavy criticism for previous questionable personnel decisions in the athletic department involving coaching hires. The Brenny case is scheduled to go to trial in December. It is currently in the discovery phase. Stay tuned.

Nigerian Women’s Soccer Coach to Team: “No Lesbians Need Apply.”

2011-06-23T14:19:00.000-05:00

The Women’s World Cup Soccer Tournament is beginning in Germany and our focus should be on the play on the field. Unfortunately this article about the Nigerian women’s coach and her crusade to rid her team of lesbians calls attention to the nasty underbelly of homophobia in women’s sports. Based on her religious convictions, Coach Eucharia Uche feels entitled and compelled to root out the lesbians on the Nigerian team, even if they are identified only by rumor.

In South Africa, where national laws include protections for LGBT people, young men in rural townships still practice what has come to be called “corrective rape” on young women who are lesbians or are assumed to be because of their masculine gender expression. Perhaps the most egregious example of this brutal practice is the case of Eudy Simelane, captain of the South African women’s football team, who was beaten, raped and murdered because she was a lesbian. I wrote about this in a blog on May 12, 2010.

I think it is important to remind readers who might be thinking that this blatant discrimination is a problem only in African countries that you can change the location to the United States and the race of the coach to white and you can find several similar situations where coaches are discriminating against lesbian athletes based on their religious convictions.

You can make the case that much of the religious-based anti-LGBT sentiment in African countries stems from the teaching of white Evangelical Christian missionaries who export their anti-LGBT beliefs to Africa. The deadly influence of U.S. religious leaders in Uganda resulted in the proposed law that homosexuality should be punishable by death.

Perhaps the homophobia that women athletes in the United States experience is more subtle and less deadly than in many African countries, but it is still there. It keeps straight women silent. It costs lesbian coaches their jobs and it crushes the dreams of women athletes who are kicked off teams because a coach perceived them to be lesbian. Much of our version of homophobia in women’s sport is also based on anti-LGBT religious convictions.

The article about the Nigerian coach is just a reminder that, despite the progress and despite the many straight male athletes speaking up against LGBT discrimination lately, we still have lots of work to do. Sexism and homophobia in sport are a deadly combination that ruin the lives and dreams of many women athletes and coaches. We cannot read this story and just shake our heads in amazement at the blatant anti-LGBT sentiments expressed by a coach on another continent. These are world-wide issues that are just as damaging here in the good ole USA. Let’s not forget that.

Banned Lesbian Kisses at Professional Sporting Events in the News (Again)

2011-06-17T10:53:00.001-05:00

This time the offending lesbians are Minnesota Twins fans who dared to indulge in a peck on the lips that was witnessed by a Twins security guard. He promptly warned them that their behavior was unacceptable and that the 10 commandments applied during Twins ballgames. Not kidding. Read about it here and here.

This is not the first time that lesbian spectators kissing at sporting events has created a stir among ball park personnel. In 2001, two lesbian fans were actually kicked out of an LA Dodger game by a security guard for kissing.

Then there was the controversy at Washington Mystics games over the prohibition on featuring lesbian or gay couples in the ever-popular (and stupid) Kiss Cam. Read my blog about that one here.

At a time when pro teams are making It Gets Better videos and sponsoring Gay Nights at the baseball park, maybe professional sports teams need to do some training with their security personnel about the inappropriateness of imposing their personal prejudices on fans at a public event. It would be one thing if a sports franchise instituted a no PDA policy in the ballpark for everyone, regardless of sexual orientation (pretty dumb idea, but fair), it’s entirely another when only same-sex couples are targeted for expressions of affection that are completely unremarkable when engaged in by heterosexual couples.

Nonetheless, this latest incident gives me the opportunity to repost one of my personal favorite blog posts on the topic when the same thing happened to a lesbian couple at a Seattle Mariners game in 2008. Enjoy it here.

New LGBT Coaching Alliance

2011-06-13T11:16:00.000-05:00

Roger Brigham, a long-time LGBT sports advocate, sport journalist, high school wrestling coach and athlete in his own right, has formed the Equality Coaching Alliance.

Roger describes the Alliance,

“Equality Coaching Alliance was conceived of as a virtual meeting place for coaches to discuss LGBT coaching issues. Issues that affect our work and our lives and the lives of those we coach. Together we can build a safer and more inclusive world for all athletes, coaches and their supporters.”

Roger noticed that several projects and organizations like Changing the Game: The GLSEN Sports Project, Our Group and Athlete Ally are focusing on making high school and college athletics safer and more respectful for LGBT athletes, but no group focuses on the needs of LGBT coaches. Roger envisions the group as a way to support LGBT coaches through peer education and support.

The Alliance has a Facebook page and a blog. You can visit the blog here.

If you are interested in getting more information about the Equality Coaching Alliance, contact Roger at jocktalkroger@yahoo.com

Some Thoughts On Straight Allies in Sport

2011-06-09T14:32:00.002-05:00

In recent weeks we have witnessed what feels like a mass coming out of straight male athletes speaking publicly in support of gay marriage, against anti-LGBT bullying and name-calling, and against homophobia in sport. It has been an amazing news cycle unprecedented in my memory and that is a long time, trust me.

NBA former star, Charles Barkley; current NBA players Grant Hill, Jared Dudley and Steve Nash have all spoken out. NHL player Sean Avery has spoken out. Add to this group, recently retired UK Rugby player, Ben Cohen and former NCAA wrestling All-American and now college wrestling coach, Hudson Taylor, and you have quite an array of straight male athletes who are taking a public stance against anti-LGBT discrimination and prejudice in and out of sports. I’m not even counting the straight male athletes who have spoken up prior to the last couple of months, like Brian and Patrick Burke, Scott Fujita and Brendon Ayanbadejo. Members of the San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox are making” It Gets Better” videos.

Ben Cohen and Hudson Taylor, in particular are dedicating themselves to addressing LGBT discrimination and bullying in sport. Each has started his own organization to combat anti-gay bullying and name-calling. Cohen’s foundation, Stand Up, and Taylor’s Athlete Ally have received a lot of media attention from the mainstream sports press and the gay press recently.

Ben Cohen is currently on what he calls an “Acceptance Tour” of the United States talking about his foundation, speaking out against bullying and raising money for selected LGBT organizations. Hudson Taylor is speaking at colleges around the USA asking athletes to sign the Athlete Ally pledge to commit themselves to speak up against anti-LGBT name-calling and homophobia. Both men have been embraced by LGBT organizations and are adored by legends of gay men who are as attracted to their athletic good looks as they are to their affirming message.

These straight male athletes are role models for younger straight male athletes who are hearing a different message than the one too often delivered in sports: “Gay men are not tolerated or welcomed in sports and anti-gay slurs are an accepted part of male sports culture and being called “gay” in sport is the ultimate insult.” After all, no active member of the big four men’s professional sports in the USA has come out as a gay man and we only have to look back two months to read about three high profile incidents of professional athletes or coaches using anti-gay slurs to express their anger at officials or fans. All were fined or suspended, which is progress, but you have to assume that the way the words rolled so easily off their tongues that, in private, it is still ok to call someone an anti-gay slur.

So what’s not to love about all this sudden media attention on straight male athlete allies? Don’t all successful social change movements include allies who stand shoulder to shoulder with people who are targeted by oppression? The answer, of course, is yes. So what is it that is making me a little uneasy about how some of this sudden bounty of support is unfolding.

Part of my unease comes from my perception that this seems to be all about men. Maybe this is ok in this moment. Maybe I should just celebrate the outspoken support of these straight male athletes since we certainly have had a deep silence about homophobia in men’s sports for too long. Maybe I should just be happy that the silence is being broken in men’s sports and that we suddenly have some straight men who are playing a leadership role in breaking it. Maybe, but I am concerned about the inclusivity of the message I am hearing in media coverage of Ben and Hudson and all of the other amazing happenings over the last month or so.

I’m concerned that, in all of the media flurry of attention, homophobia in women’s sports is getting lost in the shuffle. Moreover I wonder if women athletes and coaches are less likely to identify with Ben and Hudson or with some of the other male professional athletes or their messages if it feels like women’s experiences in sport are being ignored. I don’t assume someone is talking about my experience when they use the word “gay.” The message needs to be explicitly inclusive of women and I am not hearing that.

Sports is a male dominated institution and women athletes are still, despite enormous progress, perceived as inferior trespassers by many male fans, athletes and sports administrators. How ironic would it be if homophobia in women’s sports is marginalized within our own LGBT advocacy organizations and media and by the straight male athletes who are speaking up about homophobia in sport. I want our advocates to be mindful of how we perpetuate sexism in the ways we challenge homophobia by making the G count more than the lbt.

Sports media is all about men’s sports so it follows that a discussion about homophobia in sport will probably get framed as about men’s sports. A radio commentator this week said that no professional athlete in the US has ever come out publicly while they were still actively playing. I wanted to say, wait a minute, you mean no MALE professional athlete has come out while still actively playing. The exclusion might not have been intentional, but the assumption that this conversation is about men’s sports is always there just beneath the surface. We cannot let homophobia in women’s sport be an afterthought in this amazing public conversation about homophobia in sport.

Discrimination against lesbian athletes or any women who is perceived to be lesbian is alive and well in women’s sports. The lesbian label is still used as a way to keep women athletes and coaches in line and in the closet. It’s not like we have come anywhere close to winning the war against homophobia in women’s sports so we can just move on and now turn our attention to men’s sports.

It is also troubling to me that I do not hear many voices of straight women athlete allies in this conversation. Where are the women’s professional sports teams making It Gets Better videos? Where are the individual straight women athletes of any sport who will speak out against anti-LGBT bullying and name-calling in schools and for marriage equality? I think the silence from straight women athletes on these topics is a testament to the pervasive effects of sexism and homophobia in women’s sports and to the marginalization of women’s sports in general. I think women athletes believe they have more at risk in speaking up against homophobia in sport. As long as the lesbian label can still be used to silence and intimidate any women athlete, it will be more difficult for lesbian, bi or straight women to speak up publicly against homophobia. Speaking up as a straight ally is a privilege that is mediated by the effects of sexism in sport. Nonetheless, we need more straight women athlete allies to make public their private commitment to inclusion and respect in sport and in schools. We need some women to stand shoulder to shoulder with the straight male athlete allies who are speaking up. I am calling out straight women athletes on this. We need your voices in this public conversation.

Then there is the “hunk factor.” In one article Ben and Hudson were called “swoon-worthy.” Ben Cohen’s tour is sponsored by gay men’s rugby teams in each of the cities he is visiting. His popular “Beer with Ben” events take place in gay men’s bars and are attended by, surprise, a lot of gay men. I guess it should be no surprise that in many pictures Ben is shirtless with accompanying text commenting on his “hotness.” Shirtless guys with perfect physiques in sexy poses predominate in a lot of gay men’s media so I guess I should not be surprised that Ben Cohen is featured this way too.

However, I wonder if the propensity for gay media to focus on a straight ally’s sex appeal diminishes the power and reach of his message and how seriously it will be taken beyond the gay male community. Also, I wonder about how appropriate it is focus on beefcake when the primary goal for these campaigns is to stop young people from being bullied. Anti-bullying messages delivered with beer and hot bodies probably will not make it into the schools. Call me a prude if you like, but I have plenty of company among educators and parents in schools.

I also have some concerns about how the term “ally” is used and what it means to the people who call themselves allies. This term has a long history in social justice movements. The definition of ally that has always made the most sense to me is: A member of privileged social groups (males, whites or heterosexuals, for example), who speaks out to end discrimination and oppression toward members of social groups targeted by discrimination and oppression (females, people of color or LGBT people, for example).

However, more is required of allies than speaking out against anti-GBLT bullying or name-calling, though this is an essential part of being one. As we move forward into this new world of celebrating and working with straight allies in sport, I have some thoughts I hope our straight allies, bless them all, will take to heart.

1. Allies need to understand and be mindful of the privilege they have as they speak out. There is a disturbing benevolence that reinforces inequality when well-intentioned allies do not understand that they too are part of the oppression equation, whether they like it or not. They benefit by being heterosexual in a heterosexist world. Allies need to understand how their privilege is part of what enables them to speak out and be heard. Challenging homophobia is a great way to use privilege, but it is privilege nonetheless. It isn’t as if they are speaking from some place outside the system of oppression they want to challenge. Failure to understand their own privilege and participation in a system of oppression seriously diminishes the effectiveness of their message and can ultimately result in disempowering the groups that allies claim to speaking in support of. I cringed a little when I heard that Ben Cohen’s travel in the USA is called the “Acceptance Tour.” Acceptance implies inequality. It is certainly better than calling it something like the “Tolerance Tour,” but “acceptance” implies that some people have the power to confer “acceptance” on others. It implies having the privilege to confer acceptance. Like many LGBT people I really don’t care about acceptance or tolerance from heterosexual people. I want equality. I want respect. Those are concepts that challenge privilege rather than reinforce it. I want to know that my straight allies understand this difference. I don’t want my allies to “help” me by conferring acceptance. I want them to stand beside me in this campaign because they believe it makes a better world for all of us.

2. Being an ally requires a commitment to on-going work on self-awareness in relationship to the complicated dynamics of oppression. It isn’t just about calling for an end to anti-LGBT bullying and name-calling. Being an ally means understanding how intersecting issues of race, gender, sexuality, sex, class and other social justice issues affect the message and the messenger. It diminishes both when, for example, women are left out or people of color are ignored. I want allies to use the words “lesbian,” “bisexual” and “transgender.” I want them to understand the differences in our identities and experience. Allies need to demonstrate a commitment to learning and speaking out about how anti-LGBT oppression affects all factions of the LGBT community, not just the gay one.

3. Allies need to work alongside of LGBT people and organizations, not out in front of them. Straight allies need to understand the importance of not speaking for LGBT people or deciding what they think is best for LGBT people or usurping the roles and voices of LGBT organizations and people who have been actively advocating for LGBT rights and against bullying long before it became “cool” to be an ally. Allies play an important role in challenging LGBT oppression and discrimination, but that role must be played in collaboration with LGBT organizations and people. To do otherwise is an exercise in unacknowledged privilege and misguided benevolence that disempowers LGBT advocacy organizations and advocates.

I realize that writing this blog may lead some folks to see me as ungrateful for the incredible work that straight allies in sport are doing. I do appreciate their efforts and see the active participation of straight allies as extremely important in making sport and schools more respectful and inclusive places for LGBT people. I am a huge fan and friend of Hudson’s and, though I have not met Ben, I am thankful to have him on our team standing up against bullying. As we appreciate the efforts of our straight allies, we also need to challenge them to examine their privileged position as men, as heterosexuals, as white people to make sure that they are delivering an inclusive message of empowerment that is based on an understanding of the complicated power dynamics of being an ally.

I just want this media moment we are enjoying to translate into tangible and lasting change in men’s and women’s sports and beyond. I want our allies to understand the importance of them doing their homework so they can most effectively work with us to make it so.

Spread The Word To End The Word

2011-05-25T13:06:00.004-05:00

Maybe we should be thanking Kobe Bryant and Joakim Noah. Their use of the double F bomb anti-gay slur on national TV has certainly provided the opportunity for a national conversation in Guysportsworld about the causal use of anti-gay slurs by professional athletes. That “FF” so easily rolls off the tongue of male pro athletes like Kobe and Joakim tells us something about the culture of the men’s locker room and what happens when the TV cameras are off. Stressed and pissed off, “caught in the heat of the moment” both athletes dug down into their little bag of verbal insults and dragged out the one that they think carries the most sting and the one that is so common that it is right there on the tip of the tongue.

Thanks to GLSEN, the Ad Council, the NBA, Grant Hill and Jared Dudley another point of view is also out there airing during the NBA play offs and finals. Depressingly though, Grant Hill received some pretty ugly tweets from “fans” about his participation in the Think B4 You Speak PSA. He responded by pointing out that these reactions just illustrated the need for the message in the PSA. Grant Hill and Jared Dudley are giants to me. I cannot express my gratitude strongly enough for their willingness to speak out. Charles Barkley is another former NBA star who is speaking out against anti-slurs and prejudice in sports. I hope they paving the way for others to follow their lead.

These two articles, here and here, are interesting reactions by African-American sportswriters about the use of anti-gay slurs by African-American athletes. Casey Gane-McCalla is concerned about “scapegoating” young Black athletes. He seems to think that, because the use of anti-gay slurs is part of male sports culture from Pee Wee football to the pros as a way to put someone down as weak or soft, we should use let it go. Therefore, it isn’t really about gays, he seems to say. Really? He then shifts the blame to gay athletes who will not come out for the prevalence of homophobia in men’s team sports. Seriously?

Mike Freeman presents the position that Black athletes should know what it feels like to be targeted by slurs and should be able to make the connection that the N-word and F-word are both unacceptable. Unfortunately, some of us still get caught up in the oppression Olympics (can I use the word Olympic in this context without getting sued by the USOC) by arguing about who is more oppressed, Black people or LGBT people. Freeman makes the point, which I agree with, that it is not about determining whether the F-word or the N-word is more offensive. They are both offensive. Period. Plus, just because the two most recent and most publicized examples of athlete homophobia are Black men doesn’t mean that the use of the F-word is any more prevalent among Black athletes than white athletes. I am sure that Black and white athletes are equal opportunity users. It’s about changing sport culture for all athletes.

Let’s just hope that the media attention and the anonymous ignoramuses who call Grant Hill the F-word for taking a stand help sports organizations and individual athletes to better understand the need to set some higher standards of conduct for professional athletes, even in the “heat of the moment.” Young people are watching and learning. Young people are using the same words uttered by Kobe and Joakim to torment their classmates. Young people are killing themselves and getting beat up at school as a result. Professional athletes are role models. What they say and do matters. They can be part of the problem or part of the solution. Increasing numbers of straights athletes are choosing to be part of the solution. Let’s hope it catches on.

Here’s a cool PSA about name-calling from a campaign called Spread the Word to End the Word. Maybe we should play this for NBA rookie camp.

May: A Great Month for Gay Good News in Sports

2011-05-17T07:45:00.000-05:00

Wow, it is difficult to even know where to start with all the gay happenings in sports this month. And I mean gay as in happy and gay as in sexual orientation. I’m talking about men’s professional team sports here for the most part: The place where some people think that a gay athlete could never come out and be accepted, where a gay athlete who is still an active player has never come out. I don’t think I can remember a month when it seems like there is so much happening that I can’t keep up. What a great feeling. OK, so here are some (I am sure I missed something) of the gay happenings in May (in no particular order):

Roger McDowell, Atlanta Braves coach, is suspended for some really stupid and homophobic remarks addressed to some fans in San Francisco. OK, the incident wasn’t so great, but the response was.

Former Olympian, Peter Vidmar, resigns as Chef de Mission for the London Olympic Games after his activism against marriage equality is revealed.

The New York Times features an article about straight ally athletes, Hudson Taylor and Ben Cohen, who are making major efforts to enlist straight athletes to stand up against homophobia in sport.

New York Ranger, Sean Avery, makes a public endorsement of marriage equality.

A Public Service Announcement by GLSEN and the NBA for the Think B4 You Speak Campaign featuring Grant Hill and Jared Dudley stands a stand against anti-gay name-calling in sports airs during the NBA play offs.

Phoenix Suns President, Rick Welts, comes out as a gay man and the Suns organization in general is cited for taking progressive stances on immigration reform and on anti-gay name-calling in sports with their participation in the GLSEN/NBA PSA.

Finally, Sean Chapin, who has been a persistent and effective LGBT rights advocate with his wonderful videos, has succeeded in getting the San Francisco Giants to make a video for the It Gets Better project.

It kinda makes you wonder what June will bring. Women athlete allies are you listening? May was for the guys, can we hear from more women athletes and women’s sports organizations in June?

Peter Vidmar Steps Down, Jessica Mendoza Steps Up

2011-05-12T10:25:00.000-05:00

Peter Vidmar resigned yesterday, just eight days after being named chef de mission by the USOC for the London Olympic Games. Vidmar’s active participation in anti-marriage equality campaigns made his choice more controversial than either he or the USOC anticipated. Public reaction to his appointment made it clear that his anti-gay activism would make him and the USOC lightning rods for controversy and criticism. Vidmar has every right to express his views and support whatever causes he chooses. He just needs to understand that there are consequences to speaking out against people’s rights when you are asked to represent a diverse group of athletes, some of whom are the very people you would like to deny rights to.

One of the really gratifying aspects of this story for me is that Jessica Mendoza, Olympic medal winner and professional softball player, former President of the Women’s Sports Foundation and current Changing the Game All-Star, really stepped up to the plate and hit one out of the park (pardon the pun) on this. She wrote a column in ESPNW and proved herself to be an amazing ally to LGBT people in and out of sport.

I am sure Jessica got some negative reactions to her strong and public stand on this and I appreciate her courage and willingness to speak her mind. She is willing to take the criticism from those who disagree with her that Vidmar apparently did not see coming. Everyone who supports LGBT equality should thank Jessica Mendoza and let her know how much we need and appreciate the actions of allies like her. Thank you, Jessica!

USOC Chooses Anti-LGBT Activist as Chef De Mission

2011-05-06T10:52:00.000-05:00

The United State Olympic Committee (USOC) has named former gold medal winning gymnast Peter Vidmar as chef de mission for the 2012 London Olympics. Vidmar, a Mormon, is a public opponent of extending the right to marry to lesbian and gay people. He donated $2,000 to the successful Prop 8 anti-gay marriage initiative in California in 2008 and spoke at a public rally opposing same-sex marriage. Johnny Weir, an openly gay Olympic figure skater criticized the USOC choice in an article in the Chicago Tribune.

Apparently the USOC was not aware of Vidmar’s public role in opposing same-sex marriage rights when they appointed him chef de mission. Now that it has been brought to their attention, the USOC has defended their choice of Vidmar citing his views as part of his protected freedom of religion rights and acknowledging that many Americans do not share his views.

The USOC might want to be a little more careful in the future in vetting the candidates for such a highly visible position that is supposed to represent all US Olympians at the Games. The impression is that the USOC does not consider opposition to LGBT rights that big of a deal. Certainly, it is not a disqualifier for being named to a very prestigious position. I don’t like to make comparisons between LGBT civil rights and other civil rights movements, like the Black civil rights movement, the women’s movement, or the disability rights movement to try to make the point that opposition to these civil rights issues would be a disqualifier. However, it is an indication, however faulty, of what the USOC priorities are. I don’t believe they would have supported a chef de mission who opposed these civil rights movements.

Let’s not forget that in the early 80’s the USOC sued what was then called “The Gay Olympics” over the use of the word “Olympic.” That quadrennial event is now called the “Gay Games” as a result. Never mind that the USOC had no objection to the use of “Olympics” to describe other competitions like hot dog eating contests, the Police Olympics or the Special Olympics.

Yes, Peter Vidmar has a right to his anti-gay views. I even support his right to express them, but please, don’t try to have it both ways. In the Tribune article Vidmar claims, ``I fully respect the rights of everyone to have the relationships they want to have. I respect the rights of all our athletes, regardless of their race, their religion or their sexual orientation. I will cheer and do all I can, passionately, for every athlete on the U.S. Olympic team.'' If he really “respected the rights” of LGBT people, he wouldn’t spend thousands of dollars and be speaking out publicly to prevent us from having equal marriage rights.

The USOC has made a public statement in choosing Vidmar: They don’t consider public opposition to LGBT rights in or out of sport to be of great importance. It’s just a matter of personal opinion and religious freedom. That the USOC is comfortable with an anti-LGBT activist representing the USOC and all USA Olympians in London is a sad commentary on their commitment to LGBT equality in sport. No wonder so many LGBT Olympians choose to compete from the closet.

Update on U of Minnesota Lesbian Golf Coach Discrimination Lawsuit

2011-04-28T09:57:00.000-05:00

Here is an update on the lawsuit filed by former University of Minnesota Women's golf coach, Katie Brenny. I first wrote about this situation on December 13.

I do not know the facts of the case, but it is preposterous to me to think that a young lesbian coach would put herself in the public spotlight in this way just to get a payday from a well-heeled professional good ole boy and Minnesota favorite son who is the golf director. This is what Harris' lawyer is claiming in his call to have the case thrown out. At the very least, this case should be heard, not thrown out at this stage.

It is far more believable to me that Harris hired, what he thought was an attractive straight woman to coach women's golf, and then flipped out when he realized that he had actually hired an attractive lesbian to coach women's golf. Because of his status as a former athlete, a professional golfer and general big dog in Minnesota sports, I believe he thought he could impose his personal prejudice on the golf program with impunity.

I hope the judge rules that this should be allowed to play out in court and see what a judge or jury thinks after hearing all the evidence.

The IOC Draws A Line in the Sand of Sex (But Only for Women)

2011-04-26T11:41:00.001-05:00

On April 5 the International Olympic Committee released new rules for determining whether or not women who have higher than usual levels of naturally produced testosterone will be eligible to compete in women’s sports. Though the IOC denies it, it seems likely that this clarification is motivated by the embarrassing and shameful handling of the challenge to South African runner, Caster Semenya, two years ago at the World Championships.

The new rules, which will be in place for the London Olympics in 2012, state that a “panel of independent medical experts” will examine any woman found through a blood test to have “hyperandrogenism” and then make a recommendation about whether she should be eligible to compete. These situations will be handled on a case by case basis and the athlete will be referred to “specialist medical centers around the world” where they will be checked to see if they have any conditions that are a health risk that need treatment.

This process will be triggered in three ways: an athlete can request an “evaluation.” (Pause). I am trying to imagine a woman stopping by her nearest “specialized medical center” to ask, “Can you tell me if I am a woman or not? I can run so fast, I’ve begun to question” The second trigger is if during routine urine testing for performance enhancing drugs, the required observer notices that the athlete has “male characteristics.” This would be a penis, I assume. The third trigger is that drug testing results reveal “abnormal” testosterone levels. One good thing about these new rules is that it will no longer be possible for competitors to trigger an investigation on the basis of their perception that a woman is “too” masculine in appearance or performance. The IOC promises “strict confidentiality” for this process.

If the athlete is ruled ineligible, she would be informed of what “conditions she needs to meet in order to return to competition.” Presumably this could include forcing the athlete to take some kind of drug that suppresses her natural level of testosterone. (How can that be normal?) Athletes who are ruled ineligible for competition as women will also be ineligible to compete with men effectively banishing them to a “third sex freak” category athletically.

There is no question that determining sex is a very complicated process. The IOC is determined to draw a line that separates the men from the women for the purposes of determining athletic eligibility when most medical experts who specialize in this area agree that drawing a hard and fast line is pretty tricky.

The IOC claims that their focus on drawing this line separating men from women is about insuring a “level competitive playing field.” However, as Alice Dreger points out, far more eloquently than I can, the IOC only seems concerned about level playing fields for women only. Their new rule is inherently sexist. No one on the IOC medical panel seems at all concerned about male athletes with “abnormally” high testosterone levels having an unfair advantage over their less “manly” competitors. The IOC seems only concerned about policing women’s bodies and insuring that only “normal” women are allowed to compete. Of course, they get to decide who is normal.

Will we next rule ineligible women who are “too” tall, or have “abnormal” oxygen update capacities or “too many” fast twitch muscle fibers? Once we start excluding women athletes based on their naturally occurring physiological differences and labeling those who have exceptional capacities “not normal,” where does it end?

I am especially concerned that this policy could be adopted by college and high school athletic governing organizations. Policies that stigmatize girls or women with exceptional natural physical characteristics or athletic abilities as abnormal will not promote inclusion, fairness or excellence in women’s sports and will only serve to perpetuate the belief that only some women athletes, those deemed “normal” by arbitrary social standards, are welcome.

LA Lakers Do A PSA on Name-Calling (Kobe Apology Part 3)

2011-04-21T14:40:00.000-05:00

Okay, I hope this will be my last post about Kobe Bryant’s anti-gay slur. The LA Lakers have made a public service announcement featuring Kobe and several other players condemning name-calling of any kind. You can see it here.

Good for the Lakers for doing this. The PSA certainly won’t win any prizes for production quality or originality, but the message is clear.

Cynics will say the Lakers and Kobe just want to put this controversy behind them and this PSA is merely an attempt to do that. That may be. I’m choosing not to be cynical though and hope that this is just the first step for the NBA in setting a better example for young people when it comes to respect, even in the heat of the moment when you are really angry about an official’s call or an opponent’s action. We’ll see.

Kobe Apologizes: Part 2

2011-04-18T08:57:00.000-05:00

In response to reactions to his use of an anti-gay slur during a game last Tuesday,which was caught on national TV, Kobe Bryant sat for an extended interview on ESPN to talk more about the incident. Because I have been one of Kobe’s critics on this incident, I want to say that, for the first time, what Kobe says feels like a step in the right direction. What is most important to me is that he appears to understand the negative impact on young people that his comment has and he talks with more understanding about his responsibilities as a role model for young people.

He also says that he thinks it is important to take some actions to raise awareness about anti-gay slurs and turn what has been a negative event into a positive learning experience, “I believe it's our responsibility as athletes and those in the spotlight to bring awareness of these issues. It's coming from a negative light, but it's our responsibility to make it into a positive and raise awareness as much as we can and say it's not okay to insult or discriminate. It's not the right thing to do.”

This sounds great. I hope that, after the media attention fades, that we can count on Kobe to turn this stated commitment into action. He has such a great opportunity here to do something really important for young people. Let’s hope he follows through.

Thoughtful Responses to Kobe O’Bryant’s Anti-Gay Slur

2011-04-16T13:19:00.000-05:00

Here is a New York Times editorial response by gay ex-NBA player John Amaechi to Kobe’s use of an anti-gay slur. Please read it. It is an eloquent explanation of why what Kobe said is unacceptable.

This link is an article about the PSA shot by GLSEN, the Ad Council and the NBA with current NBA players Grant Hill and Jared Dudley directed at young people with the message that using anti-gay slurs is “not cool.”

The PSA was filmed coincidentally on the same day Kobe dropped his double F-bomb. What a different message to young people Grant and Jared are sending. This PSA will be part of the Think B4 You Speak series which has so successfully called attention to the negative effects of the ubiquitous school put down, “That’s so gay.” The NBA shoot is part of GLSEN’s efforts to focus on K-12 school sports and physical education through their new project, Changing the Game (which, in the interests of full disclosure, I am directing).

An Open Letter to Kobe Bryant: Kids Are Watching and Listening to You, Dude.

2011-04-15T08:56:00.001-05:00

Dear Kobe:
You are an amazing athlete. You get paid a lot of money to play basketball and endorse sports shoes. You get lots of media attention. People watch what you do and listen to what you have to say. People wear your jersey and root for you. Many of these people are young and they look up to you.

Whether you like it or not, some realities come with the privileges you have as a wealthy marquee sports star. One of them is that you are a role model whether you like it or not. You can choose to be a good one or a bad one, either way young people take note of what you do and many want to emulate you.

That is why it is so painful for those of us who are working to make sports, schools and society safer and more respectful places for everyone, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people to watch you use your celebrity platform to send such a careless and dangerous message to your young fans. Using anti-LGBT slurs is never excusable. I don’t care how mad you were at that referee. It doesn’t make any difference that it was “in the heat of the moment” or that you issued the standard non-apology afterwards. There is simply no excuse for what you said.

A mother of a 14 year old boy who is one of those young people I mentioned who look up to you said this about your nationally televised slur: Thanks, Kobe (with loads of sarcasm), I’ve worked for two years to get my son to stop using anti-gay slurs and you, in one thoughtless explosion of temper, undid it all. He thinks if Kobe uses this language, it must be ok.

Kobe, you do not get a free pass on this. It’s a good thing that the NBA fined you $100,000, but that’s like telling most of us we have to forfeit our morning coffee for two days. Instead of appealing the fine as you apparently plan to do, why don’t you show us that you really have learned something from this. Why don’t you show us in a meaningful way that you really are sorry and understand how dangerous the words you used are?

In the last year at least 10 young people have killed themselves because classmates tormented them with ant-LGBT slurs and those are only the ones we know about. Words matter, Kobe. As a young African-American man in America, you should know this. Where do you think young people learn that it is ok to hurl these cruel and dangerous words with the intent to hurt and humiliate: From people like you, dude. What. You. Say. Matters. Think before you speak; especially when you are in the “heat of the moment.”

Ironically on the same day you were having your little homophobic hissy fit, the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network was filming a PSA in conjunction with the NBA to discourage young people from using anti-LGBT slurs. Grant Hill is featured in the PSA. Grant Hill is a star athlete who understands that he is a role model and uses his celebrity status in a positive way to send a different message to young people. We need a lot more highly visible athletes like Grant Hill to step up. We can only hope that the PSA Grant is making with GLSEN attracts as much positive attention as the negative attention your comments have.

So, in conclusion, Kobe. Save your phony apology. Forego the ritualized meeting with the head of some LGBT rights organization who bestows “official” forgiveness on you. I don’t give a rat’s ass about these “performances.” The only thing that speaks to me is if you did something that really makes a difference. Donate your time, as Grant Hill has, or donate some of your fortune to support organizations that work to undo the damage your carelessness causes. Be a different kind of role model: One that stands for respect and inclusion. Young people are looking to you. Don’t let them down.

An Update on Lesbian High School Softball Player’s Lawsuit Against her Coach and School District

2011-04-12T08:57:00.000-05:00

In December I wrote about a lawsuit filed by a lesbian high school softball player, Skye Wyatt, and her mother against the Kilgore, Texas school district. Here is a December news item about the case. In a nutshell the lawsuit alleges that the softball coaches locked Skye Wyatt in the locker room and bullied her about dating a woman who had previously dated the softball coach. The coaches then outed Skye to her mother and kicked her off the team. At that time the school district defended the coaches’ and athletic director’s actions and it seems that they are sticking with that story. The school district has a policy that requires staff to reveal the sexual orientation of students to their parents.

I’d love to hear how the school district defends this policy and the coaches’ and athletic director’s actions. On what planet is it acceptable to lure a student to a fake meeting for the purpose of locking her in the locker room to bully her about what should be none of their business and then reveal personal information about her to her mother for no other apparent purpose than to cause her trouble and then to top it all off by kicking her off of the team . It’s OK on Planet Kilgore, Texas, apparently. I feel sorry for students in this school district if this is what the school district leaders consider appropriate adult behavior for professional educators in the schools.

And some people wonder why we need to address LGBT discrimination in sports. The trial is scheduled for November.

Does Acceptance of Women's Sport Require Dismissal of LGBT Discrimination?

2011-04-05T09:40:00.005-05:00

On Sunday ESPN’s Outside the Lines aired a segment on Kye Allums, the transgender man who plays on the George Washington University women’s basketball team. The segment focused on Kye and his mother with a follow-up interview with Helen Carroll from NCLR; Wendy Parker, a sportswriter/blogger and Kevin Blackistone, also a sports reporter. You can see these OTL segments here and here.

Kye impresses me as a young man with incredible courage who has a clear sense of his identity and is willing to be open about his transition journey so that others can learn from and benefit from his experience. I am also impressed with GWU staff and the basketball team who have addressed Kye’s transition and the public attention it has drawn with fairness and sensitivity.

Kye’s mother shared her struggles with his transition and still thinks of him as her daughter, repeatedly referring to Kye as “she” during the interview. I can empathize with the emotions a parent must experience when a child announces that her or his gender identity contradicts the gender she or he was assigned at birth. We have a long way to go before most people understand transgender identity let alone accept it. Kye’s mother is wrestling with her own feelings and her hopes for her child. She deserves more support in this struggle. I hope she will reach out to some of the great organizations and people who could fill that role. One I would suggest is Gender Spectrum.

One of the final questions the interviewer asked Kye was did he believe that it was “healthy” for him to be playing on the women’s team. What a curve ball question. Kye was clearly taken aback by the question and wasn’t sure how to respond. I don’t blame him. What was the interviewer looking for? Was he assuming that it is somehow not healthy for Kye to play basketball at all? To play on the women’s team? Is he concerned about the general “health” of women’s basketball or women’s sports in general when transgender people participate? What did he mean? I think the question reflects ignorance about transgender identity and also anxieties about gender, especially when our preconceived notions of gender as fixed and binary get challenged as they do by transgender people. I’ll pick this theme up in a discussion of the interview with Helen, Wendy and Kevin that followed the OTL segment on Kye.

Helen Carroll worked with GW to help them respond to Kye’s wish to make his transition public in a way that was fair to Kye, the team and the university. She has worked with other transgender student-athletes, their parents and schools on these issues. As a former athlete, championship coach and athletic director Helen knows what she is talking about when she discusses transgender issues and is also committed to women’s sports in general. Wendy Parker is a knowledgeable sports reporter who focuses on and is committed to women’s sports. How she was tapped for this interview however is an interesting question. Her comments reflected a lack of understanding of transgender issues and insinuated that somehow Kye’s participation on a women’s team threatens the mainstream acceptance of women’s basketball. That is a big burden to place on the shoulders of an athlete who is merely trying to live his life openly according to what is true for him. Wendy even questioned Kye’s integrity by implying that he was only participating on the women’s team to retain his scholarship. How cynical of Wendy. Kye was very clear that he is attending GW to get an education and play ball. Having a scholarship is enabling him to do both. He earned the scholarship. Why would he suddenly not have a right to keep it?

Wendy also wondered why Kye would want to be so public about what she apparently considers a private issue no one should talk about. She misses the point that Kye is probably saving lives by being public about his own experience. As Kevin points out, we have a suicide problem among young people who are bullied because of their perceived or actual sexual orientation or gender identity. Wendy, though professing to admire Kye, seemed more concerned about the effects on his teammates of playing on a team with a transgender man. In, perhaps, her most ridiculous comment, Wendy even implied that the GWU team’s fall from the top ranks is somehow Kye’s fault and that Kye’s participation on the women’s team reflects a selfish disregard for the effects of his presence on the GW program and his teammates.

I know from reading Wendy’s blog and from her comments on my blog that she considers discussions of “social causes” in sport to be nothing more than politically correct distractions from more important issues in sport. Wendy’s message to LGBT people in sport: Shut up and keep your identities to yourself. You make women’s sport look like a freak show and impede our ability to draw mainstream sports fans and writers. Wendy was especially upset that ESPN aired this segment on the opening day of the women’s final four for this reason.

Wendy continues this line of thinking in her blog, where she expresses “some puzzlement over a self-identified male who wishes to be true to himself but still wants a place — and a scholarship — on a women’s team…Those were questions he avoided during the interview, and the lack of candor was obvious.”

There was no lack of candor in Kye’s responses, only a lack of understanding on Wendy’s part. I think Kye was incredibly open in his responses about his experiences and his relationship with his mother. It is really cynical to accuse him of lacking candor.

However, I am sure Wendy is asking a question that others who also lack information about transgender issues in athletics might also want an answer to. So, let me try. First, it is none of Wendy’s business (or anyone else’s) why Kye chooses to play on the women’s team. It is completely within NCAA rules for him to do so as long as he is not taking testosterone, which he is not. His teammates support Kye and have expressed that support publicly. His coach supports Kye and has said so also, even as he struggles to understand Kye’s identity. Kye’s basketball skills and abilities have not changed. He does not have any unfair physical advantage over his teammates or opponents. Don’t worry, Wendy, the women’s semi-final games were incredibly exciting Sunday night demonstrating the increasing talent and parity in the game so Kye’s participation hasn’t hurt women’s basketball as far as I can tell.

There is no relevant reason why Kye should not play on the women’s team. Perhaps the only reason is that having a transgender man on a women’s basketball team makes some people uncomfortable.

On the other hand there are lots of good reasons why Kye would want to play on the women’s team rather than the men’s team. His teammates on the women’s team are his friends. They are a source of support for him. Anyone who knows athletics understands the important role that teammates often play as a second family. Why would Kye want to separate himself from this, especially at this time in his life? Kye is a basketball player. For any student who loves the game and has played it throughout her or his school life, why would they give it up? To force Kye to play on the men’s team would mean, in all likelihood, that he would sit on the bench if he made the team at all. Why would he, why should he, give up participating on a team where he is accepted, supported and can get playing time when his participation is completely within the rules?

Wendy also writes in her blog that, “the women’s game is a full-fledged enterprise that long ago dwarfed narrow social causes but that still generate a very bright — and I think unwarranted — media spotlight.”

What on earth makes Wendy Parker think that sport, men’s or women’s, is somehow exempt from the need to address what she pejoratively calls “narrow social causes” that receive an “unwarranted” media spotlight? In other words she believes the expectation that sports, especially school sports, should reflect basic social justice values of equality, fairness and inclusion is only the concern of marginalized special interest groups who are forcing their agenda on women’s sports and impeding mainstream acceptance in the process.

Insisting that mainstream acceptance requires that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender athletes and coaches must suffer discrimination in silence or give up their right to participate in sports is so 1950s, Wendy. I believe that both sports and the general public who watch it are better than that. Things are changing. Not because we have been silent about social justice issues in sport or dismiss them as distractions, but because some of us insist that sports must change with the times. Kye’s participation and acceptance on his team are only one sign that this is so.

Lesbians and Lingerie Football: No Muffin Tops Need Apply

2011-03-21T12:29:00.002-05:00

I have not written about the Lingerie Football League because, well, I find it offensive. I am sure not many regular readers will be surprised by this. The league focuses on everything I find demeaning and insulting about media portrayals of women athletes: They must be perceived as sexy to men to get any ink. The LFL is predicated on this belief. The women are playing in skimpy sexy underwear topped off by shoulder pads and helmets. There is lots of skin, lots of T & A, probably lots of wardrobe malfunctions, which I am sure lure the fans like crashes lure NASCAR fans. The team names are things like Bliss, Desire, Temptation and Fantasy. It seems clear that the players are chosen for their appearance and heterosexiness as much as their football skills. Every one of them on the LFL web site has large breasts and small butts. Not one has muffin top or love handles. This is easy to see because that is what the photos focus on: lots of skin.

The video on the web site shows game action and, I will admit that what they feature there suggests that the women can play ball. There are lots of hard hits too. I worried if the helmets they wear provide enough protection given what we know now about concussions in sport. Hitting the turf in their skimpy “uniforms” looked painful too.

It actually felt a little creepy to watch the video. The uniforms are ridiculous – shoulder pads, helmets, thong underwear and push up bras. Are men really so shallow that this is necessary to get them to go watch women play sports?

So why am I writing about this? Well, one of the players has come out as a lesbian and she and other players from the LFL will be in Palm Springs for “lesbian spring break.” Any lesbian worth her rainbow tattoo knows that thousands of lesbians migrate to Palm Springs to participate in parties and events that go on at the same time that the annual LPGA golf tournament is happening there. This tournament used to be called the Dinah Shore Nabisco and lesbians have been flocking to Palm Springs for years to party during the tournament though it is questionable how many actually watch the golf or even know a five iron from a sand wedge. Anyway, Amber Elizabeth will be there and so will some other players apparently. I guess the LFL sees lesbians as another potential market for their pigskin and woman skin events. Maybe some of us are.

If I sound like a cranky old feminist lesbian, maybe it is because I feel like one. I am usually the first to celebrate when lesbian athletes and coaches come out publicly. It is a good thing for the women who are choosing to live their lives honestly and it helps to challenge the prejudice against lesbians that still lingers in women’s sports. I suppose you could say that an openly lesbian lingerie football player is breaking a stereotype too, I’ll give you that. However, it doesn’t feel like a step forward for lesbians or women’s sports to me when any woman athlete, regardless of her sexual orientation, has to pander to beer drinking heterosexual men’s sex fantasies in order get attention.

Changing the Game: The GLSEN Sports Project: Respect. Are You Bringin’ It?

2011-03-17T09:28:00.000-05:00

I am really pleased to share some great news with you: GLSEN (Gay Straight Education Network) has launched “Changing the Game: The GLSEN Sports Project.” The project mission is to make K-12 athletics and physical education safe, respectful and inclusive for students of all sexual orientations and gender identities/expressions. Our primary target audiences are K-12 coaches, athletic administrators, physical education teachers, students and parents.

I’ve been working with GLSEN (as director of the project for several months to design the project and get our web site up and running. We have some exciting resources on the site now and will adding more each month. Here is a short selection of some of the resources you will find on the web site as we continue to add new content:

• Policy and Best Practice recommendations for making sports and physical education inclusive and respectful for LGBT students.
• The Team Respect Challenge: An invitation to school sports teams to take the Team Respect Challenge to be leaders promoting respect and standing against bullying and name-calling on their teams and in their schools. We post Team Respect Challenge team photos on our website.
• The Safe Sports Space Campaign: A campaign to raise awareness of the importance of making school sports spaces (gyms, locker rooms, playing fields and classrooms) safe for students of all sexual orientations and gender identities/expressions. We’ve got Safe Sports Space stickers and some Safe Sports Space Rules to post in schools to remind everyone what it means to have a safe sport space.
• The Game Changer Video Project: An invitation to K-12 coaches, students, parents and friends to make and send us a short video about someone in their school who “changes the game” by taking leadership to make sports or physical education safe and welcoming for everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.
• A Changing the Game blog where we will invite students, coaches, teachers and LGBT sports advocates to share their experiences, ideas and perspectives each month.
• Links to other great resources like Athlete Ally, Our Group, NCLR Sports Project, Fearless Photo Exhibit and Outsports.com.
• Staff development modules for coaches and teachers as well as on-site training programs that GLSEN sports staff will lead in schools.
• We also have some terrific Changing the Game caps, tee shirts and stickers you can purchase at the GLSEN online store.
• And more.

I’ve had some great help developing the project, not only from the folks at GLSEN, but also from a distinguished advisory group of twenty people who each has a demonstrated commitment to making sports a great place for LGBT people. We also have a wonderful Changing the Game All Star Team of well known sportspeople from professional and Olympic sports who endorse our efforts and are committed to our goals of making sports a great place for all students.

Changing the Game will also have a Facebook page (Join us) and we’ll be on Twitter too (Follow us). If you are in K-12 schools or if you have friends who work in or attend or have children in K-12 schools, send them our web site address – sports.glsen.org. Or send our web address to your high school alma mater. Help us spread the word about Changing the Game. With you help we can do it. Respect. Are YOU Bringin’ It?

Being LGBT at BYU

2011-03-09T14:40:00.000-05:00

Brigham Young University recently dismissed star basketball player, Brandon Davies, from the men’s basketball team for violating the school’s honor code. Brandon had sex with his girlfriend. BYU is a Mormon school and the honor code reflects the church’s conservative views on sex and sexuality. After hearing about this, I thought about what it must be like to be an LGBT athlete at BYU. If premarital heterosexual sex is not tolerated, what would the school think of gay sex? Not to fear, the honor code has it covered:

“Brigham Young University will respond to homosexual behavior rather than to feelings or attraction and welcomes as full members of the university community all whose behavior meets university standards. Members of the university community can remain in good Honor Code standing if they conduct their lives in a manner consistent with gospel principles and the Honor Code.

One's stated same-gender attraction is not an Honor Code issue. However, the Honor Code requires all members of the university community to manifest a strict commitment to the law of chastity. Homosexual behavior is inappropriate and violates the Honor Code. Homosexual behavior includes not only sexual relations between members of the same sex, but all forms of physical intimacy that give expression to homosexual feelings.”

In a nutshell, gay and lesbian students and staff are “welcome” in the university community as long as they don’t engage in any “form of physical intimacy that gives expression to homosexual feelings.” You can say you are gay, according to the honor code, but you are expected to commit yourself to the law of chastity, just like all unmarried heterosexuals on campus are.

On one hand, given Brandon Davies’ dismissal from the basketball team, it seems that BYU takes the sexual conduct part of the honor code seriously no matter what the sexual orientation of a student is. On the other hand, the honor code devotes an entire section to “Homosexual Behavior” making it clear that even holding hands with someone of the same sex could be grounds for an honor code violation whereas heterosexual couples need to actually have sex in order to violate the code.

What must it be like to be an LGBT athlete at BYU? I am sure they are there. We are, as the slogan goes, everywhere. Outsports asked this question recently and several readers made comments about LGBT athletes they know who have been students at BYU.

Students who enroll at BYU know what they are committing themselves to, but many young people do not identify themselves as gay until after they are in college. What must it be like to come from a Mormon family, identify as a Morman AND be lesbian, gay or bisexual?

As a private school, BYU has the right to determine and enforce its honor code. It certainly is clearer than the ambiguous and unspoken “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that got soccer coach Lisa Howe in trouble at Belmont University. This difference notwithstanding, the insistence that being LGBT and being a devout and honorable person of faith are completely incompatible often leads to dishonesty and secrecy. That is some burden for a young person already dealing with the academic, athletic and social challenges of being away from home for the first time. Who could you talk to? I doubt if BYU has an LGBT Center or that campus counseling services include gay-affirmative staff. Even though you can identify yourself as gay without violating the honor code, it must be difficult to do so. Given the Mormons’ condemnation of homosexual behavior, how could you feel good about being lesbian or gay?

I was recently contacted by a reporter interested in doing a story on this topic who wanted to know if I had any contacts with LGBT athletes at BYU. I don’t. Neither do Jim or Cyd at Outsports. The BYU closet is too deep. The message to LGBT athletes from Brandon Davies’ dismissal from a team headed for the post-season is this: If they would dismiss a star heterosexual athlete for having sex with his girlfriend, there is no way it is safe for an LGBT athlete to come out, much less have a relationship at BYU. All it takes is for one teammate or one classmate or one coach to find out and tell on you and it is over.

The truly sad thing is that even in public universities where LGBT students’ rights are supposed to be protected, all it takes is to have a coach who believes that being LGBT is morally wrong or a disruption to the team and an athlete’s career can be just as much in jeopardy. It happens in women’s sports all the time. Coaches can and do act on their personal prejudices even when school policies and state laws should protect students from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. Too often administrators look the other way or back the coach. At least BYU is being consistent with the values the university and the Mormon religion espouses. We don’t have to like it. As a private religious school, they have the right. I am more upset about public schools that enable, condone, ignore discrimination against LGBT coaches and athletes even as they claim to be committed to protecting the rights of LGBT people on campus. That kind of hypocrisy is really difficult to see and just as painful for the young people who suffer because of it.

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes at Belmont University

2011-03-01T20:00:00.000-05:00

Lots has changed at Belmont University since the December departure of lesbian women’s soccer coach, Lisa Howe. Howe and Belmont parted company by mutual agreement according to official accounts, but this tortured non-explanation of why the popular and successful coach left never made any sense. What did make sense was what her players reported being told by university administrators: Howe was pushed out because she is a lesbian and that was incompatible with the university’s Christian views.

After lots of negative media attention, student protests and public outcry, including a threat to withdraw financial support by a major university donor, it seems that Belmont has seen the light. In quick succession, the university has made two significant policy changes - the university has amended its non-discrimination policy to include sexual orientation as an enumerated category. Bizarrely, the university president still insists that this change is merely making official what the university policy has always been, actions to the contrary. The second change is that the university has bestowed official recognition to an LGBT student group that has previously been denied recognition twice.

You’ll have to forgive my cynicism. I think the only reason Belmont made these policy changes is that they were forced to by the public outcry and, more importantly, the potential loss of a major donor.

The third change is that Belmont has hired a new women’s soccer coach. Despite calls to rehire Lisa Howe, this was not to be. The new coach, Heather Henson, is married to a man so all is right with the world again at Belmont. I am happy they hired a woman to coach the women’s team rather than hiring a heterosexual man to eliminate the possibility of inadvertently hiring another lesbian as some other schools have done. Think LSU post Pokey Chatman.

I am happy that Belmont has been pressured into making these changes and I do hope that the university is sincere in backing their new gay affirmative policies with action and commitment. We’ll see. It just seems a shame to me that Lisa Howe is still out of a job at Belmont, a job she apparently did very well until she made the mistake of being honest and open. I hope that her sacrifice results in actual change in life on campus for other LGBT staff and students. At least then her loss will have meant something. Time will tell.

Perhaps Belmont is part of a new kinder, gentler Christian perspective on homosexuality in which LGBT people can be respected, if not accepted and in which the fact that some LGBT people are Christians too is not viewed as an oxymoron. We’ll see.

Remembering Betty Hicks (1920-2011)

2011-02-21T18:46:00.001-05:00

Let’s play a little sports Jeopardy. The category is Women Sports Pioneers.

The answers in this category are:

• Winner of the 1941 U.S. Women’s Amateur Golf Championship.
• 1941 Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year.
• Founder of the Women’s Professional Golf Association, the precursor to the LPGA.
• One of the founding players on the LPGA and contemporary of Babe Didrikson Zaharias.
• Professional woman golfer who, along with Babe Didrikson Zaharias, appeared in “Pat and Mike” the 1952 Hepburn & Tracy movie.
• Golf teacher, golf coach, aviator, flight instructor, author and gourmet cook.
• Inductee into the Women Sports Foundation International Hall of Fame

The question for all of these answers is: Who is Betty Hicks?

Betty Hicks was also the first woman athlete to write about lesbian athletes. Her 1979 article appeared in Christopher Street, a now defunct gay publication. I found it in the early 1980’s while doing my own research on the topic. When I had the opportunity to meet this gutsy and accomplished Renaissance woman I jumped at the chance. I was in the process of gathering information and doing interviews for writing Strong Women, Deep Closets, my book about lesbians in sport. I was on sabbatical in California and I called her and introduced myself. She invited me to her home, took me out to lunch and even offered me, basically a total stranger, the use of her car while I was in California. She was a true pioneer in women’s sports. She was a fearless feminist who lived her passion for golf, flying and writing. She inspired me and encouraged me as I struggled through my own self-doubts as a writer.

Betty told me amazing stories about the early days of the LPGA tour and offered insights into how the fear of being called a lesbian haunted the women on the tour during the 1950’s. Remember this was during the McCarthy Era when Senator McCarthy was holding hearings to root out Communists and homosexuals in the national government and other institutions in the U.S. It was the 20th Century version of the medieval witch hunts in Europe and seventeen century United States. Police routinely raided bars frequented by lesbians and gay men, herded the patrons into paddy wagons and newspapers published their names which led to public humiliation, disruptions of personal lives, job loss and terror. The lucky ones escaped out the back door or paid off the police to protect their anonymity.

The last time I saw Betty was about eight years ago when she visited Kathy and I while she was in Boston for some golf business. She hustled us out to the local Stop & Shop to buy the ingredients for the gourmet meal she was planning to cook us. She took over our kitchen and we served as her sou chefs as pots, pans and flour flew. The meal was great and we enjoyed seeing Betty. We just did not know it would be the last time.

Betty was 90 years old when she died this week. Imagine the changes she lived through both in women’s sports and in women’s and LGBT rights. I often think of social change as a relay race with each generation of people running their leg and passing the baton to the next generation with each successive leg of the race building on the hard work and courage of the one before. I like to think I took the baton from Betty and have run my leg in a way that she would be proud of. Tonight, I raise a glass in your honor, Betty. Thanks for being an inspiration and for being my friend.

Out: The Glenn Burke Story

2011-02-13T13:50:00.000-05:00

In November Comcast Sports aired a documentary, Out: The Glenn Burke Story, about a gay pro baseball player. It did not air in my area and I had a difficult time getting a copy of the video so I could see it. However, thanks to my friend, Jim Buzinski at Outsports.com, I finally was able to watch it this weekend. Here is a review of the documentary that Jim wrote in November.

It seems fitting that I watched this video during Black History Month since Glenn Burke was a Black gay man. He was a stand out basketball and baseball star at Berkeley High School in the late 1960s and 1970. He played professional baseball for the LA Dodgers, starting in the World Series in 1977 where the Dodgers lost to the NY Yankees. Despite his excellence on the field and being a popular teammate in the clubhouse, Burke was traded to the Oakland A’s (more about that later). He retired from baseball in 1980 at 27 years old with many potential years of baseball still ahead of him. He came out publicly in a Sport magazine article and on the Today show in 1982. Glenn Burke was later diagnosed with AIDS and died of complications related to AIDS in 1995. The documentary includes interviews with several of his former Dodger and Athletics teammates as well as family members, friends and Billy Bean, the only other gay ex-professional baseball player to ever come out publicly.

Glenn Burke’s story is both tragic and triumphant. The tragedy is that, despite his considerable baseball talent and his engaging, larger than life personality and popularity with the men who played on teams with him, Glenn Burke’s career was cut short by anti-gay prejudice among the baseball management for both the Dodgers and the A’s. His Dodger teammates knew Burke was gay, but most of them loved his sense of humor and appreciated his production on the field.

The Dodgers’ management even offered Burke $75,000 to would marry a woman. They couldn’t have a gay man sullying the macho heterosexual image of baseball after all.

Tommy Lasorda, the manager of the Dodgers, had a gay son called Spunky, whom he never acknowledged as gay. Burke became friends with Spunky and possibly dated him while he was playing for Lasorda. That must have been the final straw for Lasorda leading to Burke’s trade to the A’s. In the interviews in the documentary his former teammates expressed shock and disbelief that Burke had been traded as well as an understanding that the trade had little to do with making the Dodgers a better team and everything to do with getting rid of Glenn Burke because he was gay.

Burke struggled on the Oakland team. He went from the Dodgers, a national league championship team, to a cellar dweller. His teammates there were less comfortable with a gay man in the locker room. The worst part of the move, however, was Billy Martin, the A’s manager. Martin was extremely homophobic and his cruelty and open hostility toward Burke made playing baseball a miserable experience leading to Glenn’s retirement well before is playing days should have been over.

Glenn Burke loved living in San Francisco, however, and found a home in the gay community there. He enjoyed the freewheeling sexual life of the pre-AIDS era and was an icon on Castro Street. Sadly though, baseball was Glenn Burke’s passion and he did not leave the sport he loved on his own terms. He was forced to make a choice between playing baseball or being true to himself as a gay man. I am sure that loss haunted him the rest of his life. He eventually became enmeshed in drug and alcohol abuse. He served some time in prison. At the end of his life, he was homeless and dying of AIDS: A senseless and tragic end to a life that held so much promise.

You might ask where is the triumph in this story. I saw it in the eyes of his former teammates as they recalled the Glenn Burke they knew and loved – the laughter, the dancing in the locker room, the red jock that hung in his locker, the timely hit, the stolen base, the impossible catch in the outfield. Glenn Burke is credited with inventing the High Five, a testament to his love for baseball and being part of a team: Standing on the dugout steps, high fiving a teammate who had hit a home run, scored a run, made a great defensive play.

Glenn Burke never felt shame about being gay. He never pretended he wasn’t gay. He did not come out publicly during his playing days, but he was just who he was: A Black gay ball player who loved the game and enjoyed the company of men on and off the field. I find that triumphant, especially in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, especially for a professional baseball player of that era.

I found it interesting that the documentary did not address race at all. The fact that Glenn Burke was a Black man must have affected his experience as a gay baseball player. I wanted to hear more about this from the mostly Black and Latino former teammates who participated in the documentary. Both Lasorda and Martin were white. Did that have any effect on their treatment of Burke? Or was it just that neither man could reconcile the contradiction of a gay man who was also a heck of an athlete. Was it that Lasorda and Martin just couldn’t overcome their deeply held stereotypes about gay men, no matter what their race, to really see Glenn Burke, the man and the ball player.

Telling Glenn Burke’s story is an important part of reclaiming the mostly invisible history of LGBT people in sport. How many Glenn Burkes have played professional sports, suffered similar discrimination and we will never know their stories? We will never know what they could have accomplished on the field. We lost them as leaders in the fight for LGBT rights in and out of sports.

Out: The Glenn Burke Story is a great Black History Month teaching tool. It is a great teaching tool at any time for looking at fear and prejudice and at the tragedy of discrimination and oppression. It also made me wish I could have known Glenn Burke. It’s true this documentary enables him and his story to teach younger generations of athletes about homophobia in sports, but wouldn’t it be even more powerful if Glenn was able to be here to tell us his story himself.

Why Sports Are Important for LGBT Young People

2011-02-09T09:43:00.000-05:00

Here is a great story of success for a high school gay wrestler. Jaime’s story illustrates why making high school athletics safe for students of all sexual orientations and gender identities is so important. If you are a lonely or isolated young person, if you are a closeted or questioning young person, participation on school sports team with a coach and teammates who believe in respect and support for everyone on the team can save a life.

Jaime’s story also shows the importance of coaches as role models, whether they are gay or straight. Here are some questions for coaches: How would an athlete on your team know that you are someone who she or he can talk to about being gay? Would you be prepared to listen to and support an athlete like Jaime on your team? Since coaches set the tone for what kind of climate is created on their teams, what kind of climate do you set on your team for LGBT athletes? Thanks, Roger, for the story and for being the coach and role model you are.

A Call for Heterosexual Women and Men in Women’s Sport to Stand Up to Anti-Gay Discrimination

2011-02-07T12:36:00.001-05:00

Sean Avery, a member of the NHL New York Rangers, told the Toronto Sun that he will support any young hockey player who wants to come out. He says that if any player anywhere (I am not sure he is including girl hockey players, but I hope he is) wants to come out and they need support, he will fly to their town and be with them as they come out to their teammates.

Avery says, "I'll stand beside him in the dressing room while he tells his teammates he is gay. Maybe if Sean Avery is there, they would have less of a problem with it."
I am excited about the increasing numbers of male professional athletes in the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL who are standing up publicly to support young gay people, marriage equality, anti-bullying laws as well as saying positive things about having gay teammates. It’s a far cry from Tim Hardaway’s anti-gay rant when John Amaechi came out.

At the risk of leaving someone out, Sean Avery joins professional athletes Scott Fujita (NFL), Steve Nash (NBA), Reggie Bush (NFL), Charles Barkley (NBA), Brendon Ayanbadejo (NFL), who have, in the last year, spoken out publicly against anti-gay discrimination or harassment. OK, there are still many athletes who are silent, but it wasn’t that long ago when public anti-gay comments were the norm and the absence of positive comments was total. Add to this list former NFL commissioner Paul Taglibue, Toronto Maple Leafs GM, Brian Burke and his son Patrick and Ohio State Football Coach, Jim Tressel and the number of men in men’s sports speaking up gets longer. It gets longer still if you add Boston Red Sox Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia and Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, who have all spoken out in support of Boston sportswriter, Steve Buckley’s coming out. And of course, we must cite the amazing advocacy of rugby player Ben Cohen and former wrestler and now wrestling coach, Hudson Taylor.

So, as I have asked before in my blog: Where are the heterosexual women athletes and coaches who are willing to stand up publicly against anti-gay discrimination and harassment? People always assume that women’s sports are more accepting of lesbian athletes and coaches. If this is so, where are the straight women allies among the professional ranks or among collegiate sports? Is homophobia in women’s sport what keeps straight women silent? It is true that women’s sports still have to contend with assumptions that many people make about an athlete’s sexuality because of her athleticism and the lesbian label is still used as a way to intimidate and discredit individual women and whole sports. But isn’t it time for heterosexual women in sport to step up and challenge homophobia like some of their male counterparts are? Is the homophobia in women’s sports what is silencing heterosexual women? And while we are talking about it, what about all the heterosexual men coaching women’s sports, when can we expect to hear some of them speaking up against homophobia in women’s sports? No one is accusing them of being lesbians.

I know there are many heterosexual coaches and athletes, male and female, who privately do not condone anti-gay discrimination and harassment in or out of sport. I’d like each of them to consider how much more powerful it would be for them to speak up publicly as increasing numbers of heterosexual men in men’s sports are. If we are to eliminate homophobia and heterosexism in sport, we need more heterosexual allies to speak up publicly, both women and men.

Consider this a challenge to heterosexual men and women in women’s sports to do so. Your voice makes a difference. Stand up. Speak up. Use your heterosexual status and credentials to make sports a better place for everyone. If you are afraid to do it alone, get together with a group of coaches or athletes in your sport or your school to make a statement. Do it. Do it now. It is the right thing to do and it makes all sports a better place for coaches and athletes of all sexual orientations.

When is “Family-Oriented” a Code for “We Are Lesbian-Free” in Women’s Sports?

2011-01-30T11:24:00.005-05:00

Last week’s ESNP The Magazine article on negative recruiting in women’s basketball has gotten an interesting response from two gay men who are fans and friends of the Iowa State women’s basketball team and coach Bill Fennelly. Matt Schuler and Robert Alden, a married couple in Iowa (where same-sex marriage is legal), believe that Fennelly is unfairly portrayed in the ESPN article. Their experience with Fennelly and the women’s program is that lesbian and gay fans and players are welcome and comfortable on the team. I have no firsthand experience with the Iowa State women’s program so, if what Matt and Robert say is true, I am happy to know this.

However, the quotes in the ESPN article attributed to some Iowa players and recruits and to Bill Fennelly himself are definitely open to other interpretations. These excerpts in particular are problematic:

During one teen's big moment, a heart-to-heart with Iowa State's Bill Fennelly, the decorated coach of 23 years sang an insistent refrain. He kept drilling that 'this would be a family,'" says the player, who asked not to be named. "'You should come here,' he said, 'because we're family-oriented.'"
To the recruit, those seemingly comforting words cloaked a deeper meaning. Two of the four schools she was considering were purported to employ lesbians on their staffs. Her stop in Ames, in fact, was on the heels of a trip to one of those allegedly "gay programs." There, coaches avoided discussing anyone's off-court lives. Iowa State, in contrast, pushed the personal hard. "They threw it out constantly," says the player, who became a Cyclone. "'Iowa has morals, and people who live here have values, wholesome values.'" The implication, to her and to another former Cyclone who confirmed her account, was that at other schools, "there's something going on you don't know."

The messaging continued after she joined the Iowa State squad and started to help recruit younger players. Coaches told all the Cyclones to emphasize their "environment" to any visiting recruits: married head coach, straight assistants, kids running underfoot. "Tell them we're family- oriented," the player recalls. "According to the coaches, it needed to be said."

Fennelly, on the other hand, says he pushes Iowa State's familial spirit because that's what he has to sell. It's all positive, and anyone who thinks otherwise is distorting what he and his school stand for. "I think what's happening," he says, "is, in an odd way, my staff is being penalized because they're married and have families." The coach, one of the few in the women's game willing to speak on the record about the subject, denies that he or any of his staff has ever used the term "wholesome" to recruit a player. But, Fennelly adds, "if using the word 'family' is viewed as negative recruiting, then we're guilty, because we say that. I don't think it's negative. Maybe I'm the only one in America who thinks that's ridiculous to say."

Negative recruiting is making disparaging comments about a rival school or team. Negative recruiting based on perceived sexual orientation is when coaches say things to recruits and their parents like, “You might not be aware of it but that other program you are interested in has ‘lifestyle issues’ you might not be comfortable with.” Or as Jennifer Harris’ parents reported that Rene Portland told them, “You can’t possibly be interested in that program and in Penn State. They date girls. Here we date boys.” The first is a little more subtle, but the message is the same: Lesbian coaches and athletes are a bad influence you want to avoid and you can do that by coming to my program.

Coaches’ use of code words like “family-oriented” to describe their own program can be an even more subtle use of homophobia in recruiting. It isn’t negative recruiting per se since the coach is not talking about another school’s team. However, when this tactic is employed intentionally as a way to signal to recruits and their parents that their daughter would be in a heterosexual and therefore “wholesome” lesbian-free environment it is unethical and discriminatory.

Does Bill Fennelly play up the heterosexual family status of the program’s coaches and the “family-oriented” atmosphere of his team as a way to intentionally send an anti-lesbian message to recruits and their parents? He claims he is just selling what he sees as his program’s strengths as any coach would do. According to Cyclone fans Matt and Robert Iowa State women’s basketball is a gay friendly program.

I hope they are right, but if the message that a coach is sending about his or her team cannot be differentiated from the messages sent by coaches who are intentionally selling their programs as heterosexual havens where young women would be safe from the evil lesbians in women’s basketball, how are we supposed to know that? Moreover, Fennelly’s apparent inability to see how his focus on family might be perceived as a problem reflects an incredible lack of understanding of homophobia in women’s sport and how he, as a heterosexual male coach, benefits from it, intentionally or not.

Part of the problem is that “family” is a term that has been hijacked by the Christian Right. When groups like “Focus on the Family” talk about family, we all know they have a very narrow definition that excludes the majority of familial groups that love and care for each other. If a coach wants to separate him or herself from the exclusionary and discriminatory code that “family-oriented” has become, let’s hear him or her do it. If they don’t and then make the preposterous claim of discrimination on the basis of having a heterosexual family and staff, how are we to trust that coach’s intentions?

Lesbian coaches have families. Single coaches, whether gay or straight, can create a “family-oriented” and “wholesome” team environment. A coach doesn’t need to be heterosexual and married to do that successfully (and lots of heterosexual married coaches can't do it worth a darn). The problem is that using your heterosexual married parental status as a recruiting tool in a culture where gay people and single people of any orientation are at a legal and social disadvantage is unfair. It is called heterosexual privilege. Claiming that being unable to use your heterosexual married status as a recruiting tool puts you at a disadvantage is insensitive at best and flat out homophobic at worst.

Here’s a suggestion: Coaches who want to talk about their teams as family certainly should be able to do that. It is a recruiting plus and a positive aspect of being on a team. Most of us who have sports experience know what it feels like to be part of a team we see as a second family. It’s a good thing. Thanks to the messaging monopoly of the anti-gay Christian Right, however, coaches who do not want to be seen as sending coded messages of heterosexuality and Christian “family values” need to send clear and intentional messages about what they mean by family: A group that embraces differences and uses that diversity as a team strength. A group in which teammates and coaches stand up for each other and treat each other with respect. A group in which everyone can count on receiving the support they need to be their best selves, on and off the basketball court. A group in which team members can bring all of who they are to the game in pursuit of excellence, regardless of their sexual orientation, religion, race, political views, and other ways we differ.

Now that’s a team I’d like to be part of. I’m betting it’s a team most young women, gay or straight, would like to be a part of too. Isn’t that a great positive recruiting message?

Belmont University Adds “Sexual Orientation” to Non-Discrimination Policy, But Do They Mean It?

2011-01-27T14:13:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, the President of Belmont University announced that the Board of Trustees has added “sexual orientation” to its non-discrimination policy. This could be good news for those who want Belmont to institutionalize a more progressive Christian perspective welcoming people of all sexual orientations. However, if the policy was adopted solely in response to pressure from high visibility financial supporters of the university, like Mike Curb, it remains to be seen if the university will back the policy with action to prohibit discrimination against LGBT employees and students.

In his announcement of the policy, President Fisher clings to the fantasy that Belmont has always welcomed LGBT people as part of the community. Somehow he makes this claim even though instances of discrimination against LGBT student groups and employees at Belmont are part of the public record.

In response to reporters’ questions, Fisher would not say whether the new policy meant that openly gay people could work at Belmont. "I would put that in the category of a hypothetical," he said.

This response does not bode well for the sincerity or effectiveness of the new Belmont policy. If a non-discrimination policy does not mean that gay people on campus can be open, what does it mean? That was the problem with soccer coach, Lisa Howe. She was tolerated as long as she did not talk about being a lesbian. As soon as she did come out, she was gone. It remains to be seen whether or not the new policy is anything more than an attempt to keep some big donors happy.

The gay student group has again applied for official school recognition. They have been turned down twice. Will the new policy have any effect on the school’s decision to recognize the group this time? We’ll see.

Negative Recruiting in Women's Basketball

2011-01-26T21:55:00.005-05:00

Here is an excellent story on negative recruiting based on sexual orientation in women's basketball. Geno Auriemma and Bill Fennelly demonstrate a particularly tone deaf understanding of how homophobia affects women coaches and women's basketball. Geno, in his typical over the top way, also suggests that anyone who thinks that the "focus on family" used by coaches in recruiting needs to be toned down should "go shoot themselves in the head." Thanks, Geno, for this wildly inappropriate and violent suggestion given the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords less than two weeks ago. Think before you speak for once. Oh, and Geno is president of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. Isn't that special. It seems to me that the president of the WBCA should have a more in-depth understanding of negative recruiting and a lot more class in discussing it in the media.

Bill Fennelly has the cajones to suggest that he is at a recruiting disadvantage because he and his assistant coaches are all straight, married and have children. Really? Poor Bill. What planet does he coach on? Breathtaking male and heterosexual privilege in action on the part of Geno and Bill.

Geno and Bill notwithstanding, the article is excellent. Thanks to ESPN for an in-depth and thoughtful piece on a persistent and unethical practice among coaches in women's sports.

LZ Granderson on Gay Pro Male Athletes Coming Out and More

2011-01-13T10:48:00.003-05:00

Check out this podcast with ESPN columnists Bill Simmons and LZ Granderson. They talk about gay male pro athletes coming out, out gay actors and lesbians in the WNBA (just a little). It’s a thoughtful conversation about coming out and beyond. LZ teaches Bill what it is. It is worth a listen to hear the wisdom of LZ Granderson on a range of gay sport-related topics. Soooooo glad LZ plays for my team!

About 29 minutes in they broaden the conversation to talk about men’s sports in general, just so you know.

New Gay High School Athlete Blog

2011-01-10T10:03:00.004-05:00

On the heels of the bad news in my previous post, I wanted to make note of some good news on the high school sports front. Three gay high school athletes from three different parts of the country have initiated a blog to share some of their experiences and provide support for other high school athletes.

Thank you, Ben Robert and Brad, for your courage and your openness. I have no doubt that your blog will be a source of inspiration and hope for many other LGBTQ student-athletes and their friends.

Let's here it for the younger generation leading the way to change.

Thanks to Jim and Cyd at Outsports, where I learned about this blog.

When Coaches Bully (Part 2)

2011-01-10T09:50:00.005-05:00

On December 22 I briefly noted a lawsuit in Kilgore, TX in which the mother of a lesbian high school softball player (identified as S.W. in the lawsuit) is suing the Kilgore Independent School District, the athletic director, the head softball coach and the assistant softball coach for violating her daughter’s privacy by revealing her sexual orientation to her. Believe me, that’s just the start of the problems in the Kilgore school district.

Here is what the lawsuit alleges: Somehow the two coaches found out that S.W. was dating another girl. They also believed that the S.W. was telling other students that the head softball coach, Cassie Newell , had dated the same 18 year old girl that S.W. was.

The two coaches called a fake team meeting (Serious judgment error 1). When the team arrived, everyone was dismissed except S.W. who was locked in the locker room with the two coaches (Serious judgment error 2). The two coaches proceeded to bully, interrogate and threaten S.W. (Serious judgment error 3). They accused her of being a lesbian (as if it is any of their business and as if there is something wrong with that). They confronted her about gossiping about her girlfriend being involved with the Newell, the head coach, which S.W. denied. They threatened to sue her for slander. They called S.W.’s mother and told her to come to the softball field (serious judgment error 4) where the two coaches and S.W. met her and the coaches told the mother that S.W. is a lesbian (major serious judgment error 5). S.W. was subsequently kicked off the softball team (Serious judgment error 6 and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation).

Her mother contacted the school principal and athletic director and went through the school grievance process but the coaches’ actions were backed up by the school administrators at every step (Unexplainable decision to support serious judgment errors 1-6 and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation). So, now the Kilgore school district, the coaches and the athletic director are facing a lawsuit.

Among the serious questions this situation raises is how administrators can possibly come to the position that it is acceptable school policy to violate a student’s privacy by outing her to her mother when there is no rationale for this decision other than to create possible problems for the student? Likewise, how can they decide to support educators (and I use the term loosely in this case) who engage in intimidating and threatening behavior that rivals any student-initiated psychological bullying I know of. It was probably worse since it was coming from adults that S.W. probably respected and trusted. As I have said before, what is it that leads some high school and college coaches to believe that they are somehow exempt from standards of conduct with students that we expect of other educators? This is another example of coaches abusing power and seriously damaging a student’s well-being, not to mention her opportunity to enjoy sports.

This kind of treatment cannot be justified under any circumstances that I can think of. It is reprehensible and the injury is compounded by the school district’s support of the coaches’ behavior. If I had a child in the Kilgore School District, I would be seriously worried about the safety of my child if adults in that school are entitled to treat students like this. I don’t know or care if coach Newell is gay. Her actions in this situation, if accurately described in the lawsuit, make her unfit to work with young people, in my opinion. That Kilgore Independent School District supports her is equally indefensible.

Some schools and coaches have to learn about respect and fairness the hard way. Being enmeshed in an ugly lawsuit is a tough way to learn, but thankfully, legal advocacy groups are available in Texas to make sure that they do.

Athletes as Allies in Fighting Homophobia in Sport

2011-01-05T12:44:00.001-05:00

Hudson Taylor was a wrestler at the University of Maryland, now an assistant wrestling coach at Columbia University. He received lots of attention last year when he competed with the Human Rights Campaign Equal logo on his headgear. Hudson is also a straight man who is committed to making sports a respectful and welcoming place for LGBTQ athletes and coaches. He works with me as an advisory group member of the GLSEN Sports Project (to be officially launched this winter). I met Hudson in December at the first advisory group meeting where I learned first hand about Hudson’s commitment to eliminating discrimination against LGBTQ people in and out of sport. Plus we are both Maryland alums. Go Terps!

Hudson has initiated AthleteAlly, a web site and YouTube channel that invites people to make a pledge to help eliminate homophobia in sport. I encourage you to go to the web site and make a pledge. Hudson’s web site is a great way for anyone affiliated with athletics (coaches, athletes, parents, fans and others) to make a public commitment to make their schools and teams welcoming places for all. Check it out.

Reggie Bush Rejects "No Homo"

2011-01-04T11:38:00.001-05:00

New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush has joined a small, but growing number of male professional athletes who are speaking out about gay issues. In Reggie’s case, he tweeted a question to his followers: "If someone says 'no homo,' is that offensive towards gay people?" Then followed up later by tweeting: "I think if the 'no homo' comment offends anybody then it's most likely better left unsaid along with other degrading words ... thanks guys!"

If you have no idea what “no homo” is all about, you can read my November 9, 2009 blog to catch up.

The point is that Reggie asked a thoughtful question, got some replies and made a decision to come down on the side of respect. It might seem to some folks like a small step to take: making a public declaration about choosing not to use language that LGBTQ people and our friends find offensive. However, imagine how it would change a locker room, a school, a workplace if everyone in it made the same decision. I don’t want to appear overdramatic, but it literally can save lives.

When a high profile athlete, like Reggie Bush, chooses to take a public stand, it matters because, whether they or we like or not, thousands of young people look up to them, copy them, want to be like them. One Reggie Bush standing up publicly equals about 100 people like me standing up and saying the same thing. Look at the press this one little tweet sparked.

We are facing an epidemic of suicides by young people in schools who were bullied by peers using anti-gay slurs and more. High visibility athletes, both men and women, send important messages whether by their silence, their casual use of anti-gay slurs or by their intentional decision to speak out for LGBTQ rights and against anti-gay name-calling and bullying.

I am a Patriots fan, but because of Reggie, I think I’ll also be rooting for the Saints this post season. Tom Brady, where are you on this issue?

Smear the Queer: When Tradition Needs to be Changed

2010-12-27T12:24:00.001-05:00

Why are some elementary school administrators in Utah upset about a backyard sign facing the school playground that reads, “Stop Gay Suicide. Tell the Truth. Gays are Born Gay?" They believe the sign is “adult content” for one thing. They associate the word “gay” with sex (but not the words “Mommy” and “Daddy”). Some parents and school officials believe that bringing up anti-gay name-calling and bullying is just part of the “Homosexual Agenda” to turn all kids gay. Others believe that the word “suicide” is inappropriate for elementary school students to know about. Never mind that children, some in elementary school, do commit suicide because they are targeted by anti-gay bullying.

Some folks in this Utah community are also upset that Mr. Ridley, the guy with the backyard signs, also wants the school to stop allowing children on the playground to play Smear the Queer. In other words, it’s ok to for children to play Smear the Queer, but not ok for them to see the words “gay” and “suicide” while they play Smear the Queer. Apparently school officials are not even concerning themselves with his complaint about Smear the Queer.

Remember Smear the Queer from your childhood? I remember playing it in my backyard with all the neighborhood guys only we called it Maul the Man with Ball. I don’t know why we were so enlightened, but it was the same game. In case you missed it, the gist of the game is that one child has the ball, often a football, and everyone else chases him down (it’s most often played by boys) and everyone piles on top of the queer. He can toss the ball to someone else and the mob turns on that queer and so on. There are variations. One used in some physical education classes is that, instead of chasing and piling on the queer, everyone else has balls which they throw at the queer with the football, kind of like stoning.

What do you suppose is the disconnect between being upset about school children seeing the words “gay” and “suicide,” but not having a problem with them playing Smear the Queer during PE class or recess? Some people believe that children do not understand the negative association between “queer” and gay people. Other people believe that, because Smear the Queer has a long tradition as a harmless childhood game, it is political correctness run amok to banish it from schools.

Because a children’s playground game has a long tradition, does that make it harmless? Do young children understand the meaning of “queer” when it is used as a putdown for gay and lesbian people? Even if school officials decide that the game is not associated with anti-gay sentiment, what about the educational value of the game? It makes you wonder why some PE teachers can’t think of better, more educational games to play. It also makes you wonder who is supervising the playground during recess when Smear the Queer is being played.

I admit that when I was in elementary school (and junior high too) I loved violent dodgeball and chase games like Maul the Man with the Ball or something our PE teacher called Artillery Ball or Bombardment where the objective was to hit as many of your classmates on the other team with a volleyball as you could before they ran to the safety of the “home base” on the opposite gym wall. The game was wild, chaotic and fast. If you were a good dodger, thrower and physically aggressive, the game was fun. If you weren’t, not so much and too bad for you. Your only hope was to either intentionally get hit early and therefore eliminated from the game or to hide behind the bleachers until class was over. Kids in my class did both. I’m betting they still hate PE class and, listen up Phys Ed teachers, are not inclined to support daily physical education for their children.

So, to my way of thinking, there are two strikes against Smear the Queer. One, it is not a game that is educationally justified either in a PE class or on the school playground. Two, the symbolism and underlying text of the name, Smear the Queer, is chilling in the context of anti-gay bullying in schools and suicide among young people because of anti-gay bullying. Elementary school children today DO know what “queer” means. They hear anti-gay epithets every day and, when teachers or coaches let it go or allow games called Smear the Queer, children learn that it’s ok. Go ahead, Smear the Queer.

Another thing, can you imagine school administrators allowing children to play games with equally offensive names like, “Get the Het” or “Trigger the N-----“ or “Bop the Wop” or “Stew the Jew”? Why is Smear the Queer ok? I say it’s time for the third strike against Smear the Queer. Let’s get it out of the schools altogether along with anti-gay bullying and name-calling.

Lesbian High School Softball Player Files Discrimination Lawsuit

2010-12-22T11:09:00.003-05:00

Here is one of the many reasons why we need to do a lot more educating of high school administrators, athletic directors and coaches about coach abuse of power and discrimination against student-athletes because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

Lesbian Coaches, Christian Schools: It’s Gut Check Time at Belmont

2010-12-21T14:38:00.000-05:00

The controversy over the departure of women’s soccer coach, Lisa Howe, from her position at Belmont University raises lots of interesting questions about the collision of religious freedom, LGBT rights and cultural change and Belmont is right in the middle of it all. Belmont is a private Christian school that has experienced tremendous growth and received increased national recognition in the last few years. After severing its ties with the Southern Baptists, Belmont has portrayed itself as a progressive Christian school that welcomes a diverse student body and faculty. They have been particularly noted for their music program’s connections with the music industry based in Nashville.

However, it seems like there is a disconnect between what Belmont students, faculty and many Nashville community leaders believe Belmont stands for and what the Belmont Board of Trustees and Administration stand for. Lisa Howe’s departure by “mutual agreement” (Resign or we will fire you, seems to be the basis for the mutual agreement), brought this disconnect out in full public view.

Belmont, as a private school, has the right to set its standards for employment. If they want to discriminate against LGBT employees based on the religious beliefs the school stands for, they have that right. The LGBT rights movement does not need to force private religious institutions into accepting us to achieve equality. I would argue that advocates for LGBT equality should respect Belmont’s right as a private Christian school to discriminate based on the tenets of their faith. However, they can’t have it both ways.

If Belmont chooses to discriminate against LGBT people, man up about it. Have the courage of your convictions. Don’t employ LGBT people and celebrate their excellence (as they did with Lisa Howe) only under the condition that they lie about and hide their sexual orientation. By making it impossible for Lisa Howe to continue in her position (resign or we will fire you) for the sole reason that she had the audacity to be honest about how she is, a Christian lesbian, you have put yourself in a real quandary, Belmont.

Belmont leaders appear to want their cake and to eat it too. They want all the acclaim, recognition and financial support they have received recently for advertising themselves as a progressive Christian school. They also want to remain true to the not so progressive religious belief that LGBT people are an abomination, sinners who are unfit for employment at Belmont. As one person, interviewed on Outside the Lines this weekend, described Belmont’s position, “They have one foot on the dock and the other foot on the boat and the boat is leaving the dock.” Belmont leaders are on their way to a full immersion baptism into the consequences of hypocrisy.

President Fisher tried to continue the charade of claiming that Belmont welcomes LGBT people in his press conference the day after Mike Curb, one of Belmont’s biggest financial supporters, threatened to withdraw his support unless Belmont changed its discriminatory policy. As they say somewhere in the south, Mr. President: “That dog don’t hunt.” Actions speak louder than words.

Belmont leaders now have a choice they have to make. The unofficial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy will not work anymore. It won’t even work in the military anymore, Belmont. They will no longer be able to use claims of “mutual agreement” to mask anti-gay discrimination. The cat is out of the bag: Belmont wants to be seen as a progressive Christian school, but they may not actually want to be one. Belmont can choose to stick with the “no LGBT people” position and take the consequences of that position: Loss of community support, loss of big donors, loss of reputation as a progressive school, loss of faculty and students. Or they can do some deep soul searching and consider change. They could choose to enact a new non-discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation and gender identity. Whatever they do, it is their right as a private religious school.

True, if they maintain an anti-gay position, they will gain the respect of anti-gay hardliners on the Christian right, but larger cultural changes are working against Belmont on this. More people in national surveys every year support non-discrimination laws that include sexual orientation and gender identity. Over 50% of people surveyed now support same–sex marriage. More people have close friends, colleagues and family members who they know are LGBT. Almost everyone believes that anti-gay bullying in schools is unacceptable and that LGBT students deserve protection. These changes are taking place among Christians as well as non-Christians. The young generation of Christians, many of whom have been protesting the loss of a lesbian coach at Belmont, may not fully embrace homosexuality, but they clearly don’t condone discrimination against LGBT people as an expression of their Christian values. They get the complexities here. Lisa Howe is a Christian AND a lesbian. The younger generation gets this. Her team gets it.

So, Belmont leaders, what will you do? What would Jesus do? As Christians throughout the world prepare to celebrate his birthday this week, maybe it’s a good time to reflect on that.

Lesbian Coach Discrimination at the U of Minnesota?

2010-12-13T17:46:00.003-05:00

Belmont University is not the only school in the news for alleged discrimination against a lesbian coach. You don’t have to be a Christian university to be charged with discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The University of Minnesota is being sued by Katie Brenny for the same reason. She was hired as an associate golf coach and expected to coach the women’s team, but instead was assigned to clerical and conditioning duties instead. She was only allowed to work with the first year players and forbidden from talking with the upper class players and did not travel with the team to out of state matches.

Meanwhile, the son of the director of the golf program, coached the women’s team. He was hired as an “independent contractor” not subject to the university hiring requirements. How is this possible? To add insult to injury, his salary was higher than Brenny’s. A little nepotism in action, perhaps. Purportedly the reason for this switcheroo is that Brenny is a lesbian.

Read this story for the many hinky twists to this situation. Brenny has a lawyer and has filed a lawsuit against the university. At the very least, it seems that the athletic administration and the director of the golf program at U of M don’t feel constrained by either university non-discrimination policy or state non-discrimination laws.

The Push Back at Belmont University Continues

2010-12-09T12:17:00.002-05:00

The uproar at Belmont University in Nashville, TN continues a week after women’s soccer coach, Lisa Howe, was dismissed because she is a lesbian. The university denies that she was dismissed and the university president in a statement from outer space last night claims that lesbian and gay students, staff and faculty are welcome at Belmont. He states that, "In the 10 years I have served as Belmont's president, sexual orientation has not been considered in making hiring, promotion, salary or dismissal decisions. I need for you to hear that clearly."

Really? Is that why an LGBT student group was denied official recognition. Is that why another lesbian professor has come forward to describe how the tenure track position she was offered at Belmont turned into a one year contract when administrators learned that she was a lesbian? She turned it down. Lisa Howe, a lesbian coach, is without a job today. If this isn’t because of her sexual orientation, then why? By all accounts she is a great coach, well liked, and judging all of her press statements about this controversy, a dignified and classy person.
Is the university president unveiling a new non-discrimination policy for Belmont? That would be great.

In the meantime, the uproar in Nashville just won’t die down. The women’s soccer team is keeping the pressure on, students are staging protests and sit-ins, faculty members are speaking out, city counselors in Nashville are objecting. It seems like the entire city is up in arms about the dismissal of a lesbian coach at a private Christian school. A major Belmont donor, board member emeritus and big player in the Nashville music scene has publicly attacked the university’s position. This is Nashville. A city in the south. The Bible Belt. Imagine. Let us all learn from these outraged southerners and Christians.

Meanwhile Lisa Howe’s dismissal has received national attention from major newspapers, bloggers and even Sports Illustrated, not known for their focus on social justice issues, has weighed in against Belmont’s actions.

It seems like Belmont students and faculty thought they were affiliated with a “progressive” Christian school that welcomed diversity including sexual orientation diversity, but university administrators and university board members are intent on enforcing that old time religion that says no gay allowed. Maybe that is changing if we are to believe the university president’s press statement. Or not. We’ll see.

The exciting thing is that the actions of the students and faculty at Belmont indicate that younger generations of Christians have different ideas about what it means to be a Christian than their elders do. They look at Lisa Howe and see a dedicated, popular and successful coach. Though she had never told them, they knew she was a lesbian and that was fine by them. The university administration looks at Lisa Howe and sees a sinner who must be purged from the campus. The hypocrisy here, of course, is that the administration was fine with Coach Howe until she told the team her partner is pregnant thereby outing herself. Then she became unsuitable for employment at a Christian school.

I can’t wait to see what happens with this story tomorrow. Today I bet Belmont administrators wish they had just congratulated Lisa on her coming motherhood and stuck their heads back in the sand.

LZ on Gender and Sport

2010-12-06T20:31:00.004-05:00

Here is another quickie post courtesy of ESPN columnist, LZ Granderson. It's a thoughtful piece on gender and sport that ties this issue to racism in sport and our collective discomfort with social change, racial diversity and gender variance. Quote alert - LZ talked to me about this column and quotes me in it.

Lisa Howe Responds to Media Attention

2010-12-06T19:55:00.004-05:00

Lisa Howe, through her attorney, has released a statement reacting to the media attention and support from the Belmont community she has received since her dismissal as the university's women's soccer coach. I hope the Christian leadership at Belmont reads this. Lisa Howe, a lesbian, can teach them something about true Christian values.

LISA HOWE STATEMENT ON MEDIA ATTENTION

Lisa Howe, the former soccer coach at Belmont University, will not comment on any topic related to the University other than to respectfully disagree with the suggestion in the Sunday Tennessean article made by the chair of the Belmont Board of Trustees that being gay or lesbian is somehow “immoral” or compromises Christian values at Belmont . However, Howe is willing to share her personal perspective of the reactions that have unfolded.

“I cannot adequately express my thanks to the many, many students, faculty members, parents and friends who have shown and expressed their support of me and my family, or to the people and organizations I didn’t even know before this series of events who likewise are getting in touch and offering encouragement,” she says. “I am deeply touched and will be forever grateful to them.”

Howe admits it isn’t easy being the center of media attention. “No one wants their private family life made public or likes to think that people are talking about them,” she relates, “but I feel like I need to explain just a little about myself, for I have always held my head high and will continue to do so. I believe I am a good, moral person, who cares for others. Those and other basic Christian tenets are important to me, to how I live my life, including as a coach, and to what I want to teach my child as he or she grows up. I have never intentionally detracted from the goodness or holiness inherent in any person or institution, and I do my best not to judge people based on personal characteristics such as race, gender, religion, ability, or sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Howe explains that the past few days have been distractions in her otherwise happy, fulfilled life. “I am a dedicated, respected, and successful soccer coach. I was a good student athlete recruiter, had an organized and professionally run program, and was one of Belmont’s best employees. None of that changed when I acknowledged that I am a lesbian and that my partner and I are expecting a baby. I am proud of who I am and my family and our future, and I want every person - no matter what race, religion, nationality or sexuality they represent - to feel the same way. Yes, I would have preferred not to be in the headlines, but if my situation leads to one person beginning to feel acceptance now, or one more person becoming more understanding of diversity, and if people can begin to talk openly and honestly about topics they never broached before, then this unfortunate situation will have served a positive purpose. While the past several days have been difficult, I can compare this period to something familiar to student athletes - the summer workout. While that is exhausting and painful, it prepares us to be able to accomplish something great in the future.

“As a collegiate soccer coach for the last 17 years, my goals have always been to make my players better and to give them the tools they need to reach their potential. I believe that I am continuing to do that, although more indirectly now. This is an educational experience for all of us–including Belmont University.”

In conclusion Howe adds, “I respectfully ask members of the media to turn their attention away from me and toward the broader issues at stake that affect so many people in the Belmont community–such as what it means to be a diverse Christian community and how we can support and respect each other despite our differences. I refer you to my attorney, Abby Rubenfeld, from here in Nashville who is a pioneer in this field, and to the organizations who share my belief that understanding is a Christian value and a most worthwhile and needed goal.”

Howe About Equality – Belmont University Students, Faculty and Alums Protest Lesbian Coach’s “Resignation”

2010-12-06T09:56:00.001-05:00

Students at Belmont University are protesting the so-called “resignation” of women’s soccer coach, Lisa Howe, who is a lesbian (See my previous blog post for more information).

Affirming my faith in a younger generation of Christians, students, faculty and community members who staged a protest yesterday at Belmont and another is planned for Wednesday. In addition, a letter writing campaign is underway led by the unofficial LGBT group on campus (they were denied official recognition by the administration) and new Facebook groups in support of Coach Howe are popping up, one is called “Howe about Equality.” The faculty at Belmont is preparing a resolution protesting Howe’s dismissal to be presented to the college president.

If you want to support these protests, check my previous blog post for contact information for the Belmont President and Athletic Director.

Belmont University’s Christian Hypocrisy: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Get Pregnant

2010-12-05T13:25:00.000-05:00

Women’s soccer coach, Lisa Howe, either resigned on her own or was pressured to resign depending on who you believe in this sordid story. She was a lesbian coach at a self-described “progressive Christian” school. Last year her team won the Atlantic Sun conference title and her overall win/loss record for her six seasons at Belmont was 52-48-16.

Apparently Belmont University is ok with lesbian coaches as long as they abide by a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. However, when Lisa’s partner got pregnant and rumors started circulating on the soccer team, Lisa decided she wanted to tell them directly about the happy coming event in her life. She wanted to be honest, in other words. She asked the athletic administrator more than once for “permission” to tell the team that her partner was pregnant, but he never responded to her. So, when it became apparent that women on the team were beginning to find out, Lisa told them without the “permission” of the athletic director.

According to accounts by players on her team, Lisa was pressured to resign because as soon as the baby was born, the AD told the team she would be fired anyway since beng a lesbian mother violated the school’s hypocritical policy asking lesbian and gay staff members to lie and hide in order to keep their jobs.

Belmont is a private Christian school and there are no laws in Tennessee protecting the employment rights of LGBT people so it might be that there is no legal recourse for what Belmont has done. Plus the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), the federal law that could provide this kind of legal protection for LGBT people in every state, is stalled in the political wars in the U.S. Congress.

What Belmont is doing might be legal, but it sure is not moral. From all accounts, Lisa Howe has been an exemplary coach. She even abided by the don’t ask, don’t tell policy imposed on LGBT employees at Belmont, at least until becoming a mother prompted her to tell her team out a desire to be honest and open. She even asked permission first, but faced with administrative silence, she did want she thought was best for her relationship with her team.

Among the many disgusting aspects of this story is the complete hypocrisy of Belmont University and its administrators. I have no doubt that Belmont administrators knew Lisa Howe is a lesbian. It was apparently fine to have a lesbian coach as long as she lied about and hid her sexual orientation. They obviously weren’t concerned about Lisa’s character or moral fiber. They were comfortable with her in a leadership position with the young women on her team for six years…as long as she was dishonest. How Christian of Belmont University. It’s enough to make me wonder if “Thou Shalt Be A Hypocrite” is a new the 11th commandment or something?
This would be a great time for Christians who believe that this kind of hypocrisy is wrong to stand up publicly and reclaim some of the moral high ground that the folks at Belmont University apparently are not familiar with.

In the meantime, the women’s soccer team just wants their coach back. They don’t understand what the big deal is here. They knew she was a lesbian and apparently were finding out she was about to become a mother too and it doesn’t seem to have been a problem for them. Maybe this is the silver lining, if there is one in this story: Younger generations of Christians are beginning to broaden their acceptance of different sexual orientations and gender identities or at least learning to live more authentically with the “diversity” that is only a buzzword for the leaders of Belmont University.

Save us from this brand of Christianity.

You can contact President Fisher at bob.fisher@belmont.edu and 615-460-6793. The Athletic Director, Mike Strickland can be reached at mike.strickland@belmont.edu or 615-460-5547 if you feel compelled to express your thoughts on their hypocrisy.

Here and here are two follow up articles about this.

An Open Letter to the LPGA

2010-12-01T10:38:00.002-05:00

Dear LPGA:

Thank you for voting last night to change your by-laws by deleting the requirement that members must be “female at birth.” I know this change was prompted by a lawsuit, but nonetheless, I applaud your decision to join other sports organizations that have eliminated policies that bar transgender athletes from participating in their self-identified gender. I know you have not made any decision yet about what specific policy will be put into place and I would like to encourage you to give this some careful thought. Many other professional sport organizations have adopted the International Olympic Committee policy known as the Stockholm Consensus. These organizations include the United States Golf Association, USA Track & Field, USA Rugby, the Australian Women’s Golf Association, the Ladies European Tour and the British Ladies Golf Union to name some.

The Stockholm Consensus, enacted in 2004, is a pioneering attempt to set criteria under which transgender athletes may participate in their identified gender. However, it is also, in the opinion of some transgender advocates, medical doctors who specialize in transgender issues as well as other LGBT advocates like me, a flawed policy. I hope you will seek some guidance from some of these experts as you determine how to craft your policy instead of adopting a well-meaning but flawed policy that needs to be revised.

The IOC policy requires that “surgical anatomical changes have been completed, including external genitalia changes.” This surgery has nothing to do with athletic performance. Moreover, many transgender people choose not to have surgery at all or only some surgery. Genital surgery for M2F and F2M is markedly different in that the F2M surgery is not nearly as advanced or satisfactory. Not to mention that surgery of this kind is expensive and not many athletes will be able to afford it.

The IOC policy requires that “legal recognition of their assigned sex has been conferred by the appropriate official authorities.” In the United States, the process for obtaining “legal recognition” is different in each state. Imagine what this would look like world-wide. Gaining legal recognition is impossible in some countries and extremely difficult in some states in the USA.

The IOC policy requires that “hormonal therapy appropriate for the assigned sex has been administered in a verifiable manner and for sufficient length of time to minimize gender-related advantages in sport competitions.” This wait time is defined as “eligibility should begin no sooner than two years after gonadectomy.” Again the surgery requirement. Plus, the focus on M2F transitions.

In addition, the medical experts that we consulted in writing our report, "On The Team: Equal Opportunities for Transgender Student-Athletes” recommend a one year wait period saying that research shows that this is sufficient time for a trans athlete’s hormone levels to be in the range for their transitioned gender. I have even been part of a meeting where one of the people who developed the IOC policy acknowledged that the two year waiting period requirement was a conservative“best guess” not based on any research.

So, this is my plea for you to be thoughtful in determining what policy will replace your “female at birth” requirement. Please do not just adopt the IOC policy. It would be the easy thing to do, but not necessarily the right thing to do.

Dear LPGA, I have one more plea: Please provide your leadership and your membership with some good education about transgender identity and the issues related to transgender athletes. Also, provide some guidelines and information for the golf media. We do not want to see LPGA players making ignorant comments in the press about the unfairness of having to compete against “men pretending to be women” or referring to transgender women as “he.” Understanding transgender identity is new for many of us, but we can all learn if we have the opportunity to get some accurate information and informed guidance.

In closing, I want to say again, good for you for changing your by-laws. Now, take the next step: Institute a policy that is based on the latest research and medical information, not one that is already out of date and inherently discriminatory. Most of all, be your best selves. Welcome your new transgender members into your sisterhood and may the best golfer win.

Thanks for Listening,

Pat

Changing the Game: The GLSEN Sports Project

2010-11-30T10:48:00.000-05:00

When my position as director of It Takes a Team with the Women’s Sports Foundation was eliminated last February, I knew I still had a lot of energy and passion for working on LGBT issues in sport. It was just a matter of finding the best venue for continuing the work. Well, I found it.

Since the middle of September I’ve been working with the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) to create and lead a sports project which we are calling “Changing the Game.” I’ve always had enormous respect for GLSEN and the work they do as an education and advocacy organization committed to making K-12 schools safe and respectful places for students of all sexual orientations and gender identity/expressions. Now I am honored to be working with them to develop a sports project that focuses on K-12 athletics and physical education.

So far, we have identified a terrific national advisory group for the project and we are having our first meeting this Friday. We plan to have a Sports project web page on the GLSEN site that we will unveil in January. So, I am happy as a clam doing what I love to do – developing resources for schools, athletic administrators, coaches, parents and students – and working with the fabulous GLSEN staff to implement our plans. I’ll be doing some speaking to various sports, education and advocacy organizations as well. I’ve got some fun ideas for new resources and, thanks to the generosity of the Women’s Sports Foundation, I will be taking some of the resources I developed for ITAT and adapting them for K-12 settings.

I’m happy to be back in the game…and working to change it.

LPGA Set to Allow Transgender Women to Play

2010-11-23T13:30:00.001-05:00

On October 13, I posted a story about Lana Lawson who is a transgender woman suing the LPGA for the right to play in LPGA sponsored events. Currently LPGA competitions are restricted to golfers who are “female at birth” effectively excluding transgender women. The LPGA added this to their by-laws in the 1970s following transgender tennis player Renee Richards’ successful legal challenge of similar discriminatory policies on the women’s professional tennis tour.

According to an article written by Randall Mell of the Golf Channel, the LPGA is preparing to change their policy to enable transgender women to become members. In a players’ meeting on November 30, LPGA players will be encouraged to vote for a constitutional amendment eliminating the “female at birth” requirement. The change requires a two-thirds majority, but players have been advised by legal counsel that the “female at birth” provision will not stand legal scrutiny. The vote is in direct response to Lana Lawson’s lawsuit.

The LPGA has been out of step with several other golf organizations that have amended their policies to include transgender golfers who meet the requirements identified by the International Olympic Committee in 2004. The U.S. Golf Association, the Ladies European Tour and the British Ladies Golf Union all have allowed transgender golfers to play for 4 or 5 years.

I hope that the LPGA membership will have an opportunity to get some information about the participation of transgender golfers before and after they vote. If they believe they are being forced into a change in policy that they do not want, I fear we will be hearing similar ignorant comments from them that we heard from Caster Semenya’s competition after her eligibility was reinstated.

If the LPGA membership believes that this policy change threatens the “level playing field” by enabling a “man” to compete against them, it will result in prejudice and resentment for everyone. It is really important that the LPGA provides its membership with some good information about transgender identity and the latest information about the effects of gender transitions on physiology to help them make their own transition from an organization that discriminates based on preconceived prejudice to one that will accept transgender women competitors with grace and respect.

We’ll see what happens with the November 30 vote and how the LPGA moves forward into a new era.

The Godliness of Pink and Blue

2010-11-15T10:07:00.004-05:00

Randi Foster is a 12 year old middle school student in Mississippi. After a meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Students in the school, several of her Christian classmates attacked her. They verbally abused her, kicked her, hit her and threw her into a table in the cafeteria. What, you may ask, provoked this attack? Apparently, these good Christian children think Randi is a man’s name and that enjoying sports, as Randi does, is something that only men do. You can read this story here.

Based on these incredibly narrow gender beliefs, the children felt entitled to teach Randi a lesson by verbally and physically attacking her. They must have been absent from Sunday school for the discussion about assault, bullying and harassment being not so consistent with Christian values. They were there for the discussion about the Godliness of pink and blue, I guess.

The entire assault was caught on school surveillance videos and the school principal has vowed to deal with the good Christian thugs who attacked Randi. Unfortunately, it seems no one from school has made an effort to help Randi get over her fear of returning to school. You have to also wonder where the advisor for the Fellowship of Christian Students is. Shouldn’t this adult be speaking out against violence and bullying? Did the advisor somehow give the children the impression that assault and battery is just desserts for girls named Randi or boys named Sue? Are they going to discuss this at the next meeting? Don't any of the Christian girls play sports at this school?

Children don’t just spontaneously hate gender non-conformity. They don’t just spontaneously feel entitled to beat up a classmate just because they think her name is a boy’s name and because she likes sports. They learned this from adults. It makes you wonder about the adults in this school and in the Church these children attend.

Coming on the heels of so many highly publicized suicides of school-aged young gay men who endured similar abuse and bullying from classmates, this incident is one more reminder that Christian groups who fight tooth and nail to prevent anti-bullying education in schools because they think it “legitimizes” the “gay agenda” need to take a good long look in the mirror and ask themselves, “What would Jesus do?” I don’t think he would be happy with what his followers did at this middle school in Mississippi.

A Challenge to Heterosexual Women Coaches and Athletes: Speak Up and Out

2010-11-09T11:46:00.000-05:00

On October 26 I wrote about a feature in the Portland Monthly on Portland State head women’s basketball coach, Sherri Murrell. Sherri is the only publicly out lesbian Division 1 basketball coach. As hard to belief as that is, it is true. Happily, Sherri’s experience at PSU with administration, colleagues, athletes and their parents has been totally positive.

In a couple of email exchanges, Sherri told me that you can ditto that for the reactions to the Portland Monthly article: Totally positive. She has been receiving lots of emails and phone calls from coaching colleagues around the country about the feature and, yep, totally positive.

At least one closeted lesbian coach told Sherri she was inspired by the PM feature to come out to her parents and to her athletic director. This is part of what Sherri had hoped for: that other coaches who have been living a double life, keeping secrets, even lying about themselves might be inspired to follow Sherri’s example and be more open too. Totally positive.

Sherri’s openness and her willingness to use her visibility to challenge homophobia in women’s basketball ARE inspiring and it makes a difference. The support she receives at PSU and the success her team is having challenge long held assumptions that lesbian coaches cannot be open without suffering serious professional consequences. It is true that not every out lesbian coach would receive the kind of support Sherri has and it is important to respect the more cautious decisions these coaches make about how much to share about their personal lives. However, I think there are lots of coaches who want to and can be more open and I hope Sherri’s experience helps them to take that step.

I know it must be terrific for Sherri to get such a positive response from so many of her coaching colleagues and good for them for taking the time to let Sherri know how they feel. However, I have a message for these coaches: Your private support for Sherri is great. Thank you. And your show of support would be much more effective if you would speak out publicly.

One of the problems that we face in women’s sports is that if heterosexual coaches who believe homophobia and discrimination against lesbian coaches and athletes are wrong remain silent in public, it leaves too many other coaches, athletes and parents with the impression that homophobia and discrimination against lesbians in sport is fine and dandy. We need more coaches who privately express their support for lesbian coaches and athletes to speak up in publicly and do it more often.

I’ve been noticing lately how many heterosexual men in sport – coaches, athletes, pro team GMs have been speaking out to support LGBT athletes, school anti-gay bullying programs and broader LGBT issues like marriage rights. NFL players Brendan Ayanbadejo, Scott Fujita, Antonio Cromartie, Drew Brees; NBA players, Manu Ginobli and Steve Nash; MLS player, Mike Chabala; Ohio State Football coach, Jim Tressell, NCAA Wrestling Champ, Hudson Taylor; Toronto Maple Leafs GM, Brian Burke; former NLF commissioner, Paul Tagliabue; and others I have missed have all spoken out publicly.

When I try to name one heterosexual coach of a woman’s team or college or professional athlete who has spoken out in similar ways, I am stumped. The silence is deafening. What does this mean? Is it part of the broader media attention given to men’s sport? Is it that women in sport are more concerned about being perceived as gay or jeopardizing their sport by association with lesbians or being lesbian-positive? Are women in sport more apolitical than men in sport (except for fighting breast cancer, of course)? All I know is that I’d like to see a lot more heterosexual women’s coaches and athletes speaking up publicly against anti-gay bullying in and out of sport and in support of lesbian coaches and athletes right to fair and respectful treatment in sport.

Private support is great. Public support is much more powerful. Some heterosexual men in sport are beginning to get this message. Where are the heterosexual women? I’d love someone to challenge me on this perception. Where are the heterosexual women in sport speaking out about anti-gay bullying and discrimination?

Including Transgender Athletes on School Teams: A Story We Will Hear More Often

2010-11-01T14:11:00.000-05:00

Outsports.com has just posted a story about a player on the George Washington University women’s basketball team who identifies as a man. The story is Kye Allums’ public coming out as a transgender man. The team and coach have known of and accepted Kye’s transition for awhile. It’s a great story of a school, coach and team making room for a transgender athlete and trying to do it in a way that is respectful to everyone involved.

LGBT Student Athletes Taking On Homophobia in College Athletics

2010-10-31T11:01:00.002-05:00

I am really excited by several recent news reports about LGBT and ally student athlete led groups on college campuses. Groups at Eastern Michigan, Yale and UPenn have all been featured in recent stories. Other schools that have organized similar groups include Vassar, Purdue and the University of Michigan. There could be more. Those are the ones I know about.

In addition to providing support and visibility for LGBT athletes on campus, these groups are doing trainings for athletes and helping to organizing training for coaches and athletic administrators on their campuses. These campus-based groups join Our Group, a national group of LGBTA student athletes who have similar goals.
I cannot stress enough how important these groups are in making college athletics programs more welcoming and respectful for LGBT athletes. I developed a resource for student athletes who wanted to start a group like this on their campuses which is available here.

If you are a student athlete at a school without one of these groups, I encourage you to contact some of the schools who have organized one and also contact Our Group to see how you can start a group at your school. I think I see a trend here and I really like it.

Sherri Murrell: A Game Changer, Indeed!

2010-10-26T09:38:00.000-05:00

Here is a wonderful profile of Sherri Murrell, the women’s basketball coach at Portland State University. Sherri is not only a winning coach whose team made into the NCAA tournament last year, she is also the only publicly out lesbian NCAA Division 1 women’s basketball coach.

Read the article. Learn about what it takes to be a game changer. The great thing about Sherri’s experience is that her sexual orientation is pretty much a non-issue at PSU. What makes it a big deal is that she is out and it isn’t a big deal. Does that make sense? That’s the way it should be. Sherri is a good coach and that is what her team, their parents and the PSU administration care about. Come to think of it, they are game changers too.

It is so fun to write about some good news and this story is definitely good news.

Love and Basketball: Not Always a Happy Ending

2010-10-24T15:09:00.000-05:00

On September 15, a couple sat in their car outside a Popeye’s restaurant in Milwaukee. They may have been arguing over one partner having received a phone call that made the other partner angry and probably jealous. Family members said the couple, who had been together for 14 years, had been having troubles. One of the two had a gun in the car. During the argument, the gun was pulled, pointed and fired. The jealous partner shot and killed her lover.

Sadly, this is not a rare story. Violence between lovers, married couples and dating partners is far too commonplace and always tragic. In this particular case, however, the unexpected twist is that the partners were women. Both were former basketball players who starred on their college teams. One, Rosalind Ross, played in an NCAA Championship title game for the University of Oklahoma and was drafted by the WNBA. Her long-time companion, Malika Willoughby, has been charged with first degree murder. Both women are African American. Rosalind was 30. Malika is 27. They have known each other since they were teenagers. Rosalind and Malika’s families knew about their relationship and the families were friends. Everyone is devastated by what apparently happened in the car that night.

In many ways violence in lesbian and gay relationships is no different than violence in heterosexual relationships. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with how well we deal with relationship conflict, infidelity, or just growing apart. Our ability to cope with the anger, jealousy, anguish and depression that often go with a break up has nothing to do with whether we are gay or straight. Though we hear more about violence in heterosexual relationships, relationship violence of any kind, whether the relationship is straight or gay, is a problem.

On the other hand, many gay relationships must be negotiated without the institutional and personal support that are taken for granted by heterosexual couples. Coping with the relationship issues that are inherent in being in one are often exacerbated by isolation fear, and discrimination that many LGBT people face every day in a culture that tells them they are sick, sinful, immoral or crazy.

I don’t know anymore about the specific circumstances of the relationship between Rosalind and Malika than what I read in the media accounts of Rosalind’s death, but it is reflective of the ambivalence and uncertainty with which same-sex relationships are viewed by the media that it took awhile to understand the intimate nature of their relationship. At first, Associated Press articles said Rosalind and her suspected killer “knew each other.” They were described as “roommates” in another story. Later articles said the killing was related to a “domestic dispute.” Rosalind’s mother cleared things up in a later article by saying Malika and Rosalind were “partners.” Later still, articles revealed that they had been partners for 14 years; a long-term relationship by most standards whether heterosexual or gay.

I don’t know if Rosalind and Malika’s relationship faced additional challenges because they were two young Black women who loved each other. I wouldn’t be surprised. Many conservative Black churches condemn homosexuality and so cut many LGBT people of color off from this source of community and support. I know that many LGBT people of color hide their sexual orientation to avoid isolating themselves from family, friends and churches. I do know that this is yet another tragedy in a month already tainted by so many suicides by young gay men who lost hope.

I try to keep track of LGBT sports news and I almost missed this one. My heart goes out to the families of both Rosalind and Malika.

Does Supporting your Team Require Demeaning Gays?

2010-10-21T10:44:00.001-05:00

Last week I wrote about Yankee fans singing homophobic lyrics to the Village People’s YMCA. In the past I’ve written about homophobic fan chants, anti- gay slurs directed at opposing players, anti-gay signs held up by fans, you name, some groups of sports fans from the high school level to the pros seem to think it is amusing, insulting and completely acceptable to express support for their teams with organized group ridicule of gay people.

It has happened often enough to say that it is part of the culture of being a fan. Not to say all or even most fans participate, but somehow it has become acceptable for some segment of fans, usually called things like the “bleacher creatures” to be a little over the top as they root for their team. Often coaches or school administrators compliment this group for getting the home team fans into the game and exploiting the home team advantage.

It is usually a boys’ or men’s team sport event. It is usually mostly boys or men shouting anti-gay epithets at opposing players or fans. The use of anti-gay or anti-woman “cheers,” songs and slurs at sporting events, I suppose, are attempts to insult the “manhood,” the toughness, the mettle of opposing players and fans. These insults, unfortunately, often do get a rise out of other men and boys. Such is the fragile nature of men’s sense of comfort with their masculinity and heterosexuality, I guess.

Here is another example of this at a high school football game outside Cleveland, Ohio. The fans are chanting “Powder Blue Faggots” at the opposing team whose uniforms are light blue. You can hear the chants here. The band is even adding a little musical accent to the chant. Apparently this happened throughout the game and has been going on for years. The other team’s fans also have their own anti-gay chant that they chant back in response.

The TV report included in the link makes a point that there is a huge sign outside the stadium listing expectations for good fan behavior, but like so many of these signs or announcements at the beginning of a game, no one pays much attention. School administrators at this game claimed that they intervened. Did they intervene at all the other games over the years when the chant was used? If so, it seems clear that something else needs to happen to make it stop.

In a month when we have heard more than enough tragic stories of young gay men killing themselves, many because they have been bullied and brutalized by peers shouting anti-gay slurs, isn’t it time that school administrators, parents, coaches and classmates start to make some connections between these homophobic expressions of “school spirit” and the deaths of young people who attend these schools and may be sitting in the stands at these games? What do they learn about themselves when anti-gay chants, songs, shouting of slurs is commonplace at school sporting events? When young people are already in a fragile and isolated place, who knows what could be the final cold breeze that extinguishes their will to resist the hostility another day?
It is not just “boys being boys” (I hate that rationalization) or being “overly sensitive” or “politically correct” to expect school officials to step up and insist that this kind of abuse stop. It is their responsibility and that of every other adult attending the game to step up. I wonder if anyone would have taken this incident seriously had it not been for a young woman with a sense of outrage and a phone camera who filmed the fans chanting and posted her video on YouTube?
Does your school have a code of conduct for behavior at school sporting events? Is it taken seriously? Is it safe for young LGBT people or anyone else, for that matter, to attend sporting events at your school without being subjected to mean-spirited and dangerous expressions of “school spirit” that suck the joy and fun out of being a sports fan?

Yankees Promise to Stop Fan Anti-Gay Singing

2010-10-18T14:11:00.001-05:00

Yankees management promised GLAAD that they will not tolerate anti-gay chants or singing and fans who are identified engaging in these activities at Yankee games will be ejected.

Well, that was fast action after several bloggers called attention to this ugly tradition. Thank you, GLAAD and thank you, Yankees, for taking such swift action. I might even root for the Yankees for one game in the post season as a thank you…but that’s all. For a Red Sox fan, that’s the best I can do.

Male or Female? Where Do We Draw the Line in Sport?

2010-10-16T07:13:00.001-05:00

Here is an excellent ESPN Outside the Lines feature on intersex athletes. Alice Dreger’s comments, in particular, are thought-provoking and a must read for anyone in athletics grappling with policy development related to the participation of athletes who are intersex.

Young Male Yankee Fans and Homophobia

2010-10-13T16:30:00.006-05:00

I haven’t made a Horse’s Patoot Salute for awhile so here is my latest nominee –Homophobic Yankee Fans. Here’s why –

The Village People’s song, YMCA, has become a traditional crowd diversion at many sports events. At some point during the game, everyone stands up and sings along with the Village People over the loud speakers. We all know the arm motions, right? Y-M-C-A! It’s fun and, of course, a little ironic to be singing a song parody by gay men parodying gay male icons at the most masculine of manly events: a professional men’s sports event.

I introduce this section by confessing that I am a Boston Red Sox fan and it follows that the Yankees are not my favorite team. However, it seems that, for a number of years, some male Yankee fans have taken the fun out of singing YMCA and turned it into an ugly display of homophobia.

When YMCA is played, large groups of male Yankee fans scan the seats for men wearing caps or tee shirts from the other team or anyone in Red Sox garb. They all point at their target and sing YMCA at that person or persons. The problem is that they have changed the words to the song. I’ll give you a little sample, their version starts out, “Why are you gay? I saw you sucking D-I-C-K.” It degenerates from there to "clever" new lyrics about disease and sin. All sung with drunken, adolescent leers and plastic beer cup schloshing.

Given the recent outrageous number of young gay men killing themselves after being bullied by classmates, the gang sodomizing of three gay men with sticks by upwards of 10 young men in NYC this past weekend and gubernatorial candidate, Carl Paladino’s public anti-gay comments, the insensitivity of the Yankee YMCA perversion is especially outrageous. No one ever said the combination of testosterone, alcohol and a male professional sports event was a recipe for respectful behavior, but this is really disgusting.

Sean Chapin who I have never met, but is one of my Facebook friends, has made a powerful video in response to the Yankee fans homophobic display.

What do you think is the responsibility of the professional teams and their stadium security staff here? Especially when this news follows the report last week of a lesbian couple asked to leave a Baltimore Ravens game because they kissed each other while waiting in line for an order of French fries.

Definitely a two steps back few weeks.

Transgender Woman Suing LPGA for Right to Play

2010-10-13T10:19:00.000-05:00

Lana Lawless is a 57 year old transgender woman who is suing the LPGA for the right to play in LPGA sanctioned events. The LPGA policy states that a competitor must be “female at birth” to be eligible to play in LPGA events. They adopted this policy in the late 1970’s after Renee Richards successfully sued the USTA for the right to play in women’s professional tennis events. In 2008, Lawless won the women’s division of an annual Long Drive competition with a 254 yard drive. The Long Drivers of America, who sponsor this competition has since changed their eligibility rule to match the LPGA’s “female at birth” requirement. Lana is suing them too.

The United States Golf Association, the Ladies Golf Union in Britain and the Ladies European Golf Tour have all adopted the International Olympic Committee policy which enables transgender women athletes to compete in women’s competitions if they meet several criteria, including competition of sex reassignment surgery, two years of hormone therapy and changing the sex designated on official identity documents. Mianne Bagger, another woman who has undergone gender transition, has been playing in Europe and Australia for several years without incident.

The LPGA has, despite some pressure to address the participation of transgender golfers, failed to change their policy, which specifically prohibits transgender women from competing in LPGA events. It was only a matter of time before this day came. The LPGA’s failure to address this issue proactively now means they will do it in the glare of media and in reaction to a lawsuit. Not the best way to consider policy change.

In an unexpected twist, Renee Richard, in an interview in the New York Times article, is ambivalent about whether or not she supports Lawless’ goal of playing in LPGA events. Richards believes that “physically strong” transgender women have an advantage over other women competitors and seems to think that decisions about whether or not transgender women should play should be made on a case by case basis. This reservation mirrors the IOC and IAAF policies on the participation of intersex women that were in effect when Caster Semenya’s eligibility to compete as a woman was challenged in the 2009 World Championships and then affirmed this fall. We have seen what a mess the “case by case” policy can be.

Having just spent the better part of a year working on a report that includes policy recommendations to colleges and high schools about the participation of transgender athletes, I have read a lot about and talked to several physicians about the question of whether or not transgender women athletes have an unfair physical advantage in women’s competition. We based our recommendations on the best information available at this time. We can only hope that this, and any other lawsuits like it, will also be decided on the basis of science and medical research and not on prejudice and fear. Time will tell.

National Coming Out Day 2: Lauren Lappin, Out Lesbian USA Softball Player

2010-10-11T10:48:00.002-05:00

Here is a good ESPN National Coming Out Day story on Out lesbian USA softball player, Lauren Lappin.

Happy National Coming Out Day!

2010-10-11T10:34:00.000-05:00

Today is National Coming Out Day. An event celebrated by LGBT people and our friends and allies since 1988. NCOD was started after the second march on Washington for LGBT rights in 1987. The purpose of NCOD is for people of all sexual orientations to “take their next step” to empower themselves and make the world a safer, more inclusive and just place for all, with a particular focus on LGBT folks. This year NCOD takes on added significant in light of the recent rash of bully-assisted suicides of young gay men, the brutal violent attacks on three gay men in NYC, and the shameless and inexcusable harassment of a gay student government association president at the University of Michigan by an assistant district attorney in that state. These are only the events that have received national attention. Events like these occur in communities every day without the spotlight of the news media to call them to our attention.

These events are important reminders, especially for those of us who live in relative safety in states where our civil rights are protected, that we still have a long way to go. None of us can truly afford to feel safe as long as the events of the last few weeks are happening to young people all across the country. If we broaden our perspective to account for the international status of LGBT people, we recognize that for LGBT people in some countries, living openly risks a death sentence sanctioned by the state in addition to being targeted by violence from community members or families.

NCOD is a reminder that coming out is a multi-faceted process , not a single event. Coming out involves many stages and not everyone is in a position to come out publicly. Coming out means many things: We come out to ourselves, our trusted friends, our families, our co-workers and classmates. Some of us leap out of the closet with bold public announcements while others inch the closet door open step by carefully considered step. Both are important and life-changing.

Coming out takes on added risk when we factor in money. Can I afford to lose my job? Can I risk being kicked out of my home and losing my parents financial support? Will I be ostracized and bullied at school? Coming out for LGBT people of color is often complicated by racism and the added burden of dealing with homophobia and racism. Parents with children must consider custody issues and how best to protect their children in a world where LGBT parents’ rights are not universally protected. Real threats of violence, discrimination and isolation keep the closet door closed for many LGBT folks, both young and old.

Research does tell us that straight people who know openly LGBT people (family members, friends, colleagues, classmates, teammates, neighbors) are more likely to be allies who support LGBT rights. We also know that coming out enables LGBT people to live our truth, to be authentic in our relationships with the people we care about and interact with every day. Most LGBT people I know do not regret the decision to be more open about who they are. A few friends, even family members, are sometimes lost, discrimination might be an issue, but even in these situations, feeling the integrity and honesty of owning our truth is worth the rough patches that we sometimes must get through after coming out. I’ve never met an LGBT person who said he or she would rather be back in the closet after coming out.

NCOD is not just for LGBT people. Perhaps even more importantly it is a day for heterosexual allies to be more public about their support for LGBT people in their lives and for LGBT rights more broadly. NCOD is a time for heterosexual allies to ponder the importance of speaking out publicly – in your family, in your workplace, at your school, on your team, in your place of worship- about your support for LGBT people and our rights. For the LGBT people for whom coming out is too much of risk right now or for those who are still struggling with who they are, the visibility and public support of heterosexual allies is essential.

I don’t want to sound too dramatic here, and the recent spade of suicides, violence and harassment certainly help to drive this point home, but the decision to be a more vocal heterosexual ally is a life-saving decision. Private support of LGBT family members, friends and colleagues is fine and appreciated, but when heterosexual allies choose to stand up and speak out publicly, in their schools, families, workplaces, places of worship, communities, we can begin to change the world. No movement for social justice has ever achieved success only through the efforts of the people who are targeted by the injustice. NCOD is a day for LGBT people to take our next steps, but it is equally a day for our heterosexual allies to take theirs. We are all in this together and we all must take the opportunities we have to stand up and speak out. What are you planning to do today?

What are you planning to do tomorrow to make this world a safer, more loving, more life-affirming place for everyone, including LGBT people?

Transgender Student-Athlete Think Tank Report Released

2010-10-04T07:51:00.002-05:00

I am really proud to announce the public release of the report from the October, 2009 Transgender Student-Athlete Think Tank that the Women’s Sports Foundation and the National Center for Lesbian Rights co-sponsored. Helen Carroll, the director of the NCLR Sports Project and I wrote the report with the support of many other folks with far greater expertise on this topic than we have. You can access the report here. The report will also be available here.

Helen and I have worked on this report for past nine months and the birthing process has been challenging, educational and inspiring. It also represents my final task as director of It Takes A Team. I’m very proud of what we have to offer the intercollegiate and interscholastic athletic world in this ground-breaking report.

The report focuses on high school and collegiate athletics and includes specific policy recommendations for including transgender student-athletes on high school and college teams. The guiding principles of the think tank and report emphasize the importance of viewing transgender student-athletes’ opportunities to participate on school sports teams as an issue of social justice demanding that schools adopt inclusive participation policies that are fair for all. We based our recommendations on the most current medical and legal information available and on our understanding of the particular competitive contexts of high school and collegiate athletics.

The report, entitled, On the Team: Equal Opportunities for Transgender Student-Athletes, builds on the excellent Canadian report on transitioning and transitioned athletes released in early 2009. The Canadian report provides a comprehensive foundation for understanding the issues and challenges related to the inclusion of transitioning and transitioned athletes on sports teams, but does not offer specific policy recommendations. Our think tank report does provide overall policy recommendations in addition to best practice recommendations for athletic directors, coaches, student-athletes and parents, an overview of the legal status of transgender people in the United States, an overview of medical issues related to transgender participation in sports and a list of resources on transgender issues.

The release of the report comes none too soon as over the last year I’ve been alarmed that some state interscholastic athletic associations (Connecticut, Rhode Island, Colorado, for example) have adopted the 2004 International Olympic Committee policy. The IOC policy, though pioneering, has several flaws which make its adoption by other sport governing organizations problematic: The mandatory two year waiting period after beginning hormone treatment has been challenged by recent research, the requirement that a transgender athlete undergo genital reconstructive surgery is not a choice for many transgender people or even possible for low income families, and the requirement that the athlete’s official identity documents be changed places an impossible burden on many athletes because of the wide disparity in state laws enabling alterations of official identity documents.

In addition, our perspective is that school-based sports, as an integral part of education, requires an emphasis on assuring equitable participation opportunities for all students and that competitive goals in athletics must be viewed through the lens of educational goals that reflect broader educational institutional values such as fairness, inclusion and non-discrimination.

I want to thank all think tank participants and consultants who provided invaluable input into the writing of this report. Your knowledge and expertise as well as your passionate commitment to equality in sport for all student-athletes are inspiring. In particular, I want to thank the transgender and genderqueer student-athletes who participated in the think tank for sharing your experiences and providing such important insights so that the rest of us could better understand the value of sports in your lives and the pain of having it denied unfairly. Because of your openness and commitment, future generations of transgender student-athletes, with their parents support, will have opportunities to play the sports they love in an athletic climate where they are respected and understood by coaches, teammates and opponents.

When Homophobia Kills

2010-09-30T21:26:00.002-05:00

This has been a tragic week of news:

Four young boys killed themselves after enduring anti-gay bullying from school classmates. Seth Walsh, 13; Asher Brown, 13, Justin Aaberg, 15; Billy Lucas, 15 could not face another day of relentless cruelty at the hands of their peers.

Tyler Clementi, an 18 year old college freshman at Rutgers University jumped off the GW bridge after his roommate of three weeks and a friend placed hidden cameras in Tyler’s dorm room and broadcast on the internet a video of Tyler kissing a man.

Tyler Wilson, an 11 year old, who, because he chose to be a cheerleader for a community sports league, had his arm broken by bullies from the football team who assaulted him because they didn’t approve of a boy cheerleader. After the incident received media attention, bullies have threatened to break Tyler’s other arm because he “told on them.”

Chris Armstrong, a gay man, was elected president of the student body at the University of Michigan is being harassed and defamed at his home and on the internet by a Michigan assistant District Attorney and Michigan alum who claims to be a “concerned Christian.”

I am speechless with despair over the senselessness of these news stories.

The Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network 2009 School Climate Survey reports that almost 9 out of 10 LGBT students experience some kind of harassment at school because of their perceived sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. This tells me that what these students experienced is not out of the ordinary.

Dan Savage has put up a web site on youtube called the It Gets Better Project where young and older adult LGBT people have posted videos talking to LGBT youth telling them that life does get better. I hope that these videos do provide some hope for young people who are experiencing harassment in schools or who are experiencing such despair and loneliness that they are contemplating taking their own lives. It is a good emergency intervention.

But why do young people have to wait for it to get better? Every young person should be able to go to school and feel safe and be treated with respect by teachers, coaches and classmates. It seems to me that this is a basic human right all children and young people should have. It is a national shame that we are not demanding that schools and communities take the steps necessary to make this happen. It appears that we have, in fact, left lots of children behind.

If you are a teacher, a coach, a parent, a teammate, a classmate – what are you doing to make the schools in your community safe and respectful places? I want you to consider that, if you are doing nothing, you are complicit in the deaths of some young people and the psychological terrorizing of others that will affect them the rest of their lives. This is a problem that requires all of us to pay attention and act. Go to the GLSEN web site if you are not sure what you can do. We are all part of this.

IUPUI Fires Women’s Basketball Coach

2010-09-24T11:32:00.002-05:00

In a follow up to my July 29 blog on this, IUPUI has fired women’s basketball coach, Shann Hart “without cause.” This means that they do not plan to make public the reasons for the coach’s dismissal. Hart will also receive the balance of her contract through 2013 - $300,000. The allegations against Hart, all of which she denies, included a range of outrageous behavior including snooping into the personal sex lives of her athletes to identify lesbians on her team. The climate of fear resulting from the coach’s behavior was the cause for 29 players and assistant coaches leaving the program over the last four years. After the players’ allegations were made public in July, former players at American University where Hart previously coached also came forward with similar allegations of abuse. Hart has not commented publicly on her dismissal yet.

An important object lesson is lost because IUPUI is not making the results of their investigation and the cause for Hart’s dismissal public and because Hart will still get her salary, which is quite a lot of money. Outrageous behavior by coaches, both men and women, has been tolerated in college and high school athletics for far too long. Psychological and physical abuse of athletes by coaches who lead with fear and intimidation is not acceptable in any context, especially one that is affiliated with an educational institution. We need schools to stand up and be specific about reasons for dismissal when questions of abusive and discriminatory behavior are involved rather than leave the reasons for a coach’s dismissal unknown. Firing a coach accused of abusive behavior “without cause” rather than making the reasons public sends an ambiguous message. What was she fired for then? Why aren’t they making the reasons for her dismissal public?

Open discrimination against women athletes because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation, which is part of the allegations against Hart, has also been tolerated or ignored by school leaders. I had hoped that after the very public lawsuit against Rene Portland at Penn State, that other coaches and administrators would have gotten the message that there are serious consequences to anti-gay discrimination in college athletics. Unfortunately, this situation is a reminder that there are still coaches who believe that fear, abusive treatment and discriminatory practices are acceptable coaching behaviors. I hope they are reading the newspapers today.

Here is a follow-up article on IUPUI's refusal to make public the reason for Hart's dismissal.

NCAA Eliminates the Office of Diversity and Inclusion in Restructuring Move

2010-09-23T10:21:00.001-05:00

USA Today reports that the NCAA has eliminated the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the VP position directing that office held by Charlotte Westerhaus. This is one of 17 positions eliminated in the restructuring.

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion was created by the former ED of the NCAA, Miles Brand, who died of pancreatic cancer last year. This unit in the NCAA was responsible for providing education programs to NCAA member schools on race, gender and sexual orientation issues in athletics. Executive Vice President Bernard Franklin will become the NCAA's chief inclusion officer in the restructuring.

I was immediately concerned that these changes might signal that the NCAA was backing away from the commitment to diversity and inclusion described on their web page. However, after talking to some colleagues within the NCAA, I am hopeful that these and other structural changes might be a good thing. I am hopeful that the changes will enable the NCAA to broaden their focus on race and gender equity to include more programming on LGBT issues, disability issues and other aspects of diversity and inclusion.

I guess as we learn more about the changes going on at the NCAA we’ll know more. In the meantime, I am choosing to be optimistic about the restructuring as it affects the NCAA’s diversity and inclusion commitment.

Update on Former SMU Basketball Player’s Lawsuit Against Women’s Basketball Coach

2010-09-22T14:31:00.003-05:00

I first blogged about this situation in September, 2008 and then again in October, 2009. Well, finally after two years a judge has ruled that the lawsuit can go to trial. A quick summary: Jennifer Colli, a player on the SMU women’s basketball team, alleged that her scholarship was revoked after she complained about coach Rhonda Rompola’s inappropriate interest in players’ sex lives. In particular Colli, backed by signed statements from four teammates, charged that Rompola was anti-gay and particularly hostile toward lesbians in relationships on her team. The irony here was that apparently it was fairly common knowledge on the team that Rompola had been in a relationship with one of her female assistant coaches (she subsequently married a male assistant coach for the men’s team, who now lives and coaches in North Carolina, makes you go hmmmmm). Anyway, an internal school investigation of Colli’s accusations found that they had no merit.

SMU asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, but the judge has cleared the way for a trial finding problems with SMU’s internal investigation. Specifically, the athletic director never talked to the other players about Colli’s accusations and apparently the school did violate school and NCAA regulations in revoking Colli’s scholarship. Also, the four players who backed up Colli’s charges were suspended from the team. Instead of investigating the accusations, the SMU athletic department focused on investigating and discrediting Colli.

I noticed that in the most recent article about this situation all references to the lesbian content of Colli’s accusations have been deleted. Earlier news reports here indicated that Colli was a lesbian and that Rompola was specifically making anti-gay statements. The recent article only says that Rompola “constantly made sexually charged comments about the players' personal and intimate relationships” and asking them if they “had sex the night before.” I’m curious about why the specifically anti-lesbian nature of the accusations has been omitted. Of course, Rompola’s alleged comments would be completely offensive either way, but I’m just curious to see if future reports of this situation are “straightened up” as well.

Jennifer is currently pursuing a modeling career in California. You can google image her name and see some of her modeling. Maybe Jennifer has straightened up too. I'm just sayin'...

I’ll let you know as soon as I hear more about what happens next.

Review of Unmatched: Martina and Chris

2010-09-20T11:16:00.000-05:00

Here is an excellent review of Unmatched, an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary about the friendship and tennis rivalry between Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. I don’t know if ESPN will be airing this again, but it is worth checking your local listings if you missed it last week. It was a unique documentary in that it was as much about their relationship off the court as it was about their on-court rivalry. Of course, the two are intertwined so it is difficult to separate them. I loved that the documentary was actually a conversation between the two of them. It was two old friends taking a weekend in a beach house together to talk about old times (on camera, of course). They chatted over tea on comfortable couches, in the kitchen, while jogging together, walking on the beach. They hit a few tennis balls. They drove around in a cool Mercedes convertible. All the while sharing memories, sometimes their separate takes on the same event, sometimes observations on themselves and each other. These chats were interspersed with footage of their matches and still photos of each of them growing up.

They talked briefly about Martina’s coming out in 1981. Chris already knew and said she admired Martina’s honesty. Chris met her former husband, Andy Mill, through Martina. Andy and Chris even slept for the first time in Martina’s bed in Aspen. Chris shared that she and Martina had a double date once. I thought it was going to be a lesbian/straight date, but alas, it was Martina and Dino Martin with Chris and Desi Arnez. Martina shared that this was before she was sure what her sexuality was. It seems that Dino was quite attracted by Martina’s muscles, much to Chris’ chagrin since she was the one who though Dino was cute. Funny story.

It was also interesting to hear Chris talk about how hurt she was during the time that basketball player/analyst, Nancy Liebermann, was Martina’s coach (and lover). While Nancy did spur Martina to train on a level that took Martina’s game to a higher level, Nancy’s philosophy was that you needed to hate your opponent in order to beat them. Her insistence that Martina view Chris as an enemy broke up their doubles partnership. Her poisonous perspective threatened what would become a sports friendship for the ages. Let’s all be thankful that Chris and Martina’s friendship survived Nancy’s attempt to ruin it.

It was touching to hear them each say that the other is one of the first friends they contact when in crisis or when something important happens in their lives. Such an enduring friendship between two women who are so different from each other, yet so bonded and connected by their athletic careers reminds us what sports can be in addition to competition. It can be about relationships and how competition doesn’t need to be about winning at all costs, especially the cost of a friendship. Relationships among competitors, even at the top of their careers can spur each one to greater accomplishments and deeper understanding and appreciation for a rival.

Chris and Martina share experiences only the two of them can truly understand. Watching Unmatched, I felt privileged to be invited to share a glimpse of their apparent affection and respect for each other. Nancy Lieberman was wrong and I for one am thankful. I hope you get a chance to see this documentary.

Unmatched: Martina and Chris Rivalry

2010-09-13T09:24:00.001-05:00

Tuesday night, September 14 at 8 pm EDT, ESPN will air a documentary entitled, Unmatched. The film follows the tennis rivalry and friendship between Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. Martina and Chris discussed their relationship on and off the court for the first time. You can also read about their rivalry and friendship in an excellent book by Johnette Howard called The Rivals.

Martina and Chris represented two opposites both on and off the court. Martina was a serve and volley specialist with powerful strokes and a beautiful athleticism that was a joy to watch. She tended to be emotional and wore her heart on her tennis dress sleeve during matches. Chris was the cool baseline machine. She was steady, relentless, keeping her emotions below the surface. Martina is a lesbian who came out in 1981. Let me repeat that, 1981, when the only other woman who had come out was Billie Jean King and she did not come out voluntarily. In fact she denied that she was gay for years after.

Martina came out not long afterwards and they both paid the price in loss of commercial endorsements and popularity for a long time until the world caught up. Chris’ image was “the girl next door.” She had highly publicized relationships with Jimmy Connors and other well known male celebrities and athletes. Because her image was more sellable and more conventional, the feminine, heterosexual girl next door, she raked in the commercial endorsements. The truth was that the private Chris was a lot more x-rated than her public image, but the fans loved “Chrissy” as the tennis commentators insisted on calling her. Some media pundits called their rivalry, “Beauty and the Beast:” Martina, the gay muscular, powerhouse coached by the transgender former player Renee Richards vs. the demure self-contained, feminine Chrissy. It often seemed like the only ones rooting for Martina when they played were the lesbians scattered throughout the stadium. Martina was honored at the U.S. Open last week. It was a long time coming.

Off the court they were and remain close friends crossing sexuality, cultural and competitive boundaries. I have immense respect for both of them. I’m looking forward to hearing them talk about their relationship over the years. Check it out – Tuesday 8pm EDT ESPN.

When Coaches Teach Bigotry in the Name of Christianity

2010-09-09T10:55:00.005-05:00

Excuse me, but I thought the primary goal of coaching girls' or women’s basketball teams was, well, coaching basketball . That would not be the case for Jaye Collins, however. He is the coach of the Louisville Legends. The Legends are part of a network of independent girls basketball teams affiliated with Elite Basketball Family. EBF’s goal according to their web site is as follows: The EBF is a 501©3 non-profit organization designed to ensure the future success of hundreds of young ladies each year by giving them chances to earn college scholarships to play basketball.

But if you go to the Legends web site and click on the coaches tab, here is what Coach Collins has to say about his goal:

I started the Lady Legends program with the support of my wife, Kari, in hopes of encouraging young girls to be proud and secure in not being part of the lesbian and homosexual lifestyle which is so prevalent in woman's/girl's athletics. Many girls, as early as middle school, are being influenced or "tested", or converted and convinced that if they play sports, specifically basketball, they must be, should be, or need to be gay.

I believe that we should encourage girls to glorify God and please Jesus Christ in their decision making processes. I know this is not the socially accepted or politically correct perspective, but our goal is H.O.O.P.S.....Helping Others Obtain Personal Salvation.

If you go to the Legends home page, you find that it starts off with a Biblical quote in huge letters and then, secondarily, if you scroll down, features photos of team members and where they will be playing college ball.

I don’t know if independent teams like the Legends are governed by any rules or policies about either Christian proselytizing or anti-gay discrimination under the guise of coaching a girls’ basketball team so maybe what Coach Collins is doing is perfectly legal, but it isn’t right. Maybe it is a good thing that he is so completely transparent about his beliefs and his goals. Let the buyer beware, so to speak.

It just makes me sick and sad and angry that such ignorant propaganda can be so blatant and, apparently acceptable. And that young girls who play with the Legends are subjected to the coach’s religious and anti-gay rhetoric. Collins is teaching prejudice and fear under the guise of making girls basketball “safe” for straight, Christian girls. What about Legend players who are questioning their sexuality or who know they are gay? He is teaching them to hate and fear themselves. He is teaching them shame and denial. What happens to Legends players when they are recruited to play college ball and find that they have lesbian teammates or coaches whom they are expected to treat with respect? Will the example set by Coach Collins’ anti-gay and pro-Christian beliefs make it more difficult for Legends players to adjust to a team where player and coach diversity is valued and respected? Where lesbians are not assumed to be drooling child molesters or out to convert all their teammates to their “homosexual lifestyle?”

Coach Collins claims to be providing some kind of Christian refuge for basketball players from the “tests” they need to endure presumably from evil lesbian teammates and coaches who try to “convince or convert them” that they need to be gay to play women’s basketball. Clearly Coach Collins has a personal problem with lesbians in sport. This hysterical and bigoted perspective is an important reminder that homophobia is alive and well in girls and women’s sports, particularly basketball.

Far from being a principled or courageous stance, I believe what Coach Collins does is a kind of abuse of power wrapped up in self-righteous bigotry masked as Christian concern. Providing girls with opportunities to play basketball and get college scholarships is a terrific goal and volunteer coaches who are committed to working for young women in this way are to be applauded. However, coaches owe it to their team members to check their personal prejudices at the gym door and do the best they can to create a climate of respect and safety for every team member – gay, straight, Christian, Jew, atheist, black, white.

Many Christian coaches live their religious values without pushing them on their teams. Most lesbian coaches live their life without any thought of “converting” players. It is wrong for Christian and lesbian coaches to impose either their religion or their sexuality on their athletes. Both Christians and lesbians can be great coaches. Neither religious belief nor sexual orientation has much to do with being a good coach though (or a good basketball player either). Great coaching is about Xs and Os, but it is also so much more. It is about living your life with integrity and confronting prejudice and bigotry in any guise. It is about modeling and teaching athletes about self-respect and respect for people who are different from you. It is about confronting one’s own stereotypes to avoid passing them on to young women. It is not about conjuring up a lesbian bogeywoman and then claiming to protect your team from her. That’s working your own personal agenda and calling it coaching.

Reflections on Caster Semenya’s Return to Competition

2010-08-31T14:10:00.002-05:00

The IAAF has declared that South African runner Caster Semenya can resume competing in international women’s events. After an 11 month wait for this clearance Semenya has competed in three track meets in the past several days. She won two of her 800m races and finished third this past weekend.

The problem is that some of her competitors in the 800 meter race are complaining publicly to the press about her participation. Clearly this grumbling is not likely to go away soon and I am sure other competitors who are not speaking publicly share the perspectives shared by two particularly vocal athletes, British runner Jemma Simpson and Canadian Diane Cummins.

Two themes run through their comments. Their comments reflect the belief that Semenya, despite her clearance to participate, is not a “normal” woman. As Diane Cummins opined, "Even if she is a female, she's on the very fringe of the normal athlete female biological composition from what I understand of hormone testing. So, from that perspective, most of us just feel that we are literally running against a man."

Commenting on the perception that their comments are just sour grapes because they were beaten by Semenya, Cummins adds, “Jemma and I have been beaten tons of times by athletes who we feel are doing it in the realm of what is considered female.” Cummins also said, "There are guys who can challenge Usain Bolt but nobody can challenge Caster Semenya. She is four or five seconds better than any of us and that's incredible.” They do not consider Semenya in the “realm of what is considered female” even though Semenya was beaten by two other women last weekend.

The second theme in their comments is that they feel that their rights and voices are being ignored and that Semenya’s participation threatens the “level playing field.” It’s just not fair from their perspective. Jemma Simpson commented, "It's obviously a human rights issue but human rights affect everyone in the race, not just one person. The rest of the field just gets ignored." Cummins added, "As athletes we feel frustrated because everyone is allowed to give their opinion except us. If we give an honest opinion, we're either seen as bad sports or we're not happy because we're being beaten.”

Simpson notes a PC element to the conversation that she obviously feels silences the voices of the “normal” women, "No way is it a personal issue but it's a debate about what is right and fair for everyone. It's a really tough subject and a lot of people are very careful about what they say. You have to be.”

Simpson again, reflecting some conflict in her perspective, “She's just been allowed to come back on the scene and we're expected just to get on with it. It's fair to an extent but I think we all just want a fair level playing field out there. It would be nice to just – I know it's really none of our business – but it would just be nice to be reassured more than anything."

To be fair to these women, this is a challenging issue. Gender is way more complicated than the nice neat little separate boxes we are invited to check off on forms. Nonetheless most of us operate as if it were just that simple. Certainly the sports world does. You have your men’s sports and your women’s sports. Unfortunately, it isn’t so simple and never has been. It is not surprising that some of Semenya’s competitors are confused and feel that they are being asked to accept a competitive situation that puts them at a disadvantage. They train hard and rely on having a “level playing field” on which to compete and apparently no one has provided them with any information to challenge the prejudices they have about Semenya.

It is interesting to note that outstanding performances by women athletes throughout history have opened these athletes to gender criticism that, as in Semenya’s case, focused on whether or not they were ”normal” women. Babe Didrikson was vilified as an “unfeminine muscle moll.” Sports writers commented on her “masculine” appearance all the time. She intimidated her competitors too and won most of the golf tournaments she entered. In her prime, some of her opponents characterized the experience of facing Martina Navratilova’s powerful game as “like playing a man.” The legendary rivalry between Navratilova and Chris Evert was called “Beauty and the Beast.” Guess who was the beast. Amelie Mauresmo was called “half a man” by rival Martina Hingis. Though Serena Williams was not compared to a man, racist perceptions of her muscular black body created similar reactions that she was somehow not a “normal” woman and had a physical advantage over her less muscular white opponents.

Of course, it wasn’t just about femininity, it was about sexuality too. Babe, Martina and Amelie played their sports too well. They did not conform to feminine and heterosexual expectations. What does it say about women’s sports that we vilify our outstanding performers who do not easily fit in the gender and sexuality box they were assigned at birth?

The problem is that Semenya’s competitors’ comments reflect belief in a gender/sex binary that doesn’t exist. The two separate boxes most of us check off to describe who we are do not reflect the realities of gender as it is lived by many people or the bodies that some of us inhabit. Determining who is eligible to compete in either men’s or women’s sports is a matter of drawing a line somewhere along a spectrum of gender. Where that line is drawn must be based on the best information we have about gender and athletic performance. That is the only way to maintain the integrity of a sports model that is based on separating most sport competitions by sex. The alternative is to eliminate sex as a sports participation category altogether: A step I am not ready to take. I believe more girls and women have opportunities to participate in sport when sports competition are divided by sex, at least starting in high school, than would so if we eliminated sex as a participation category in sport.

The level playing field these athletes refer to in their comments about Semenya is a relative thing. Some would say it is a myth. Athletic competition is about gaining a competitive advantage. It’s what all athletes do to win. It’s just that we have deemed some advantages to be within the realm of fairness and “normalcy” and others not. We recognize and accept as part of the game some genetic advantages that make a few athletes exceptional, but not others, perhaps especially when those characteristics are related to gender.

Just as Babe, Martina, Amelie and Serena challenge normative gender expectations about athletic performance and how we define “woman”, Caster Semenya’s participation in women’s sport is challenging us to acknowledge the reality of a gender spectrum that contradicts the myth of a gender binary. How we respond to Caster Semenya’s self-affirmed identity as a woman and how we make room for her in women’s sports says a lot about how far we have to go in challenging sexism, homophobia and racism in sport. My sense is, judging by the reactions of some of Semenya’s competitors, that we have a long way to go (baby).

Diana Nyad: Force of Nature at 60

2010-08-17T10:46:00.004-05:00

When I was a few months from turning 60 (five years ago), I decided to train for and swim the Provincetown Harbor Swim for Life: A mile and a half distance from Long Point at the tip of Cape Cod to the beach at the Boat Slip. I got myself a new wet suit and dove into the water. I swam every day increasing my distance, doing some intervals, swimming in pools and open water. This swim is a fund raiser for human service organizations in PTown so I enlisted the financial support of friends to help me raise some money by sponsoring my swim. I had completed the swim before several years ago during the triathlon phase of my life, but hadn’t done any real swim training since 1994 for the Gay Games triathlon in NYC. My PTown swim seemed like a great way to welcome myself to the big 60. And it was just that.

On the day of the swim in early September, the sky was overcast. I and 300 other swimmers waded into the waters off Long Point and looked to the roof of the Boat Slip off in the distance. The water was cold and choppy enough that I gave up bilateral breathing to avoid taking in sea water every time I took a breath on my right, but other than that, it was a great swim. I completed the swim in a satisfying 60 minutes and celebrated with friends on the beach.

Fast forward five years. Diana Nyad, a world class distance swimmer; media commentator; motivational speaker; fitness guru and one of the Out 100 of 2009 named by Out Magazine, is 60 and to mark her milestone birthday she is swimming from Cuba to Key West, a distance of 103 miles. Yes, that is no typo…103 miles. The swim will take her 40-60 hours to complete. She will be in shark infested waters and swimming without a shark cage. She hopes to be the first person to accomplish this feat. She tried to complete this swim in 1979 (with a cage), but had to stop as weather and sea currents made reaching her goal impossible. Now at 60 she wants to attend to this unfinished business, this gap in her impressive athletic resume.

Therein lies the difference between Diana Nyad and most other human beings, certainly between little old me and Diana. Me: A mile and a half in Provincetown harbor and beer waiting at the Boat Slip. Diana: 103 miles without a cage in shark infested water. She is a force of nature. Anyone who has ever heard her give one of her motivational talks, drawing on her own experiences as a world record setting distance swimmer knows that she can raise the hair on your neck and inspire you. She can make you laugh and make you cry.

I have spent time with Diana many times over the last 30 years. We’ve been on panels together talking about LGBT issues in sport, I’ve been part of her audience numerous times to hear her speak. I’ve been to Women’s Sports Foundation galas where she was the emcee, I’ve been a guest on her nationally syndicated radio show. On an Olivia cruise, a few years ago, she asked permission to and then rubbed her hand over my spiky short hair and proclaimed that it felt like a “bear’s belly.” I have no doubt that she would know. Sharks, bears, 103 miles – she is fearless.

I will be following Diana’s swim which she is planning to complete sometime this month. I invite you to also. She is a women’s sports pioneer who is setting an example for all of us 60 and over (and those under 60 for that matter). If she can swim from Cuba to Key West, what kind of goals can we set for ourselves?

I just started swim training again last month. I dug my favorite goggles out of an old gym bag and got myself back in the water. I did not make the connection between Diana’s swim and my return to the water until I started writing this post, but I am sure Diana’s audacity inspired me. You go, girl! I’m rooting for you.

Eliminating Homophobia in Men’s Professional Sports: Whose Responsibility Is It?

2010-08-09T09:03:00.003-05:00

I have come across several articles lately focused on the issue of gay professional male athletes coming out. This one and this one are examples of the kind of articles I’ve seen. Both articles speculate about why it is that no male professional team sport athletes in the United States have come out while they are still actively competing. Some articles cite the distraction that would undoubtedly be part of the sports media frenzy accompanying this announcement and how gay athletes might not want to become the GAY athlete. Other writers speculate that the loss of corporate sponsorship opportunities and negative reactions from teammates or fans are the factors that keep gay professional athletes in the closet.

Lebron James and other pro athletes have opined about the lack of acceptance or downright hostility that they predict would await any teammate who comes out publicly. To be fair a few other pros have, in contrast, expressed the belief that any teammate’s sexual orientation is irrelevant and what counts is the player’s contribution to the team’s success on the field ( Johnny Damon, Detroit Tigers and former Yankee, Mike Mussina, for example). When players talk about their discomfort with having a gay teammate, it usually comes down to the locker room, the sanctity of the locker room. LeBron described the necessity of teammates being “trustworthy” and his belief that having a gay man in the locker room would break this bond among teammates. Other players have expressed the more naked (so to speak) discomfort with the possibility that a gay teammate might look at their penis in the showers. I don’t know about you, but I find it a little strange that these big strong guys, the culturally designated epitome of masculinity are afraid that a gay man might sneak a peek at their wee wees.

I wonder if the whole thing isn’t more that this though. I wonder if the resistance to accepting a gay man in the locker room and on the team doesn’t have more to do with the fragility of masculinity and the illusion of superiority that being a heterosexual male athlete confers on the chosen ones who get to be part of that “band of brothers” sharing that locker room. I wonder if some guys worry that if a gay man is tough and talented enough to make the team and earns his right to be in that locker room, then the whole experience of being a pro team sport athlete is cheapened in their eyes. The whole bonding thing among male teammates becomes suspect.

Perhaps this is all academic clap trap, but it is worth thinking about. It makes sense to me if you take a broader view of the function of homophobia and the role it plays in sustaining heterosexual male privilege. I think homophobia plays a similar role in the resistance to the acceptance of women’s sports. The presence of seriously talented women athletes and equal opportunities in sport for all women in sport also is seen as an invasion on the sacred heterosexual male turf of sport.

But I am digressing. The point I wanted to make is that focusing on when an individual gay male professional team sport athlete comes out is interesting, but places the emphasis in the wrong place. It really isn’t about the brave and pioneering gay man who will come out sooner or later while he is still playing.

Though I will be thrilled to greet his announcement, it alone will not change the homophobic culture of men’s sports. Buried in Scott Gyurina’s Bleacher Report article is the following quote, “The responsibility cannot be laid on the shoulders of the gay athletes, it is not their responsibility to make the culture open and accepting for them. It is the duty of all of us to let go of our prejudice and preconceived notions in order to make it acceptable for people to feel free to open and honest, unafraid of repercussions for being true to who they are.”

John Amaechi took some heat from the gay press a few months ago for cautioning gay male athletes about coming out and tamping down expectations for any who do in the near future. He was accused of contradicting the common wisdom among many gay rights activists that coming out is always a good thing for all LGBT people, the sooner the better. I think many people missed John’s point though. He was trying to put the focus where it belongs – on the culture of men’s sports, on heterosexual male pro athletes and coaches, on athletic leaders. He was trying to point out how unreasonable it is to expect an individual athlete to change a social institution, especially if the individual is unprepared for being a social change advocate.

I am not discounting the power of individuals in social change. I have witnessed some pretty transformative experiences as a result of individual LGBT people coming out. Research also tells us that knowing individual LGBT people as friends, colleagues, family members or teammates does affect heterosexual people’s attitudes about LGBT people in general. However, we cannot place the responsibility of changing men’s sports culture on the backs of individual gay male athletes who come out.

We need more heterosexual men in sport to step up, to be team leaders, to have the courage to speak out publicly against homophobia in men’s sports and in support of gay rights in general. Fortunately we are beginning to see some role models who are doing just that in professional and college sports. Scott Fujita, a Cleveland Browns player; Hudson Taylor, University of Maryland wrestler; Jim Tressel, Ohio State Football coach; and Brian Burke, Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager are a few of these outspoken men. We need more heterosexual athletes, coaches, team owners and general managers who are willing to be public allies to their closeted colleagues and help their gay-challenged brethren to at least show a little more maturity, respect and class when someone sticks a microphone in front of their mouth.

We need to make it cool to speak out against homophobia and uncool and cowardly to speak out against the inclusion of LGBT people in sport and other social institutions. Outsports posted this web site where ordinary, everyday people of all sexual orientations are speaking out against homophobia. We need more role models and opportunities for heterosexual men to speak up for respect and fairness and against fear and prejudice in and out of sport.

That is how we will create the space for individual gay male professional athletes to come out without the risk of sacrificing all they have worked for to reach the professional ranks in order to simply live openly. I’d love to see the next bunch of articles on gay male professional athletes coming out focus on changing heterosexual male athletes’ attitudes and the homophobic culture of men’s sports rather than focusing on how an individual gay man needs to come out into it.

Allegations of Anti-Lesbian Bias in IUPUI Women’s Basketball Program

2010-07-29T09:21:00.007-05:00

Here we go again. An article in the Indianapolis Star reports that allegations of NCAA rule violations and allegations of abuse have been lodged against the head coach and associate head coach of women’s basketball at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).

The abuse allegations against coaches Shann Hart and Chanel Spriggs come from 11 former players. The Star article reports that 28 players and assistant coaches have left the program in the last four seasons. This number includes 19 scholarship athletes. Wow. Wouldn’t you think that these numbers might raise some kind of red flag for administrators that something is terribly wrong in the women’s basketball program? These numbers are higher than the 23 people who left the Oregon State women’s program where the head coach was fired amid allegations of abusive and, frankly, a little unhinged behavior. I wrote about the situation at Oregon State in my June 2 post.

The IUPUI players claim that the coaches created an “atmosphere of fear, favoritism, humiliation and inappropriate interest in their personal lives.” One player told the Star that she was asked “explicitly” about her sexual orientation and others described a “reckless” postgame “rant” by the coach about players who “break team rules by becoming involved in intimate relationships with each other.”

IUPUI has named a three member panel to investigate the charges. Coaches Hart and Spriggs have declined to comment on the allegations. No timeline for the investigative panel’s report has been made public, but I will definitely follow-up on this.

A state-wide LGBT rights organization, Indiana Equality, has taken note of the anti-lesbian allegations and sent a letter to the university president and athletic director citing the university’s non-discrimination policy and demanding that they take action if the allegations are confirmed.

If these allegations of abuse are substantiated, it is not only the coaches who should be held accountable. It is also the school athletic administrators and any other athletic staff who ignored or supported the alleged abusive behavior and anti-lesbian interrogations and relationship rules. How many times do we have to hear this story or variations of it for coaches and administrators to begin to take seriously their responsibilities to abide by school policies and state non-discrimination laws?

And, please, to people who say homophobia is no longer an issue in women’s sports: These allegations are exactly the kind of abuse of power and unethical coach behavior that ruins sport for all women athletes, not just lesbians, but any woman athlete who must live in fear of accusation or innuendo.

*Thanks to Helen Carroll for calling this situation to my attention.

Looking Gay Male Athletes

2010-07-23T09:40:00.003-05:00

Dee Mosbacher, the acclaimed videographer who brought us the amazing documentary "Training Rules", is planning her next project. She asked me if I would post the following notice on my blog. I am happy to help Dee in anyway I can. She produces high quality award-winning educational videos that advance the cause of LGBT equality in and out of sport.

So, if you are a gay male athlete or if you know gay male athletes who fit the following demographics, please contact Dee or provide your friends with her contact information so we can all help Dee with her new and important project:

Looking for a Few Gay Men

If you are an out gay athlete who was awarded an athletic scholarship to college or recruited from college for a professional career, you may be eligible to be featured in an upcoming documentary by Academy Award nominated producers/directors Dee Mosbacher and Fawn Yacker (see TrainingRules.com for info about our last film). Please send a brief sports bio and your contact information, using the subject line MEN'S SPORTS to:

DMosbacher@aol.com

Dee Mosbacher, MD
Woman Vision
3570 Clay Street
San Francisco, CA, 94118
www.WomanVision.org
www.TrainingRules.com

Jennie Finch Retires, but Leaves Her Glitter and Make-up Behind

2010-07-21T09:28:00.004-05:00

Jennie Finch is an awesome softball pitcher. No question about that. Her accomplishments on the field speak for themselves: NCAA championships, Olympic gold and silver medals, World Championship. She was arguably the face of women’s softball for the last 10 years.

Unfortunately in women’s sports though, it takes more than being an accomplished athlete to get the mainstream sports media’s attention. You have to combine your awesome talent with physical beauty and then highlight your “femininity” by wearing make-up when you play your sport, swinging a hot pink bat, festooning your long hair with glitter and brightly colored ribbons. You should also pose in sexy photo shoots for men’s magazines if you really want to show your stuff (and I’m not talking about your wicked curve ball).

In perhaps one of the more nauseating quotes I’ve read recently, Jessica Mendoza, one of Jennie’s teammates and President of the Women’s Sports Foundation says of Finch,

"She set the standard for softball in a new era of being able to be feminine and play this sport. Not that you have to be feminine to play this sport, but I see hundreds of thousands of little girls now with glitter headbands, hot pink bats, makeup. I'm not saying that every girl has to do that but when I was growing up, it wasn't like that. She has created a new era of softball player, and it's for those softball players -- those little girls out there -- that want to be cutesy with the bows and the glitter and still be that dirty jock. Covered head to toe in dirt but she's got her hair all perfect with a bow."

It saddens me that the “freedom” to be feminine is somehow interpreted as progress for women’s softball and women’s sports. This is not a new era. Appearing feminine has always been a requirement, hardly a “freedom.” Women athletes have always needed to prove their femininity and heterosexuality. They have always needed to compensate for their athleticism by highlighting their “normality,” that would be their girly-girlness and their interest in men. The acceptance of women athletes has always depended on their ability to project conventional femininity and heterosexuality: She can strike out big league baseball players, but, by gosh, the ribbons in her hair are so darn cute, her make-up is impeccable, and not a hair out of place.

Women athletes have always felt the pressure to compensate for being “dirty jocks” (read lesbians) by presenting a feminine image off the field. Is it really progress that now women have to do it on the field as well? Is it progress that game preparation now includes hair and make-up sessions and the application of glitter and the tying of pretty hair ribbons? Is it really progress that “hundreds of thousands” of little girls now believe that glitter, hair ribbons, and make-up are part of a softball uniform? Will little girls who aspire to be like Jennie Finch believe they need to pose in men's magazines to be accepted as athletes?

Don’t get me wrong, I would be happy if it were true that girl and women athletes had choices in how they present themselves. The ones who like long hair, ribbons, make-up, and glitter can wear it and the ones who don’t are equally celebrated as role models. The ones who are partnered with or married to men and the ones who are partnered with or married to women have their personal lives equally celebrated and respected. Now that would be a new era for softball and all of women’s sports.

Home Again!

2010-07-12T09:49:00.000-05:00

We are home from our travels. I was disconnected from cyberworld for eight days while we were on a Grand Canyon raft trip – Amazing! Absolutely no contact with the outside world for eight days. It was pretty cool, but left me wondering what international calamities we would face when we got back to civilization. Though we had absolutely no access to the outside world in the canyon, I had to take my Blackberry with me, buried deep in my dry bag in a waterproof pouch. Somehow it managed to die anyway, so I had to make a quick trip to Verizon for a replacement in Las Vegas.

Last week the powers that be ruled that Caster Semenya can compete as a woman. I must admit that I did not give them enough credit because I feared they would ban her from future competition. I am happy to be surprised. They also refused to release any information about Caster’s medical review which I also applaud.
Next, I am hoping that, at the meeting of international sport governing organizations scheduled to take place in the next few months, guidelines for inclusion of women athletes who are intersex (or have disorders of sexual development, as the docs prefer) will be changed so that women who live and identify as women and are intersex will be eligible to compete, period.

The stumbling block is resistance from sports leaders and competitors who fear that allowing women athletes who are intersex to compete in women’s events will upset “the level playing field” in women’s sports. I think we are singling out intersex athletes as a threat to the so-called level playing field when there are so many ways that the playing field is tilted in favor of some athletes over others that we just accept as part of the competition. How come?

Related to this is the need to revise the process for challenging a competitor’s eligibility to compete in women’s events. Right now, just about anyone can challenge any competitor on just about any prejudiced notion of what a woman is supposed to look, act and perform like. We have already seen what kind of travesty this procedure can cause in the horribly botched process last summer when Caster Semenya was challenged.

I’ll write more on this later. Just wanted you to know I am back and I’m blogging again.

Time Out for Blogging - Going On Vacation

2010-06-20T10:09:00.002-05:00

I will be on vacation for the next three weeks and will not be posting anything on my blog until Mid-July. The first week we are going on an eight day raft trip through the Grand Canyon. Woo Hoo! I hope all my readers have some fun plans for the summer too. I'll be back soon. Take care, Pat

What Do USA Swimming and the Catholic Church Have In Common?

2010-06-16T13:45:00.004-05:00

Answer: A big disgusting sex scandal, that’s what.

For several months USA Swimming has been embroiled in lawsuits and accusations related to their lax oversight of and response to numerous instances of male coach sexual misconduct with young female swimmers, some as young as eleven. It has recently come to light that, over the last ten years, USA Swimming has banned 36 male swim coaches for sexual misconduct with female team members. Those are just the ones who have been identified. One of the men on the list is Everett Uchiyama, former director of the US National Team.

The abused swimmers who have come forward, their parents, and their lawyers believe that USA Swimming has failed to take seriously their responsibility to conduct thorough background checks on coaches affiliated with USA Swimming. This ABC 20/20 segment on this scandal includes an incredibly tone deaf interview with the executive director of USA Swimming, Chuck Wielgus, that illustrates the problem. Like the leaders of the Catholic Church, he doesn’t seem to understand the magnitude of the problem or want to take responsibility for his organization’s role in failing to protect young girls and women in USA Swimming sponsored programs from sexual predator coaches.

To be sure, USA Swimming is not solely to blame. Parents bear some responsibility as well as local swim clubs who hire these guys. However, it has taken public scrutiny and lawsuits to force USA Swimming to make public the list of banned coaches and begin to beef up their policies and procedures for education, protection, and investigation.

In one of his most insensitive moments, Chuck Wielgus chides the teenaged victims for not coming forward sooner. Right. You are 11, 12 or 13 years old. You have a dream. You want to make the Olympic team. Your coach is going to help you realize your dream. He knows what to do. You want to please him. He’s your coach, you do what he says. You work hard. He is an adult. He is a good coach. Everyone says so. He gets results. What are you to do when he starts doing things that don’t feel right? Do you tell your parents? What will they say? Will the coach stop helping you reach your dream? Is it your fault that he is acting this way? Maybe the special attention feels good in some ways…for awhile. You decide to keep a secret in hopes that things will get better or you can pretend it isn’t happening so that you can keep swimming toward your dream.

Listen to the women athletes who have been sexually abused by their coaches. Even after many years, now adults, they know they have had something stolen from them by men who they trusted to have their best interests at heart when all they really wanted was a secret grope in the equipment room or a blow job in their car on the ride home from practice. One coach directed certain female swimmers to use a “special” locker room where he had a hidden camera set up to secretly record them changing their clothes and showering. I feel like I need a shower just talking about it.

Celia Brackenridge wrote a terrific book, Spoilsports, that examines coach sexual exploitation of athletes. These sexual predators know how to “groom” their targets slowly, gaining their trust and gradually escalating their sexual abuse from simple thoughtfulness or affection to sexually exploitation. It should be required reading for all parents of young girls in sport and the leaders of sport associations like USA Swimming.

A big part of the problem, of course, is that coaches have too much power over their athletes. Athletes tolerate (and parents sometimes condone or ignore or are completely unaware of) all kinds of abusive treatment at the hands of coaches in hopes of reaching their athletic dreams. Athletes and parents often give coaches more trust than they deserve. Athletes spend long hours with a coach, often unsupervised by anyone else, which provides a sexual predator coach with the privacy he needs to get what he wants. The institutions that hire coaches and the organizations that sanction them spend too much time looking at a coach’s win/loss records or the number of Olympians he has tutored and not enough time investigating allegations or suspicions of sexual misconduct by the rotten apples who spoil sport for everyone.

Coach sexual abuse of athletes is a heinous act. It should be treated as the serious crime it is. Every athlete and her or his parents should be educated about what it is, how to recognize it, and what to do about it. Every sports organization should have a strong policy and procedure front and center for dealing with it. A good coach must know more than the best ways to train an athlete for competition. He or she must know what ethical standards are required of adults who have the privilege of coaching young people and must adhere to them.

Since this is an LGBT sports blog, I will say that coach sexual abuse of athletes is not a gender or sexual orientation issue. It is wrong no matter who the coach is. That said, can we also contemplate the possibility that there may be something about heterosexual male privilege, the sexual exploitation of women, and sexism in general that make this problem primarily one of male perpetrators and female victims? I am not saying that heterosexual women or lesbian coaches could not be sexual predators, but I think that our culture has a tendency to create, tolerate or excuse male sexual predators and blame their female victims for calling our attention to them. It is way past time to challenge this passivity in response to sex abuse by men whether we are talking about the Catholic Church or the local club swim team.