LGBT & Collegiate Athlete:
Mutually Exclusive in Ohio?
by William Ashley
We all have that locker-room fantasy: You walk into a steamy, sweat-scented room after a long practice and go at it with one of your chiseled teammates. Hell, going to any gay man’s web-browser history is further proof that this scenario is alive and kicking.
The fantasy may be fun for the majority of LGBT individuals, but what about those people who have to live in the world of athletics every day? For them, the fantasy can turn into a harsh reality. Are sports still a realm of exclusive hyper-masculinity, with no room for those who don’t fit the mold? Specifically, in today’s supposedly tolerant, Will & Grace and Ellen DeGeneres generation, are colleges and universities supportive of LGBT student-athletes?
In central Pennsylvania, at least one student-athlete had a positive experience as both a gay man and a football captain. At the turn of the 21st century, Brian Sims was the captain of his college football team during a successful season that led to the State Championship game. One of his teammates asked him a frightful question midway through the season, “Are you gay?”.
In an interview with OutSports.com, Sims told the story of a jilted lover who disclosed their relationship to one of his teammates in an effort to get him kicked off the football team. That teammate approached Sims about the accusation, and his affirmative response led to the unexpected acceptance from his team. Afterward, his football friends always looked out for him; going as far as forcefully kicking a man out of a bar who was making fun of Sims while he was on a date.
Sims’ story is an example of the true bond that grows between members of a sports team, regardless of individual differences. Unlike Sims, many gay student-athletes choose to stay in the closet in fear that their teammates will not accept their sexual orientation. Emily Roper and Erin Halloran of Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX conducted a study in 2007 that aimed to explore attitudes toward lesbians and gay men among straight-college athletes. Roper and Halloran distributed a survey to several colleges and universities in the northeast region of the United States and examined the results according to the student-athletes’ gender, sport, and contact with gay men and lesbians.
In their hypothesis, Roper and Halloran predicted that heterosexual male athletes might have worse attitudes toward LGBT individuals than straight-women athletes, athletes who participate on a team sport might have a more negative view towards gay men and lesbians, and that contact with lesbians and gay men would strengthen positive heterosexual views.
The results of Roper and Halloran’s study indicated that heterosexual men were significantly more negative towards homosexuals, and towards gay men in particular. Contrary to their predictions, Roper and Halloran found that there was no significant difference in attitude from those on team sports (football, basketball, soccer) and those on individual sports (cross country, golf, tennis). In fact, the sport with the most LGBT-tolerant athletes was women’s field hockey, and the most negative sports were men’s soccer, men’s basketball, men’s golf, and men’s track and field. As you can see, that is healthy mix of both team and individual sports. As for the third part of their hypothesis, the survey results showed that contact with LGBT individuals greatly strengthened heterosexuals’ views towards gay men and lesbians. This was further explanation for the high scores of the female field hockey players, because it was later noted that the coaches for many of these athletes were self-identifying lesbians.
The Pennsylvania graduate’s story and the results of Roper and Halloran’s survey are both inspiring and comforting to a certain degree, but what about the student-athletes in our own backyard? Are Ohio colleges and universities creating a welcoming atmosphere for gay college athletes?
For Ohio’s flagship university, the answer is quick and simple: yes. Dan Wallenburg, associate athletic director for communications at The Ohio State University, said, “Ohio State works to create environments where student-athletes feel supported, regardless of individual background. The [athletic] department is committed to reinforcing and enhancing a climate of mutual respect.”
A similar statement came from the hills of Granville, Ohio. Denison University Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Coach Pan Fanaritis said that he expects “respect and acceptance of everyone’s individual differences.” He noted that he has never had a problem with a student-athlete’s sexuality in his 17 years at Denison University. For his track and field athletes, judgment is based on what the athlete brings to the team. Fanaritis calls it the “ultimate compliment” to be judged on athletic ability alone.
While Fanaritis may have several years of experience in dealing with the acceptance of individual differences in his athletes, Mike Pearson, athletic media relations director for Miami University, said that this issue has only come up once during his three years at the Oxford, Ohio institution. That student was Brendan Burke, a video technician and student manager for the Redhawks. Pearson said that Burke announced his sexuality in late 2009 and had the full support of the athletic department. Unfortunately, Burke was killed in a car accident in February 2010. Burke’s parents praised Miami University for supporting their son after he came out. The hockey players at Miami considered him a full-fledged teammate, and they all attended his funeral.
In December 2009, Burke sat down with ESPN.com to share his story as a gay athlete. “I think it’s important that my story is told to people, because there are a lot of gay athletes out there and gay people working in pro sports that deserve to know there are safe environments where people are supportive regardless of your sexual orientation,” he said during the interview.
Fredrick (name changed at individual’s request) is one of those people who try to create a supportive atmosphere for gay student-athletes. As a collegiate-level coach who is open with his sexuality to his team, Fredrick said that his overall experience has been very positive. However, he did mention one situation that definitely caused some stress in the workplace. A straight-male athlete on Fredrick’s team once accused him of sexual harassment. Specifically, the student said that Fredrick had fondled him.
Fredrick was approached by the university administration and had to go through an investigation from the human resources department. Other student-athletes on Fredrick’s team also had to be questioned regarding Fredrick’s behavior.
“The university was very fair and balanced in their investigation,” Fredrick said. “The student who was accusing me of harassment kept changing his story and mine stayed the same, and I also had the full support of my other student-athletes during the questioning process.”
Surprisingly, Fredrick thought it was better that the accusation came from a male athlete rather than a female athlete. He said that females traditionally have the advantage in sexual-harassment cases, and the administration had to really diffuse the stories because it involved two men. That in-depth break down of the situation from the beginning, free of the presumed weight towards female accusers, helped clear his name in the case.
Fredrick said that his open sexuality is usually not a big deal on his team, because he coaches a sport that is traditionally more open-minded. “I can definitely see that having a gay athlete or coach might be uncomfortable on a team sport like wrestling or football,” he said.
Fredrick’s reservations about being gay on an intimate team sport were Mike’s reality. Mike (name changed at individual’s request) was a closeted wrestler at an Ohio school. He recalled his time as a gay collegiate wrestler to be one of the biggest struggles of his life. “Wrestling was everything to me, from growing up to high school to college. Having that kind of secret was like a giant elephant in the room that I could never stop thinking about,” he said.
Mike admitted that he is usually hesitant to bring up his past experience with wrestling, because he doesn’t want people to think he wrestled for the wrong reason. While rolling around with another guy in spandex sounds fun for some of us, Mike was always able to separate his desires from his sport. “I looked at my teammates and competitors in the same way that I look at girls. It was never a problem for me. I was a wrestler because it was an important part of my life,” he said.
Mike went through a lot of pressure to keep up his double life. At one point, he said, he was cornered by his teammates and questioned about his lack of relationships. After that instance, Mike dated a girl for a few months just to get his teammates to drop the subject. Towards the end of his college career, Mike began to take notice of which teammates were using homophobic slander and which teammates might be more accepting of his sexuality.
“I always knew at some point it would surface, so I had to take note of my teammates’ true feelings,” Mike said. He came out after graduating from college and eventually his former teammates discovered his sexual orientation. The majority of them would not even look at him afterward. Mike said the most painful part was that he was friends with his teammates while in the closet, but they wanted nothing to do with him after he came out.
Even with their negative reaction, Mike still feels as though he could have fought harder to stay friends with his former teammates. “If I could do it over again, then I would have handled the situation better. I still would have waited until after I was done wrestling, but I would have been more proactive in trying to keep those friendships,” he said.
Unlike Mike’s unfortunate experience, my time as a gay student-athlete at Ohio State was entirely positive. I was a member of the cheerleading squad; a sport often reported as being filled with gay men. Contrary to popular belief, however, gay men were a minority on our cheerleading squad. About 20 percent of Ohio State’s male cheerleaders were gay during my tenure. Homosexuality was an open topic for the squad, and no one was ever harassed or tormented for their willingness to disclose their sexual orientation. Of course, you had the occasional straight guy who felt he had to overly exert his masculinity to make up for the fact that he was in a traditionally feminine sport. They would whine and complain if they had to share a room with a gay man during a traveling football or basketball game, but they never went out of their way to make any of us feel out of place or ostracized from the group.
As I previously mentioned, cheerleading is often noted as being filled with gay men. On the flip side, I have to wonder how a lesbian would be treated on a cheerleading squad. What about lesbians on college teams, in general? Roper and Halloran’s study had this to say about straight student-athletes’ views toward lesbians: From both male and female heterosexual athletes, overall attitudes toward gay men were significantly more negative than attitudes toward lesbians.
I did not find that statement to be at all surprising. Female athletes, in and of themselves, are already a contradiction to the traditional concept of athletics: a manly man’s world. Now, before you go off on a feminist tangent about that statement, know that I am a self-proclaimed feminist. Still, you have to admit that athletic, sporty females are viewed as being tougher than your average woman, and lesbianism is an intensified view of that generalization. Thus, it is not too surprising that lesbians are not viewed as negatively as gay men. People often expect lesbians to be athletic; it’s the softball stereotype. Gay men, who are often stereotyped as hyper-feminine, do not have this so-called gender benefit.
Overall, whether it’s lesbians or gay men, I think LGBT collegiate athletes stand in a great position. When taking into account Sims’ tale of acceptance as a gay football captain, Roper and Halloran’s survey results, and my own personal experience, I would say that the collegiate sports arena is becoming a more welcoming place with each and every passing day. Sims’ story, in particular, shows that some sports just have a facade of exclusive hyper-masculinity. On the contrary, I believe Mike’s experience shows that wrestling, in particular, is a sport that will definitely be slower in its acceptance of homosexuals. The constant male-on-male, intimate contact with a self-identifying gay man may be too much for heterosexual athletes to handle.
Even with the slow progress in wrestling, I feel very optimistic about the future of LGBT student-athletes. Here’s to hoping that the next generation of collegiate athletes will be taught that sexual orientation is not an indicator of athletic prowess, and that a homo can really kick your ass on the field.
Check this out….some of my work is noted.