Imagine coming out to your college rugby team and being met with: “Oh that’s cool. Pass the salt.” That’s what lesbians coming out on the Kent State rugby have experienced as more and more of them come out. There are straights and lesbians on the team, and what they’ve built is a welcoming environment for both. From Campus Progress and Fusion Magazine:
Once I introduce myself, a few women volunteer to be interviewed. We stand off to the side of the pitch while the rest practice. As the women form a semicircle in front of me and I tell them more about the story I’m working on, Kayla Maroney tells me she’s gay.
“I didn’t know you were gay,” senior costume design major Tasha Walls says, surprised not by the confession, but rather by the fact that she didn’t already know.
“Yep,” Maroney says. The conversation continues as if Maroney, a junior psychology major, had been commenting about the muddy state of the pitch that afternoon.
on Apr 14th, 2010 at 3:43 PM
Reminds me of a conversation I had with a woman who, like me, went to a few weeks of practices with the university rugby team then decided that it wasn’t for her. (Paraphrased to keep the language SFW.)
Her: I never really fit in because I like men too much.
Me: I had the same problem with the men’s team.
on Apr 18th, 2010 at 8:04 AM
I attended Kent State in the early 80s and I am proud that my university is still on the forefront of gay leadership.