Avery Stone, an out lesbian hockey player at Amherst College, tells the story of visiting Bryant University recently to speak about her participation in Jeff Sheng’s Fearless campaign photo series. Before she got to her speaking engagement, someone at the school had stolen all of Sheng’s photos from the exhibit. Stone writes about her feelings [...]
Posts under ‘Campus’
Campus Pride releases list of 10 LGBT-friendly college athletic departments
Campus Pride has released its list of the 10 most LGBT-friendly colleges for athletes. The schools that made the list are: Bates College (who hosted Hudson Taylor, left), Bowdoin College, Bucknell University, Columbia University, Indiana University, Ithaca College, Kennesaw State University, New York University, Stanford University and Whitman College. Campus Pride founder Shane Windmeyer is making [...]
Canadians say ‘You Can Play’
Several new ‘You Can Play’ videos have come out of Canada in the last week, and a couple have some interesting hooks (see all three below). The University of Ottawa’s athletic department (they’re called the Gee-Gees) teamed up to create a bilingual video in French and English. Ottawa borders the province of Quebec, which has [...]
UCLA fights homophobia in athletic department with Hudson Taylor
UCLA, with one of the most storied athletic departments in the NCAA, has embraced the fight against homophobia in sports with a full Athlete Ally initiative including a visit from Hudson Taylor on Monday. For the last week, varsity and club-sport athletes have taken part in an ally photo shoot. Participating in the shoots have [...]
Former Eagle Don McPherson speaks out against homophobia, sexism
Don McPherson didn’t get much playing time in the NFL, spending only three seasons there (1988-’90) before going to the CFL. Since then he’s been committed to ending sexism and homophobia in sports. He previously teamed up with NCLR on a training for the University of Florida athletic department, after lesbian Andrea Zimbardi was kicked [...]
Bryan Fautley of Queen’s University volleyball comes out, returns to team
From Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario comes a fantastic story about a gay athlete and his redeemed college volleyball team. Bryan Fautley had quit the team in 2010 because he was closeted and could not handle the casual homophobia on his team. When the coach found out the reason for his resignation, she changed the [...]
Impact of Hudson Taylor’s Athlete Ally being felt at Whitman College
When Hudson Taylor founded Athlete Ally in early 2011, he was a one-man band. Just over a year later, his organization has spread to various colleges across the United States. Taylor first introduced Athlete Ally to Whitman College in the autumn of 2011. Since then, it’s taken a life of its own. To me, one [...]
NCAA and Athlete Ally enter into partnership
Athlete Ally today announced a new partnership with the NCAA. This is fantastic news. We know the NCAA is already working closely with the National Center for Lesbian Rights; And in recent years the NCAA has taken steps toward ending homophobia in collegiate sports. This is another wonderful step to see. You can read the [...]
College tennis player comes out to “It’s Raining Men”
Brian Healey is captain of the men’s tennis team at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont. By Brian Healey I came out to two of my best friends on one of Saint Michael’s most storied days of revelry. P-Day at Saint Mike’s is our answer to the traditional “Spring Weekend” before finals. It feels like [...]
Paul Tagliabue and wife donated $1 million for Georgetown LGBT Center
Wow, we totally whiffed on this one. Last October, former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and his wife donated $1 million to Paul’s alma mater, Georgetown University, to establish the Tagliabue Initiative for LGBT Life: Fostering Formation and Transformation. According to the Washington Blade, Tagliabue said this in a statement at the time of the donation: The [...]
DePaul’s student body president is a gay athlete
Anthony Alfano was deep in the closet when he entered DePaul University, America’s largest Catholic university. Just three years later he’s openly gay and was elected the school’s student body president. The openly gay part is recent: He came out last month as part of National Coming Out Day. Still, other students have known for [...]
Joe Paterno fired from Penn State, idiot students riot in response
It is fitting and appropriate that Joe Paterno was fired tonight by Penn State. The winning head football coach at one of the nation’s proudest programs simply could not take the field with the Nittany Lions against Nebraska on Saturday. Earlier in the day Paterno tried to cut off the school’s move by agreeing to [...]
Moment #63: NCAA initiates workshop on sexual orientation
Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Various sports, 2003. When the NCAA instituted on-campus diversity education workshops focusing on sexual orientation issues, it made an institutional commitment to ending homophobia in sports. The workshop is free to the school and welcomes athletes, coaches, faculty and others across [...]
Moment #66: Formation of Penn’s Athletes and Allies Tackling Homophobia and Heterosexism
Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Various sports, 2003. When University of Pennsylvania track athlete Paul Farber (right) quit his team in late 2001, he did so because he didn’t feel comfortable being gay on the team. Just over a year later he decided to do something [...]
Stanford has several out gay athletes, school offers tacit support for them
Ryan Mac of Stanford University’s student newspaper, the Stanford Daily, has penned a revealing article about the state of gay athletes in the nation’s top athletic department. He spoke with a couple female athletes and was even able to talk with Dwight Slater, the former Stanford football player who came out to his team (before [...]
Eric Anderson’s latest study shows increasing acceptance of gay athletes by teammates
Eric Anderson (aka Coach Gumby) has long been one of the world’s leading academics on gay-sports issues. Recently his research revealed an increasing trend of young straight men kissing one another. Now comes an update on his research into the treatment of gay athletes. Previously explored in 2002, Anderson has brought his analysis into 2010 [...]
Another out athlete is embraced by his team: Carroll University’s Seth Pamperin
Today we bring you the story of another captain of a college sports team who has come out. Seth Pamperin of Carroll University in Wisconsin has actually been out to his tennis team for two years, but this is the first time he has talked about it to a national publication. Seth’s story is like [...]
Successful discussion of gay issues at American Hockey Coaches Association convention
GForce hockey and Patrick Burke held a panel discussion at the American Hockey Coaches Association convention last weekend. The discussion was attended by coaches at all levels of hockey. A full press release on the convention and the group’s push to further discussions of gay athletes in hockey is after the jump. Share on [...]
Discussion of gay issues to take place at national hockey coaches convention
More great news out of college hockey. GForce is again teaming up with Patrick Burke to present a conversation, this time at the American Hockey Coaches Convention, April 28-May 1 in Naples, Fla. The panel discussion features Burke, out former Oneonta State lacrosse captain Andrew McIntosh, and out former Univ. of Pennsylvania hockey captain Dave [...]
Bowdoin College has out lacrosse captain, first publicly out NCAA varsity men’s head coach
We’re proud to bring you today the stories of two men at liberal arts college Bowdoin College. Lacrosse captain Ben Chadwick has been out on his team for over two years; Men’s head tennis coach Colin Joyner has been out for even longer. Both men have come together to tear down walls of homophobia in [...]