When Sean Smith, a former University swimmer and coach, came out as gay in 2005 during his senior year of college, he struggled to find guidance at the University despite the support of his teammates.
“I always felt like there was a magnifying glass on me, so I was very destructive to myself because I didn’t know where I could go to get help,” Smith said.
While he said his experience with homophobia in college athletics was better than most, he also saw its ugly side, making him an advocate for the rarely-discussed issue.
The University will host an event Thursday raising awareness for the typically taboo subject.
“We R All One Team: Homophobia in Intercollegiate Sports” will feature a screening of the movie “Training Rules” from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room of the Cook Campus Center, followed by a panel discussion.
Smith, scheduled to be a panelist, said everyone’s experience is different.
Andrew Germek, who is on the University’s club crew team, said he came out his sophomore year of college.
He worried the relationships with his teammates would change, but they did not.
Instead, he said his team was very accepting.
“Nothing changed; the experience was fine,” said Germek, a Rutgers College senior.
Senior Dean of Students Mark Schuster, an openly gay administrator who teaches a course on sexuality and gender in athletics, said there was resistance in the past dealing openly with the issue.
“We’ve come a very long way, certainly in terms of the University and the athletic department,” said Schuster, who added that the University is one of the top in the nation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender acceptance.
Support is important for closeted athletes to feel comfortable coming out, because homophobia can be prevalent in an athletic environment, Smith said.
“I think it’s a nationwide phenomena that homophobia is still so accepted in the sports world,” Smith said.
Schuster said this is important to address, as this is a group six to eight times more likely to commit suicide.
Germek said during his first year, he heard slurs such as “That’s so gay” in the locker room. This stopped when he came out.
Schuster said the hyper-feminized and hyper-masculinized nature of athletics creates misperceptions and stereotypes about athletes, making it difficult for those questioning their sexuality.
“Even straight-identified or non-LGBT-identified women … if they’re very athletic, the default is they’re lesbians,” he said.
One misperception toward LGBT athletes is that they check out others in the locker room, Germek said. Common team actions such as hugging could also be misperceived.
“We hope that in a college setting, everyone will embrace the diversity of all of those around them,” said University Athletic Director Tim Pernetti in an e-mail correspondence. “Just like with anything else, everyone will react differently based on their own beliefs and values.”
Schuster said the school and state have several methods to support LGBT athletes institutionally, such as the implementation of an NCAA rule.
“The NCAA requires that if an institution does not show ways in which they’ve created safe spaces for LGBT athletes, they could lose their membership with the NCAA,” Schuster said.
The NCAA is also actively seeking acceptance and instruction on the issue, and the state and University have non-discrimination policies to help LGBT athletes feel safe, Schuster said.
“Rutgers athletics and the University follow the same policy prohibiting discrimination and harassment,” Pernetti said. “I can’t speak to what other universities do and how our policy compares, other than to say that Rutgers’ policy has always been progressive.”
Smith said safe places for gay and lesbian athletes still raises some difficulties.
“It’s a very insulated community in an athletic department, so everyone ends up knowing everyone else’s business through the training room,” he said.
A closeted gay athlete might not feel comfortable going for help at these places, as the word could spread faster than the athlete is comfortable, Smith said.
Two years ago, he helped create Our Group, an online forum to help LGBT college athletes struggling with their sexuality.
“Athletes can go [online], share stories [and] have peers who really understand what they’re going through,” Smith said. “Some of my straight peers were my greatest allies, but I didn’t really feel like they could understand what I was going through … and so Our Group came about to fill that void.”
Germek and Smith said there are bigger changes that need to be made to make LGBT athletes more accepted in society.
There should be more openly gay professional athletes others can look up to, Germek said.
“What we need to have is professional athletes who are OK coming out [and] who are still going to receive sponsorship,” he said.
Smith said LGBT athletes also should not have to make a choice between being gay and being an athlete.
“You don’t have to either be a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender person or an athlete, and right now, I think that’s what most people make the choice of,” he said.
Important steps lie in diversity training for coaches and athletes, cutting down on homophobic slurs in the locker room and getting the administration on board, Smith said.
“I think if you start diversity training, then people might feel more comfortable coming out while they’re still competing,” Germek said.
Smith said the biggest change people could make toward accepting homosexuality is to be conscious of what they and others say.
“But if you can’t do it, how is the gay kid in the corner supposed to be able to do it all the time?” he said.
The movie “Training Rules” examines the dismissal of Penn State University LGBT college athletes under PSU basketball coach Rene Portland’s three rules of no drinking, drugs or lesbians.
“I think it’s terrific that Rutgers is hosting a screening of ‘Training Rules’ on Nov. 5 on our campus,” Pernetti said. “I have seen the film and it does an excellent job in addressing some very important issues, and I hope it further helps those that see it to understand that discrimination of any kind is not something that should be tolerated on a college campus, or anywhere for that matter.”
Sue Rankin will moderate the panel discussion. She was the recipient of the 2008 ACPA Voice of Inclusion Medallion and a former PSU softball coach who resigned when she felt she was discriminated for being a lesbian.
In addition to Smith and Rankin, other panelists include: Ted Rypka, director of sports and media for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation; John Koblin, a reporter for the NY Observer who studies this issue; Matthew Pletcher, University assistant wrestling coach; and other University student-athletes, Schuster said.
Smith said he hopes the event will bring more awareness to a little-discussed issue.
“No one really knows the answer of ‘how do you protect a minority group when it’s still a taboo subject to talk about,’” he said.
U. affiliates to address athlete homophobia
Published: Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Updated: Sunday, November 8, 2009
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