By Christianne Walker
© Curve Magazine, May 2002

"I grew up my whole life with people calling me a boy, or dribbling down the court and people screaming, 'Dyke!'" says Jenn, a 28-year-old lesbian who played Division I basketball at an Ivy League school for four years. "It just was a regular way I existed."

"Before I was out, I was afraid to join the softball team because of the fear of becoming what they called 'Dykes on Spikes,'" says Tanya, a 30-year-old high school softball coach, of her college sports experience. "So many people didn't go out for the team because of it."

According to Helen Carroll-acclaimed National Championship Basketball Coach for the University of North Carolina-Asheville, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletic director for twelve years, and now one of the country's foremost authorities on the issue of homophobia in sports-Jenn's and Tanya's experience is all too common for female athletes. "Any woman athlete that plays sports, at some point in her life, will be called a lesbian."

Unfortunately, in American society today, such labeling isn't yet considered a compliment. But Carroll has dedicated her life's work to combating this problem, and change is on the way.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) athletes and coaches endure a wide range of obstacles and inequities in the world of sports. The problem goes beyond mere name-calling-it includes everything from negative recruiting to ostracism by straight teammates, the threat of lost scholarships and coaching jobs to forced closeted behavior and "straight" appearance, and the media's reluctance to feature queer athletes. Under Carroll's direction, the Homophobia in Sports Project at the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), a San Francisco-based legal center, hopes to bring visibility, equality, support and respect to LGBT athletes and coaches at every level of the game.

The large number of lesbians who play sports, and the place that sport holds in our culture-its massive media exposure, its creation of national icons and childhood heroes, and, of course, the billions of dollars it generates-make it a powerful frontier in the fight for lesbian equality. "The fact is," explains Carroll, "sport does capture America's consciousness. And you see society play out in sports, whether it's violence, harassment, or whether it's just good people doing great charitable types of things." By fighting for queer visibility and equality in sports, she says, "We're really trying to make a real, true societal change of the perception of LGBT people. Sport is one of the most visible media. It's the popularity and extended media exposure of sport that provides this kind of endeavor with the opportunity to influence that societal change of LGBT people."

At the root of the problem for women is the negative perception of lesbians in general, and fighting the stereotype that strong women athletes must by definition be lesbians. According to Carroll, "Homophobia is used as a weapon against all women in athletics, not just women who identify as lesbian or bisexual. The label 'lesbian' has long been used to intimidate women from taking on non-traditional roles, including the role of athlete. Many girls, even girls who identify as heterosexual, quit playing sports as young teenagers to avoid being labeled lesbians."

NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell explains how they will attack this problem through the courts: "It is our view that the root of sexual orientation discrimination is really gender discrimination-lesbians are not being proper women, gay men are not being proper men, lesbians should have as our affectional choice men, and gay men should be dominating women sexually and romantically. And when they don't, we are transgressing what is a very strong, serious code in this culture around gender. That is gender discrimination-when somebody suffers. It's really less about who we're sleeping with than the fact that we are not abiding by appropriate gender stereotypes and gender requirements."

The primary motivation for the Homophobia in Sports Project, says Kendell, is the fundamental principle that, "Nobody should ever have to live their life as a lie. People should be able to live with integrity and authenticity."

Jenn was one of few students at her school who didn't live her life as a lie. When she came out her sophomore year, she was one of only a handful of out gay students on campus and remained the only out athlete through graduation. "There just wasn't really a presence of out athletes. And of course, there were plenty of other athletes who were gay, but it was just very silenced. That was my experience in Division I sports, that it was very secretive and that people didn't want people to know. It's basically those of us that were forced out of the closet that were visible, and people who wanted to hide, did."

The pressure to appear straight affects athletes and coaches to a great degree, says Carroll. It affects men and women-straight and gay-from high school through the professional leagues. Homophobia and discrimination cost gay and lesbian athletes their scholarships and coaches their jobs. Straight women coaches fear being perceived as a lesbian and losing their jobs, and lesbian coaches will sometimes marry a man to keep from getting fired. "Women in both those groups really have to try to prove to administrators that they are very feminine and straight to be able to move ahead."

Tanya could easily have been fired from her college softball coaching position when the parents of one of her players complained to the school after their daughter came out to them. "They blamed me and told the school to fire me or they would go to the papers. Fortunately, the college was very supportive and almost laughed at them, but the parents would not let her come back to the school [because of me] and I don't know whatever happened to her. It was very sad."

Jenn's experience demonstrates how college coaches and administrators will often go to great lengths to hide any evidence that their players might be lesbians for fear of damaging recruiting prospects. "The whole typical college dyke jeans-and-baseball-hat-backwards thing wasn't allowed. She didn't want us to do it on campus; she didn't want us to walk to the gym dressed that way. I felt like there was a tricky balance between what she thought was professional or appropriate as young adults and homophobia." Her coach was afraid that if the players looked liked lesbians, "then people are going to see our team this way, and then people aren't going to want to support us or the recruits aren't going to want to come to our school, because that's such a big fear."

"It all comes down to what the PR image is of what a woman should be in sports," says Carroll, "and they don't want anybody to think that they're really lesbians, because they do feel that it's a negative PR image to be showing to America. So because of that particular value, it's really forced upon coaches or athletes that could be role models to be very quiet about that.They shouldn't be treated like, 'Okay, well you can say this, you can't say that. If you have short hair we won't put you in the news, if you have long hair we will.' They just shouldn't be treated like that."

Carroll believes one of the biggest challenges facing athletic directors and coaches today is coaching the younger athletes who have been out since high school or earlier, who know their rights and come to college expecting to be treated fairly. Compounding the problem is that coaches are not trained on how to deal with sexual orientation issues affecting players. When team members constantly wonder who is and isn't a lesbian, it creates a threatening environment for lesbian and straight players and negatively affects team dynamics.

Both Tanya and Jenn say that their teammates were wrapped up in the is-she-or-isn't-she guessing game. Says Jenn, "We did a lot of that, just surmising about each other, and then [when you found out someone was gay] it was like it was finding something bad out. For most of the people who weren't out, obviously they didn't want you to know, even if you were gay. They were worried about people outing each other. It was kind of juvenile and uncomfortable."

Carroll has seen this type of internal turmoil cost lesbian students their scholarships. It often happens in a very subtle way, where the coach claims a player-usually the lesbian whom the other straight players gossip about or feel uncomfortable around-is causing "dissent" on the team and is a disciplinary problem. She is then thrown off the team and loses her scholarship, which can force her to withdraw from school.

"It's time to ask coaches and administrators to take the lead and the responsibility of helping our athletes look at differences and how it's okay to have differences and still be able to work and play together," says Carroll. "We simply don't do that. Coaches aren't taught to do that and administrators don't know how to do that. So what the NCLR wants to do is help people see how to do that, without saying you're horrible because you haven't done it."

The Homophobia in Sports Project tackles these problems with a combination of litigation and free legal assistance, public education, and behind-the-scenes collaboration with athletic associations. The Project is already preparing its first case, against the National Women's Football League. NCLR's senior staff attorney Shannon Minter and Tiffany Palmer of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights in Philadelphia are representing a former player, an out lesbian who quit the league because of the overwhelming level of sexual harassment of women players. They will sue under Pennsylvania's state sexual harassment law. Future litigation could be brought under Title IX, the 30-year-old law requiring equal opportunity for girls in school athletic programs that receive federal funding. Minter says to stay tuned-the project will generate a large number of cases, some high-profile, involving not only lesbians but gay male and transgender athletes as well.

Carroll collaborates with groups like the Women's Sports Foundation and the NCAA, which recently conducted a panel at its national convention on homophobia in sports and a few years ago added sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination policy. She also works with other athletic associations, such as the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, and with junior and community colleges, providing strategic guidance, educational materials, and speaking on panels. She maintains contact with influential individuals in these organizations and associations to ensure that this issue stays high on their priority list.

Perhaps most importantly, the Project serves as a vital and unique support to individual athletes and coaches who suffer discrimination on a daily basis. By calling its toll-free hotline, coaches and athletes can get free legal advice, referrals to other agencies, and any other assistance they may need.

Hopefully, the Project's combination of litigation, education, and personalized individual support will expand the pool of role models for athletes and coaches and, by extension, offer more positive representation of queer athletes to fans, administrators, and sports executives.

Carroll says, "We need coaches who will be out because they know that they're good role models for their student athletes..We need athletes in Division I who are great athletes-or, really, any athlete-to be willing to be out and say 'This is who we are, you're lucky to have us. Don't you want us in the pro leagues?' We need pro athletes to be out and say, 'Thank goodness you got us, help me be back next season. When you do publicity around us and show straight people with their families and show us with our dogs, be ready to show our families.' I think that's the thing that we're doing all this work for-so people can feel that they can be able to do that and have some support.

"I do think that sport can help hasten that change in societal attitude. It's all the publicity-it's the coaches, the athletes who do this kind of thing, it's going to be in the media, it's going to be out there. They're going to see strong, proud women smiling and saying, 'This is who we are,' and then anybody who watches TV - which is everybody in America - will see those people. Whether they believe it or not, they're gonna see good people doing that."

Fight Back: If you've been sidelined as an athlete because of homophobia in women's sports, or if you're a coach who needs support, help is on the way. To learn more about the NCLR's Homophobia in Sports Project, call (800) 528-6257 or visit www.nclrights.org.