By: Pat Griffin
The locker room can be a vulnerable and intimate place. As teammates are showering and changing clothes whatever insecurities athletes have about their own body's size or shape are likely to arise because people do notice other bodies in the locker room and are aware of their own bodies. This awareness is not necessarily sexual, but the team locker room before or after a game or practice is a place where many people of the same sex spend lots of time together in various stages of undress.
For some athletes, especially men who are not as free to physically express platonic love for other men, cultural conventions dictate that the feelings of love, friendship and intimacy they have for same-sex teammates must be carefully monitored to avoid assumptions of homosexuality. Being in the locker room with teammates sometimes requires men who are uncomfortable with these feelings to declare or reaffirm their heterosexuality by using anti-gay language or talking about their sexual interests and activities with women. The same can be true in a women's locker room, though, in general, women are freer to express affection for other women without assumptions of homosexuality arising. However, in athletics, where lesbian stereotypes abound, some women are just as concerned about asserting their heterosexuality as men are.
Athletes and coaches sometimes express fear or discomfort about sharing a locker room or hotel room with openly gay, lesbian or bisexual team members. This fear or discomfort is often based on the stereotype that lesbians and gay men pose a sexual threat to their heterosexual teammates or that they are looking at their teammates in a sexualized manner. Some coaches and athletes ask “if men can't be in the women's locker room, why can lesbians be there?” This question is based on the assumption that potential sexual interest is the only basis for segregating locker rooms by sex. Following this reasoning, gay men and heterosexual women should share one locker room and lesbians and gay men should share another!
In reality, lesbian and gay athletes and coaches in the locker room are thinking about the same things that their heterosexual teammates are: Whether or not they had a good practice or game, a nagging injury, disappointment about a tough loss, elation about a big win. Some lesbian and gay athletes and coaches are concerned about how others perceive them and, given stereotypes of predatory lesbians and gay men, are more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to avoid looking at others' bodies or making jokes in the locker room. For example, some lesbian coaches are so concerned about how others might perceive them that they flick the lights off and on to announce their presence in the locker room. Gay or lesbian coaches also place posters over glass windows separating the locker room from their offices or stay out of the locker room altogether as ways to avoid even the suspicion that they are looking at athletes changing clothes or showering.
It is important to differentiate personal discomfort with the presence of lesbian, gay or bisexual athletes or coaches in the locker room from the occurrence of inappropriate actions by lesbian, gay or bisexual athletes or coaches (or anyone else) in the locker room. This difference is important in determining how to address this issue. If heterosexual athletes (or coaches) are uncomfortable with the presence of lesbian, gay or bisexual athletes or coaches in the locker room and this discomfort stems from their own fears or prejudices rather than any inappropriate behavior by lesbian, gay or bisexual teammates or coaches, then the situation should be addressed as an education or counseling issue for the heterosexual athletes involved.
Knowing a teammate is gay or lesbian can trigger homophobic reactions in some athletes. Sometimes athletes become uncomfortable in the locker room only after a gay teammate has come out. If they were comfortable in the locker room before they knew a teammate was gay or lesbian, what makes them uncomfortable now that they know? The source of their discomfort in this case can be easily attributed to their own assumptions rather than the actions of their gay or lesbian teammate since nothing has changed except their knowledge that one of their teammates is gay. The truth is that most athletes have spent time in locker rooms with lesbian, gay and bisexual people. They just did not know it because their teammates did not choose to identify themselves.
Everyone affiliated with an athletic team has the right to feel safe and to be free of unwanted sexual attention and sexually explicit taunting or teasing in the locker room or anywhere else. If athletes are uncomfortable in the locker room because of inappropriate or unwanted sexual attention or inappropriate actions by any teammate or coach, including lesbian, gay or bisexual athletes and coaches, then this is a case of sexual harassment and should be addressed as such. Most schools have policies governing sexual harassment that should be applied regardless of the gender or sexual orientation of the people involved. Check with your school administration to get a copy of the sexual harassment policy.
All locker rooms should have some accommodations for athletes who want privacy for any reason. It is unrealistic to assume that all members of team are comfortable with gang showers and public nudity in locker rooms. Individual athletes have many reasons for wanting a private area in the locker room to change clothes or shower that are unrelated to fear of sexual attention. These reasons include religious beliefs, personal modesty, inferiority about body image, being transgender or shyness.
Recommendations For Addressing Concerns About LGBT Athletes or Coaches in the Locker Room:
- When developing policy governing locker room behavior, the key issue is to be sure that policy is based on broad principles of fairness and commitment to safety for all and not on fear or stereotypes about LGBT people.
- Develop and enforce sexual harassment policy that applies to all regardless of sexual orientation or gender.
- Educate athletes and coaches and other athletic staff about sexual harassment policy so that they know their rights and responsibilities.
- Educate athletes about LGBT issues – address fears about the presence of LGBT people in the locker room.
- Make a privacy area for changing clothes and showering for any athlete to use.
- Make parents who express concerns about LGBT people in the locker room aware of sexual harassment policies and expectations of respectful treatment for all including non-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation and gender identity.
Resources:
- Facts About Sexual Harassment:
- N.Fejgin and R. Hanegby. Gender and Cultural Bias in Perceptions of Sexual Harassment in Sport. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, December 1,2001; 36(4):459-478.