By: Alpha Alexander, Professor Lane College; Dora Dome, National Center for Lesbian Rights; Pat Griffin, Director of It Takes A Team!; Yolanda Jackson, Women’s Sports Foundation; Camille O’Bryant, Associate Professor at California Polytechnical Institute, Jillian Ross, Graduate Student at University of Tennessee Knoxville
Addressing discrimination and prejudice against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) athletes and coaches requires an understanding of how other identities besides sexual orientation or gender identity affect LGBT experience. Every athlete and coach is more than their sexual orientation or gender identity. Race, economic class and religion are among the many other aspects of social identity that add to the complexities of addressing discrimination and prejudice in athletics. The interactions of these identities complicate the experiences of LGBT people in athletics and make the experiences of individual LGBT athletes and coaches different from each other.
Because of the intersections of these different identities, it is important not to assume that all LGBT athletes and coaches experience their sexual orientation in the same way. A lesbian athlete whose family cannot afford to pay for college costs is dependent on her athletic scholarship for her college education and will be less likely to be open about being gay if she believes that openness would jeopardize her scholarship. Likewise, a gay athlete whose family religious beliefs condemn homosexuality might feel more conflict or fear about openly identifying himself.
LGBT athletes and coaches of color must negotiate both racism and heterosexism in athletics. Furthermore, LGBT women of color must negotiate sexism. For LGBT athletes of color, the decision to come out or not is a balancing act of identities affected by the combined effects of racism, heterosexism and sexism (for women of color). This intersection of racism and heterosexism creates conflicts and complications that white LGBT athletes and coaches do not face.
For example, LGBT athletes and coaches of color often feel a separation from heterosexual teammates of color. If heterosexual teammates of color express anti-gay feelings, LGBT athletes of color are often reluctant to reveal themselves. This reluctance is based on the fear of isolating themselves from friends and teammates. They often fear religious judgment from faith-based communities of color and are concerned about losing their support network among community, family and friends of color.
This conflict is particularly pressing for athletes of color on teams in schools that are predominantly white. LGBT athletes of color get caught between pressure to be representatives of their race since there are so few students of color and the pressure to pick one identity over another. This possibility of alienating other students of color has consequences that white LGBT students do not face in predominantly white schools. In schools where there are more athletes of color than there are students of color in the general student population, LGBT athletes of color often can develop support and friendship networks with other athletes of color. This support, however, is sometimes contingent on their willingness to hide their sexual orientation. In many communities of color, LGBT people are tolerated as long as they are not open about their sexual orientation. However, the psychological costs of keeping one's sexual orientation secret are high and require enormous energy that affects friendships, family relationships, athletic and academic performance and self-esteem.
Heterosexual people of color sometimes perceive LGBT athletes and coaches of color who are open about their sexuality as choosing their sexuality over their race. As a result, they perceive LGBT athletes of color as “race traitors.” This is particularly so among heterosexual people of color who believe that identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual is primarily a white issue. In this instance, heterosexism and homophobia isolate LGBT athletes and coaches of color from other communities of people of color in sport and athletic settings.
LGBT athletes of color are also at risk of feeling alienated from white LGBT teammates or LGBT school organizations. Some LGBT athletes of color prefer to refer to themselves as “same-gender loving” (Blacks) or “two-spirit” (Native American) as a way to differentiate their experiences from white LGBT people. LGBT athletes of color are faced with the racism often present in predominantly white LGBT school-based organizations and among white LGBT athletes. White LGBT students, whether consciously or not, exercise and received advantages because they are white that can soften some of the prejudice related to being LGBT. They often do not understand how the experiences of LGBT people of color are affected by racism or how their own white identity provides them with advantages that can make it easier to openly claim their LGBT identity.
The decision to make one's sexual orientation known publicly is difficult enough for many white LGBT athletes and coaches. However, many reasons related to racism and concerns about isolation from communities of color and family make many LGBT athletes and coaches of color less likely to come out publicly. For example, religion often is an important and lifelong part of the lives of students of color as a personal and spiritual buffer to racism. If their religious community and family teach that homosexuality is a sin, the potential judgment and isolation from this source of comfort and support can be devastating. Though religion also plays an important part in the lives of white LGBT athletes and coaches, the added complexities of racism are not a part of their experience.
Many of the gender and sexuality expectations placed on LGBT athletes and coaches of color are based on racial stereotypes. At the same time they are caught in the dominant culture's expectations for masculinity, femininity and heterosexuality.
Cultural differences about perceptions of sexuality and gender affect how LGBT athletes of color see themselves and how their families and friends see them. Differences among African-American, Asian-American, Latino-American and Native American cultures' perceptions, language and expectations with regard to gender and sexual expression are not necessarily the same as those of the dominant white North American culture. Just as it is important not to assume that LGBT athletes of color have the same experience of their sexual orientation as white LGBT athletes, it is also important to understand that the experiences of LGBT athletes of color are also different from each other because of these cultural differences.
Lesbians and bisexual women of color face the combined effects of racism, sexism and heterosexism. Lesbian and bisexual women of color also must negotiate between society's expectations of (white) femininity and their specific racial and/or ethnic community's expectations of femininity. For example, Black women are not held to the same standards of staying home with children as white women. Historically, it was just not feasible to do so; thus, Black women are provided with the opportunity, and sometimes the necessity, to work outside the home. Stereotypes of women athletes of color, especially Black women, can lead to perceptions that they are “naturally” more animalistic or athletic, masculine or sexual than their white teammates. These stereotypes are particularly demeaning for lesbian or bisexual Black women athletes who are also subjected to stereotypes based on their sexual orientation.
Likewise, gay and bisexual men of color may aspire to different standards of masculinity than white LGBT men do or have different expectations of gender and sexuality placed on them. Closeted gay or bisexual male athletes of color often feel pressure to conform to more rigid stereotypes of masculinity to deflect suspicions about their sexuality among white teammates and teammates of color.
All of these complexities call for coaches and athletic administrators to anticipate how race and other aspects of identity may differentiate the experiences of LGBT athletes and coaches of color from those of white LGBT athletes and coaches.
Recommendations:
- Sponsor education programs for athletic department staff and athletes on racism, sexism, heterosexism and make sure their intersections are addressed so that the experiences of LGBT athletes and coaches of color are specifically addressed
- Invite a panel of LGBT athletes of color to talk about their experiences and describe how coaches and teammates can better address their needs
- When athletes or coaches of color are isolated, depressed or having problems in classes, consider the possibility that questioning one's sexuality or dealing with the anti-gay actions or attitudes among others might be among the issues athletes of color might be wrestling with. Be open to depressed or isolated athletes no matter what the issue might be.
- Make sure school-based LGBT support and social groups address the needs of LGBT people of color and are aware of how racism and white privilege impact their programming.
- Ensure that school-based support and social groups for students of color address the needs of LGBT people of color and are aware of potential heterosexism in their programming
- Athletic department staff should establish “safe” resources within the department and within campus counseling services so that athletes of color can get help that is supportive of their individual needs, whatever they may be, and that they do not need to fear of repercussions in the athletic department.
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