FEATURE Sports Complex Revising the Playbook: LGBT Athletic Groups Educate and Litigate Jim Provenzano | September 12, 2005 Helen Carroll, of the National Center for Lesbian Rights' Homophobia in Sports Project, speaks at a recent community forum - Photo by Jim Provenzano What are the options for US athletes facing homophobia? At the professional, collegiate, and high school levels, support can be found from new and established groups that offer advice, counseling, outreach, and, in some cases, legal aid. Author and public speaker Pat Griffin is one of the most prominent advocates for equal rights for LGBT athletes. Her published work includes extensive plans for facing diversity issues on athletic staffs and teams. Griffin's "It Takes a Team" project, sponsored by the Women's Sports Foundation, provides educational kits and presentations that focus on diversity in athletics. The Gay & Lesbian Athletics Foundation (GLAF) hosted conferences annually in Boston from 2002 to 2004, where hundreds of athletes, administrators, and members of the media were able to share stories, plans, and projects. Although financial difficulties prevented a 2005 conference, GLAF continued its outreach efforts in Boston area schools, by providing a presence at other sports conferences, like the March 2005 Youth Sports Summit hosted by the National Football Foundation Center for Youth Development Through Sport at Springfield College. The newly formed Gay and Lesbian Athletic Association (GLAA), a nonprofit group in Toronto, focuses on mentoring programs, outreach, and information-sharing between activists and administrators. GLAA's goals include creating an atmosphere in which athletes can compete without concerns about sexual orientation, conducting research into the prevention of homophobia in sports, and disseminating the results of such research to the general public. Seminars, meetings, and programs are also in the works. Tyler Hoffman, GLAA's director of media and public relations and interim president, is a former professional baseball umpire who retired from the sport in 2000. Hoffman says the group gets about five calls a day from athletes seeking support. "We're seeing more athletes at the collegiate level come out than ever before," says Hoffman, whose group also hopes to produce surveys that substantiate the growing number of LGBT athletes. "In the pros, I know attitudes are changing. We just need to see more physical evidence of this, which is what we are aiming for." Some professional teams have welcomed outreach. When the San Francisco 49ers suffered a national disgrace following the release of a bawdy training video, Helen Carroll was invited to help. The accomplished former NCAA basketball coach, who also served on the faculty at Mills College in Oakland, Calif., spent a long afternoon speaking with all of the 49ers staff and players. As director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights' Homophobia in Sports Project, Carroll has spoken at hundreds of schools and universities, aiding their administrations by educating students and staff. Moreover, Carroll says the institutions themselves need to evolve, and shouldn't be limited to one-time reprimands for offending players. "It's really got to be done from the top down. The real challenge is making it up to priority level." Sometimes NCLR has to take a legal approach, particularly when athletes and coaches at the collegiate and high school levels are fired or cut from team rosters, specifically over perceived sexual orientation. This year, Merry Stephens, an award-winning basketball coach and educator in rural Bloomburg, Texas, was subjected to intense harassment by the district superintendent and other school officials because of her sexual orientation. The school board president testified under oath that Stephens' termination was based on the antigay sentiment of several board members who said that Merry "did not deserve to work" in the district because she is a lesbian. NCLR intervened. As a result, Coach Stephens agreed not to pursue further legal action, and the district agreed to pay her the full value of her two-year contract. In 2004, Andrea Zimbardi, a former catcher for the University of Florida's varsity women's softball team, was released from the team shortly after alleging sexual orientation discrimination. As part of a groundbreaking settlement achieved through NCLR, UF agreed to provide diversity training to its entire athletic department. When universities and schools clearly engage in discrimination in hiring, it makes an easier case for legal action. In other cases, adding domestic partnership benefits serves as a further expansion of LGBT athletes’ rights. The NCLR helped the Women's National Basketball Association and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to adopt domestic partner benefits. NCLR also works to institute policy changes toward inclusion of transsexual players in the Ladies Professional Golf Association, the Professional Golf Association, U.S.A. Track & Field, and the NCAA. Following a 2002 NCLR case with the Delaware Griffins, the Women's Professional Football team adopted antidiscrimination policies. Several teams in that league are now using policy wording established in the settlement. With such successes, LGBT athletes can know that should they face discrimination, they have a growing national support system. Jim Provenzano is the author of the novels PINS and Monkey Suits. 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