The Silence in a Sport: Being a Student-Athlete and Being Gay at Washington College
Chris Herrmann

Student athletes on campus are surrounded by noise. Coaches urging them to push one step further, fans screaming at a game, the laughter of teammates partying together. Some of these athletes however live in silence. Athletes who are gay live in conflict between their dedication to their team and their inner feelings.

Despite around thirty percent of the student body being involved in sports on campus, to current date there have been few openly gay female athletes and no openly gay male athletes. On a campus where gay students are evident, in the SGA, in the Encouraging Respect of Sexuality Alliance, why is it rare that student athletes are recognized as openly gay, bisexual, or lesbian?

Sarah Feyerherm, the Director of Leadership Programs, that has produced the Student Athlete mentors (SAMs), a group of athletes picked to serve as peer mentors to their teammates, stated that the environment here for a gay athlete is “probably an invisible state. It’s not something I hear students athletes talk about. People make assumptions that everyone is heterosexual.”

Other people back up this view. Alex Kuhn, SAM for the men’s swimming team said “most athletes are probably uncomfortable with the idea of another person on their team being gay; within male athletics they aren’t comfortable in the locker room.”

Kelly McGlynn, SAM for the woman’s rowing team said the environment for a gay athlete on campus is “not good. No one talks about it.”

Dr. Brian Matthews, Director of Athletics said, “I would hope that they [a gay athlete] would feel comfortable, non-threatened. There is an acceptance of the institutional level, I can’t speak for their peers.” Dr. Matthews comments are well intentioned; he advocates the support of every athlete by the institution, whether they are gay or straight, and hopefully by their own fellow athletes.

However, the uncertainty in recognizing whether student athletes would support a teammate if they came out is a frightening revelation on campus. The climate of reaction to an openly gay athlete playing on a team is precariously unknown. This could be why there have been few openly gay athletes.

Feyerherm noted that “I’ve known a few female athletes who were out to their teammates-they were accepted, brought their dates to formals, however I don’t know personally of any male athletes who were.”

Kuhn said that stereotypes within male sports still exist, “most men that play sports are considered straight. On this campus, some sports are possibly more accepting than others, such as the tennis team, but the swimming team, where athletes wear small uniforms, which might provide awkwardness if an athlete is known to be gay, and in baseball and lacrosse, there is more machismo.”

Students here can testify that it is uncertain whether or not they would be accepted. Terri DePrima, a sophomore who was on the woman’s volleyball team last semester, said “There’s not open discrimination, but I didn’t feel comfortable coming out, there’s a general feeling that they [teammates] don’t want to hear about it.”

When asked if the environment within collegiate athletics encourages gay participants to possibly stay closeted, DePrima said, “Yes, it does. The locker room situation-playing together, changing together-I stayed in the closet because I didn’t want to make people uncomfortable. I was holding back on myself, it was the first time I really felt in the closet, you spend much more time in college with the team-you make the choice to stay closeted from the team or hurt yourself.”

Dr. Matthews asserted that there probably is “a different level of comfort in each separate team,” adding that “I think, and hope, that the situation has gotten better on this campus.”

An anonymous male student on one of the athletic teams feels the full force of the inner conflict of being gay and on a team. Not out to his team, he said, “being out as an athlete is dangerous, since it’s such a small-knit community. Everybody knows everyone else’s business. They like you until they know the real you.” However, he feels “deprived of deeper friendships with some teammates” because of this.

“I connect with them on what I say, on what I do, but not for who I am.” Despite this, he thinks if he were to come out “the coach would probably understand, look at my sport tactics and skills” instead of his sexuality, and is optimistic that “the team knows me well enough that they would be ok. But there’s still homophobic jokes, comments. I feel bad because I lie to them.” The stress in a closeted athlete is two-fold: the struggle with being honest with themselves and their teammates. Yet when the price of being honest carries the possibility of being rejected by their team, it can be safer to not reveal anything at all.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a difference of opinion between the faculty that run the athletics department and the students that participate it on the level of homophobia endured by athletes, both gay and straight.

Kuhn highlights this divide, saying “since coaches might not see it [homophobia] as an issue, it isn’t brought up. Most coaches were athletes in their youth, and many grew up with the old stereotypes, which they transfer to their students.”

Homophobia is still an obstacle to student athletes as it forces them to hide who they are. While it’s admirable that the athletic department has policies to prevent homophobia, these words need to put into action in shaping the conduct of coaches and all student athletes.

The consensus from the students and faculty is that the issue needs to be talked about, addressed. DePrima says students on teams “need to be aware of what you’re saying and how it can affect people. Don’t assume everyone thinks the same way you do. Coaches, in addressing athletes, should throw it out that they wouldn’t care if anyone on the team was gay.”

McGlynn agrees, saying other athletes should “think about the weight words carry.”

Kuhn also believes that “it will take the actual situation of an athlete coming out” in order for the athletic department, faculty and students, to address the issue.

The anonymous male student asserts that other athletes should “just listen-we all have different struggles in life, whether some people believe being gay is a choice or someone’s identity, it doesn’t matter. People struggle with a lot.”

Sarah Feyerherm believes further exposure would help, “coaches should be inclusive as they can be in speaking to athletes.” Other student athletes, Feyerherm said, “should think about what they say. If they have a family member or friend from home who is gay, talk about them as easily as talking about someone who is straight. We need to start taking sexual orientation issues, verbal harassment, as seriously as we take racial epithets. More programming-speakers need to be brought in to address this issue.”

There is no reason a student should be forced to hide their true self to keep playing the sport they love, or have to stop playing their sport in order to be themselves.

Chris Herrmann, a native of Pasadena, MD, is a rising senior of the class of 2005 at Washington College in Chestertown, MD, where he is pursuing an English major and Creative Writing minor.

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