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THE BENCH

As LGBT Athletes Reach New Heights, Too Many Kids Stay Sidelined

by Pete Olsen

Michael Sam. Brittney Griner. Robbie Rogers. Jason Collins.

less "manly" for fear of being labeled a lesbian?

How do our assumptions about sexual orientation change if a boy is a

Nike produces #BeTrue clothing, and figure skater or football player? YouTube is #ProudToPlay.

There are active, professional LGBT athletes in the major team sports in North America all of those qualifiers being necessary as the various thresholds had previously been crossed and there is corporate support behind the cause.

That's worth cheering, because these truly have been landmark developments for LGBT athletes in sport. But how many LGBT youth are still shunned from participating or even being a fan? How many are scared to try?

How often do peers, coaches, parents and administrators use gendered or homophobic language to put down a kid playing a sport? "Stop playing like a girl," "Man up,'" "She's a tomboy," "He's a sissy," etc.

How many girls stop playing a sport or play differently-less intense or

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Whether a girl plays softball or is a synchronized swimmer?

The answers to all of those questions: too many and too much.

GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, released a survey in 2013 about the experiences of LGBT students when it comes to sports.

It found that more than half of LGBT students were bullied or harassed during gym class because of their sexual orientation (52.8 percent) or gender expression (50.9 percent). Almost one-third (32.5 percent) of LGBT students avoided attending gym classes, and almost a quarter (22.8 percent) avoided school athletics fields and facilities.

Our LGBT youth are not comfortable in physical education class, so they skip, and many have such bad experiences that don't even want to be around the school gym or stadium.

We are failing at creating a safe environment for our youth to enjoy sports.

Undoubtedly, there will continue to be progress at the professional and collegiate levels for LGBT athletes who make it that far. Leagues, conferences, teams and administrators will continue to educate themselves and adopt policies to create better access and environments for every-

one.

We have You Can Play, Outsports, GO! Athletes, Athlete Ally, the LGBT Sports Coalition and many more advocates making sure of it. More and more famous athletes will come out, and more and more companies will support the cause.

But the issue for our youth: That's on all of us. Everyone needs to chip in.

Achieving unhindered opportunity to participate in, be a fan of or simply explore sports regardless of gender or sexuality boils down to society's expectations about masculinity and femininity.

An effeminate boy, regardless of sexual orientation, will be shunned from

the "tough guy" sports of football, basketball and wrestling, and if he decides he wants to swim or dance, society will label him as gay.

Neither option looks promising, does it?

A masculine boy will get teased if he favors figure skating to hockey. Feminine girls are safe to pursue certain sports to their hearts' content but not others. A masculine girl playing any sport? She will be teased as well.

Favorite colors, a hairstyle, physical mannerisms, speech, fashion it's an unending list of biases and stereotypes that contribute to others assigning an assumed gender and sexuality.

All of it has to stop. And in order to get it to stop, we all have to check our own behavior not just others' that puts these absurd expectations on our youth.

The arena of sports is a great place to do so.

It takes courage; I know that. It requires you to instigate conflict, to

Visit youcanplayproject.org to find out more about efforts to promote tolerance in sports.

challenge someone or even yourself. It can be incredibly awkward.

But doing so is worth it. To actually affect the environment in sports for our youth, we have to do it. And the effectiveness of the effort depends on how many join in.

If you're at a loss for words to check someone, I got you: "Hello [offending party], I noticed that you [offending action]. Have you thought about how that affects the self-esteem of our kids and their interest in sports? Let's work on creating a supportive and inclusive environment without all that added stress and pressure, OK? Thank you for understanding!"

At the least, you will educate someone. At the most, you may save a life.

And somewhere in the middle, some kid might keep playing a sport instead of quitting.

Pete Olsen is staff counsel for the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets and a 2012 graduate of Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law. He previously blogged on gay rights and the sports industry at www.widerights.com.

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