Homosexuality In High School Sports Essay

For a long time in our society homosexuality has been stigmatized. So what happens to students at school who are labeled as homosexual or openly come out as homosexual? More specifically, what happens to homosexual students who decide to participate in a competitive sport? In our society sports are viewed as something that only “real” men can do and they are used to reinforce heterosexuality. In order to explain how homosexuality is something that is stigmatized in school sports, we have to look at the double standards when it comes to sexuality, the way LGBTQ athletes are harassed by their coaches and peers, the negative connotations that are associated with the words “fag” and “gay”, and the bullying that leads to higher suicidal rate and suicide attempts amongst the LGBTQ youth. If we look at all of these things we will be able to see how homosexual athletes are ostracized, whether they realize it or not. When Pascoe asked the students at a high school to explain what it meant to be a “fag” there were many negative meanings that the boys at the school associated with it. The boys explaining what this

“Despite the fact that they are both culturally silenced and are under constant threat of physical violence, gay male athletes define themselves as being treated well, perhaps because, as I show, there is a near absence of overt homophobia in the forms of physical and verbal abuse” (Anderson, 861). These openly gay athletes only believe that they are being treated well because they had feared the worst before coming out, but ended up being treated in what they conceived to be a fair manner. A heterosexual athlete will never have to fear the worst when it comes to being open about their