Speakers Discuss Gay Experience in Athletics

Harvard student athletes and professional sports figures spoke about the experience of being gay and an athlete to a capacity crowd of almost 200 in Harvard Hall on Sunday.

The forum, which was organized by Cliff S. Davidson '02, a co-founder of the student group Beyond Our Normal Differences (BOND), featured two Harvard athletes and a Harvard coach who are openly gay. Two former National Football League (NFL) players--one of whom is gay--also shared their experiences and insights at the event.

Much of the discussion focused on being gay in Harvard athletics.

Michael E. Crosby '02 and Katherine M. Callaghan '03, both student athletes, and Jen L. Allard, the head coach of the softball team, talked about the process of coming out to their teams and offered recommendations to create a more tolerant environment in the Athletic Department.

Allard, who came out to her softball team in 1997, told the audience that she was "shocked" by the amount of support she received from the Athletic Department, but she still sees much room for improvement.

"As a coach, I'd like to see increased dialogue among teams, and resources for gay athletes need to come more to the forefront," Allard said. "It's a big learning experience to have a gay athlete on a team."

Crosby, who came out last year to the men's water polo team, said one of the reasons for his participation in Sunday's panel was to "pave the road" for other closeted athletes to come out.

Tom H. Elke '01, the captain of the team when Crosby came out, said the team benefited from Crosby's decision.

"We became better human beings for what Mike did," Elke said.

Callaghan, who came out a few weeks ago to the women's water polo team, said she was grateful for having Crosby as a role model for coming out.

"It definitely gave me a lot of confidence to know that Mike had done it before," Callaghan said.

Administrators from the Athletic Department attended Sunday's event, and Patricia W. Henry, senior associate athletic director, said she was impressed with what the students had to say.

"I give the student athletes a lot of credit because I know it took a lot of courage to participate in the event," Henry said.

The event began with a 10-minute clip from an HBO series on homosexuality in athletics. Davidson next asked panelists a series of questions he had received from OutSports.com--a website dedicated to supporting gays in athletics--after which audience members were able to address the speakers directly.

One of the central topics was the lack of societal support for gay athletes compared with other minorities.

David Kopay, a gay former NFL player, said gay athletes would get more support if they were more open about their sexuality.

"It's so important for us to be visible and for everyone to know that we're all the same," Kopay said.

Reggie Rivers, an African-American former NFL player who is heterosexual, equated the current climate of socially acceptable discrimination against homosexuals with the overt discrimination against blacks in the 1950s.

"It seems that we are free to say anything about gay people without a societal reprimand," said Rivers, who now hosts a radio talk show and pens a column for the Denver Post.

Davidson said he was pleased with Sunday's event.

"I think the event went extremely well," Davidson wrote in an e-mail. "The audience seemed responsive to the speakers and to the topic, evidenced by the quality and quantity of questions audience members asked."

Sponsors of the event included BAGELS, the Black Students Association, Girlspot, the Harvard College Activities Fund, the Institute of Politics, OutSports.com, the Undergraduate Council and the Women's Sports Foundation.