The Federation of Gay Games is pleased to join the organizations co-sponsoring an event held by RU Pride (Rutger's University, New Jersey). The theme of the November 10th event is "Tackling Homophobia and Building Bridges!"
This November, RU Pride will be holding an important and innovative dialogue about an often-tabooed subject: homophobia in college sports. The vision of the organization is to ensure that all athletes have a productive and safe environment to perform in; one that recognizes and addresses the prominent trend of homophobia in athletic teams across the country-- in high school, college, and major league teams alike. This dialogue, titled Tackling Homophobia: A Conversation on Homophobia in Collegiate Sports, will take place in the form of a panel composed of former or current athletes who may identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) or as (straight) allies to the community.
Panelists and Moderator are announced HERE.
Following the panel, RU Pride is honored to have straight ally, Hudson Taylor give his own presentation, Building Bridges: Empowering Unlikely Allies and Understanding the Impact of their Advocacy. [See Outsports great coverage of Hudson HERE.]
Hudson Taylor is a Division I All-American wrestler and coach at Columbia University. He is an avid and outspoken straight ally of the LGBTQ community who devotes his time to advocate for the unqualified social acceptance, safety and legal equality of the LGBTQ community. He focuses his advocacy efforts in athletics, serving on the Advisory Group of the GLSEN Sports Project. Hudson is currently writing a book about LGBTQ inclusion in sports, which redefines athletic integrity and sportsmanship to embrace and encourage all persons, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.
Hudson’s presentation will introduce the unique circumstances that prompted his outspoken advocacy, particularly the locker-room politics of Division I collegiate wrestling. He will explore the impact that he, as an athlete-ally, hopes to have on the LGBT rights movement and ask the audience to think critically about the societal meanings of that potential impact. Informed by his experiences, Hudson’s presentation will focus on the prospects of LGBTQ alliances with subcultures of mainstream America stereotyped as unlikely supporters of equality. He will review the socio-cultural reasons for homophobia in sports and society as well as examples of each from personal and public life. Hudson will offer next steps for building bridges to empower the unlikely allies to advocate for LGBTQ inclusion and acceptance. He will offer perspectives on why their support, as unlikely allies, is critical to ensuring the equality of LGBTQ persons and vital to our societal integrity at large.
*SUGGESTED $5 to benefit The Trevor Project, the nation's leading organization focused on crisis intervention and suicide prevention efforts for LGBTQ youth.
This is awesome. I haven't done anything formal, but have passively convinced most of my team (D1 as well) that LGBT athletes are legitimate people and competitors. Hopefully this goes far!
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