Memories of being bullied in high school can deter queer students from joining a university sports team, but McMaster University’s athletics and recreation is setting its sights on changing that.
Athletes and department staff, decked out in maroon Marauder gear, are marching for the first time in the campus Pride Parade Monday afternoon to promote inclusivity and unity with a historically-marginalized group, said sports leagues and camps co-ordinator Andrew Pettit.
The department also partnered with the Queer Students Community Centre (QSCC) to organize “Positive Space” training for all their full-time recreation staff and several part-time employees last week, Pettit said, adding it was the first time they came forward as a group to participate in the program.
“The idea is not just to walk and support,” he said. “(It’s) actually to know the issues and challenges that face them, to take a more educated approach to supporting them. … It’s a really positive step forward.”
QSCC co-ordinator Tabatha Fernandez-Sardina Bradley, 21, said marching together is a sign of solidarity.
The two groups have been stereotypically polarized, she said.
“In high school, it’s always the jocks, the gays. And reaching out and showing that isn’t true goes such a long way to making McMaster an inclusive community.”
But they still have many myths to dispel on both sides, the political science student said. “We all survived middle school and high school. There’s always this knee-jerk reaction (that says) ‘Oh, it’s sports. I can’t do that. … They’re going to call me nasty names,’” she said. “It’s ignorance, not malice. You don’t know what you’re saying is hurting somebody.”
Pettit agreed. While improvements have been made to debunk homophobia in sports, athletics is still an area where it’s acceptable to make comments that are unintentionally insensitive, he said.
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