Ed Gallager, an offensive lineman for the University of Pittsburgh football team, jumped from a dam 12 days after his first sexual encounter with another man in 1985. Catcher Andrea Zimbardi claimed she was not told of practices, given less playing time, and eventually kicked off the University of Florida softball team her senior year because her coach discovered Zimbardi was a lesbian. These are just two examples of closeted and openly homosexual collegiate athletes facing discrimination and isolation from their teams and schools. Maybe due to the close-knit nature of the campus, or the overall atmosphere of acceptance, Vassar has so far proven immune to these troubles. Wrote volleyball captain Chelsea Mottern '11 in an e-mailed statement, "Vassar [isn't] the kind of place where I have to worry about [homophobia in collegiate athletics]."
Rafael Ricaurte '13, from New York City, has no complaints about acceptance on campus or on the track. "I feel completely accepted...[the cross country and track] teams, they all know." Fortunately, Ricaurte felt this way before he even came to Vassar. "It was fine in high school. I feel pretty lucky I went to a high school where there really wasn't much discrimination about anything."
Not all Vassar athletes come from accepting hometowns, however. "In Georgia there's a stigma against being gay in general," recounts Brandon Greene ‘13 from Kennesaw, Ga., who also serves as the president of Queer Coalition of Vassar College (QCVC). "I'm originally from Albany, N.Y. I've lived in Kennesaw for five or six years...it's an old railroad town where they stage some Civil War battles." But Greene never took part in a scrum in Kennesaw.
Greene's first experience as a varsity athlete occurred at Vassar. He now plays second row forward, prop, and occasionally hooker for the rugby team. "I decided to join rugby on a whim. I never hid the fact that I was gay, I was always straightforward about it and [the rugby team] took it like it was."
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