Highly publicized suicides in recent years are grim reminders of the pervasive risks LGBT teenagers face every day of their lives. Swamped by feelings of isolation and condemnation, not knowing whom to turn to or even what to say if they found someone to talk with, many live a cold and vulnerable life, desperate with the uncertainty of whether it indeed will ever get better.
Those feelings of "Am I the only one?" can be especially powerful for young LGBT athletes. Professional role models in elite sports are few and far between, not the subject of the stories they read in sports sections on a daily basis. They see flamboyant displays in annual Pride parades, they are exposed to caricatures in sitcoms, and they read about the comings and goings of gay celebrities from the world of cinema and music, but the only time they encounter a mention of gays in sports may be when the gym teacher calls for a game of "Smear the Queer."
Paradoxically, while gay-centric recreational and competitive sports have blossomed over the past three decades in most of the Western world, adolescent sports remain a lonely and hostile environment for the vast majority of young queer athletes.
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