It may seem unimaginable, why would you want to come out to your coach? In talking with my peers that I counsel, a coach’s reaction to learning we are gay is a common fear – and not without reason. Especially amongst male teams, a fog of homophobia has fallen and severed relationships between coaches and athletes. Some coaches are homophobic and others are macho-centric; most are relatively indifferent coaches simply trying to help. It is important to differentiate between the three, as only one “type” of coach really poses a threat – and I use the word type loosely as I find it best not to categorize people. Yet more often than not, our coaches fall into the latter two categories and honestly just want to help – with our sport that is.
"the Road" continues to offer thoughtful posts from Brad, Robert and Ben, most of which have nothing to do with being gay, which is great, too. Part of the oppression of being in the closet is letting your sexual orientation define you, and part of being involved in LGBT sport and culture is finding an environment where you can develop other parts of your identity. But here's an extract from a post by Brad on his school's reaction to his coming out:
What I am trying to say here is that people shouldn’t let being gay define them. I never have and never will, it is just one of the many things that make me who I am today. Everyone needs to find that thing that makes unique and different. This thing should be something that you are inspired to do through the good as well as the bad times. You should want to be the very best and even dream about achieving the perfect scenario.
Growing up I always thought that the one thing I wanted to be the best in would be some sport. Through the past few years my drive has changed though. Instead of devoting all of my effort into running, which I still love, I have begun putting a lot of my free time into student government at my school. So I hope everyone is able to find that one thing that keeps them going. I know I have.
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