As Jock Talk has been reporting lo these many months, an unprecedented number of initiatives to support young LGBT athletes have been launched within the last year. Just about the only thing that has been missing has been a hotline.
Until now.
Athlete Buddy System is a volunteer initiative launched by Denver-based nonprofit GForce Sports, the same folks who have fielded a national gay hockey team for several years and announced the start of a national gay lacrosse team a month ago. Mike Smith, director of ABS, said the organization is recruiting and interviewing potential mentors to handle calls from LGBT athletes and coaches who need someone to listen.
"We're just getting it started over the last six months or so," Smith told the Bay Area Reporter. "We're actively interviewing athletes who are interested in being mentors for us. We're trying to diversify. We don't want just a bunch of male hockey players. We want to get some lesbians and some other sports. All told we'll probably have about 10 or 12 people."
Smith, 45, who is gay, is not an athlete but became involved with GForce when he was researching a play he was writing about a gay hockey player. A hotline for troubled LGBT athletes seemed like a natural progression for the rest of GForce's work, which includes Invisible Athlete forums, in which gay athletes speak before groups at high schools or colleges.
"It seems with all of the suicides happening there must be a way we can reach out to athletes," he said.
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