Washington Post reports on Team DC student-athlete scholarships

Photo Linda Davidson/Washington Post

The Washington Post reports on a great program for LGBT student athletes run by FGG member organization Team DC:


Scholarship reflects challenges of coming out for gay student-athletes


Brent Minor and his colleagues developed a college scholarship that was innovative and important: an award for local student athletes who came out of the closet during high school.

There was just one problem: The students couldn’t be found.

“It was more challenging than we originally thought,’’ said Minor, the program director for Team DC, a local sports networking and advocacy group for area gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. “Much more challenging.”
[...]
In one of this year’s winning applications to Team DC, Kanga wrote that his participation in sports instilled a confidence that allowed him to tell his friends he was gay.

“It was April 25, 2009, at 3 a.m.,” said Kanga, now a freshman at University of Maryland at College Park. “We were up all night talking and it just felt right.”

Kanga wasn’t too surprised when his friends shrugged and moved on. Reflecting on that day, he said he’d been worried because “once that is revealed, you can’t take it back. You have to live with it. I felt blessed that I had such good friends.”
[...]

Read in full HERE.