SA: Testo mentioned he "heard tons of gay slurs" when he attended a game at his old high school in North Carolina. What impact does it have on a gay teen, or on teens unsure of their sexual orientation, to hear those words?
DAN WOOG: There are two parts of the answer. The first is, it has an enormous impact on gay or questioning teens. Wow, they think -- I can never come out. My teammates would hate me. They won't trust me. I'll ruin the team chemistry. I won't be able to play any more. And they start thinking -- worrying -- about that, and as a result they can't concentrate on what they should be concentrating on, which is the training or game or school or whatever.
The second part is, those words have an even greater impact when they are accepted as "part of the culture," or when they are not addressed. First, the gay or questioning kid thinks (subconsciously, or even consciously), "Wow, the coach doesn't let anyone use the n-word, and he even got mad when someone called his girlfriend 'my bitch.' But he doesn't say anything about 'faggot' or 'homo' -- so I must really be a bad person.”
And the message that gets sent to straight players when no one addresses those words is: "It's OK to use them. You can't say 'nigger' or anything else bad, but you can say 'faggot.'" That's a very subtle lesson -- but it's a powerful one.
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