Nicholas Angelides was 16, the third oldest of eight children, when he came out to his family. The long-dreaded confrontation went way better than he’d dared to dream. “They were hugely supportive of me, thankfully,” says Angelides, a Rutgers senior who will receive his bachelor of art’s degree this month in linguistics and English from the School of Arts and Sciences.
The response from members of the Rutgers Crew Team was similarly positive. Although he waited until the beginning of second semester of his first year, the news met with acceptance and tolerance from team mates.
Not every gay or lesbian teenager is as lucky, Angelides acknowledges – far from it. People perceive the world of athletics in particular as “not overly embracing,” says Angelides, now 22 and co-captain of the team. Like many perceptions, it’s not totally accurate. “In fact,” he says, “collegiate athletics has been, perhaps surprisingly at first, a very accepting place, despite people’s initial assumptions to the contrary.”
But while he acknowledges progress, Angelides isn’t blind to the realities many young gays and lesbians face on a daily basis. Hearing once too often about teenagers taking their own lives after years of bullying and rejection, the Columbia, Connecticut native resolved to make the world a safer place, starting symbolically in his own backyard.
“I am openly gay, and realized I had never done anything for the LGBT community. After all the teen suicides, I felt an existential need to take action.”
He began working on behalf of Athlete Ally, a year-old nonprofit organization that encourages everyone involved in sports at the college level to respect team members no matter what their sexual orientation.
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