Lesbians, gays, and bisexuals in athletics.

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        The atmosphere of sport is often charged with highly competitive and hostile attitudes, and yet it is also a main component of most athletes’ social lives.  In society as whole, there are endless conflicts that range in severity and are caused by differences in people’s beliefs, values, and opinions.  The world of competitive sport is certainly no stranger to conflict, both internally among team members as well as externally among fans, media, officials, and competitors.  It is the belief of some people that lesbians, gays, and bisexuals are a disruptive element for all competitive sport teams and that although they should be allowed to participate they should have to follow a special set of rules to ensure that they do not influence or jeopardize the safety or psychological well being of their teammates.  This belief is not only absurd but it is also discriminatory and based on nothing more than ignorance.  The truth of the matter is that gay, lesbian, and bisexual (LGB) athletes pose absolutely no threat, physically or psychologically, to their heterosexual teammates, and in fact it is heterosexuals who put the safety and psychological well being of LGB athletes at serious risk.

        It is known and has been proven that homosexual men and women have been and still are active in both mainstream and gay community athletics (Hekma, 1994).  Although all athletes interact with friends, coaches, teachers, peers, or relatives who are homosexuals quite often they are unaware of these people’s sexual orientation (WSF, 2001).  Many LGB athletes do not immediately disclose their sexual orientation to teammates and they become an important part of their team both on and off the field.  This proves that homosexuals are not the sex-crazed perverts that they are often portrayed as by society, but they are in fact normal people with individual personalities and interests who blend into society without difficulty (Corvino, 1997).  If people focused less on what homosexuals do and more on who they are then much of the controversy about homosexuals in sport, and in society as a whole, could be avoided (LeVay, 1996).  

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        Not only are LGB athletes undisruptive but in many ways they are helpful to the sport community.  Since athletes are living in a society and world where LGB people are present and ever more visible it is important for young people to develop their own attitudes and beliefs about LGB people without basing them on prejudice or fear (WSF, 2001).  Through participating in sports with LGB athletes people are able cultivate individual attitudes by getting to know the LGB athletes as people and teammates as well as learning to tolerate and accept their differences, rather than labeling them with a ...

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