Hudson Taylor Wrestles Homophobia in Sports

Hudson Taylor grew up in an Evangelical Christian family. He's straight. He graduated last year from the University of Maryland after being named a three-time Division I All-American in the hyper-masculine sport of wrestling.

You might think someone with that background might shy away from anything vaguely related to LGBT rights.

Taylor, however, competed last year wearing the logo of the Human Rights Campaign -- the largest LGBT advocacy organization in the country -- on his headgear, as Outsportsreported. He is now a Division I college wrestling coach at Columbia University, and is the only college coach of a male sports team to contribute a video to the "It Gets Better" campaign of hope for LGBT youth, according to his Web site.

And via Pat Griffin, Professor Emerita in the Social Justice Education Program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, comes news that Taylor has launched AthleteAlly, an initiative inviting people to pledge to reduce homophobia in sports.

The pledge reads:

I pledge to lead my athletic community toward respecting and welcoming all persons, regardless of their perceived or actual sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Beginning right now, I will do my part to promote the best of athletics by making all players feel respected on and off the field.

You can visit his Web site to learn more and to sign the pledge.

Taylor is also planning a book of the same name, which will "make the case that sports can lead to change ... dig deep into the problem of homophobia ... [and] make change possible and practical."

Homophobia and transphobia is rampant in most organized sports, as Change.org has written about before. Even the NCAA, overseer of collegiate athletics, ran ads on its Web site for the virulently anti-LGBT Focus on the Family before outrage from Change.org readers and others caused them to pull the ads. And Stuart Biegel and Sheila James Kuehl have written a lengthy study for the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School, showing how homophobia in school sports directly affects the safety of children and youth at school.

Change is happening, though. Griffin helped organize a session on homophobia in sport at the annual convention for members of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) last year. Equality California has partnered with the LA Clippers for an Equality Night fundraiser. Attend the Clippers game on February 2 and a portion of your ticket proceeds will go to Equality California. (You get a specially branded “Equality Night” t-shirt, too.)

And Boston Herald sports columnist Steve Buckley came out today, in a touching story that is well worth a read. He says at the end of his column, "It’s my hope that from now on I’ll be more involved. I’m not really sure what I mean by being 'involved,' but this is a start: I’m gay."

by Dana Rudolph