On Campus

By Jordan Goldwarg and Ryan Quinn
Special to Outsports.com

Over the last few years, the Internet has allowed gay athletes a freedom of  expression that could previously have only been dreamed of. At websites like Outsports.com, many people have contributed their own thoughts on what it means to be a gay athlete. Now, we want to create a slightly more formal, centralized place for a genre of writing, a place that can be a resource for college athletes.

We are spearheading a unique project to start an online journal that will be a forum and outlet for the opinions, ideas, theories, debates, and experiences of all college athletes.

Goldwarg	Quinn

The idea for the journal came as we prepare for the second annual International Gay and Lesbian Athletics Conference (March 26-28 in Boston), We thought back to last year’s conference with the intention of building on what was accomplished then. Focusing on our particular area of experience, college athletics, we realized that last year’s conference raised as many questions as it answered, and a year later, we’re still looking for those answers.

Both the college athlete panel and the college athlete roundtable discussion were valuable in that they represented one of the first times that gay college athletes were together in the same place to discuss issues that were pertinent to their experiences. By the end of these sessions, however, two areas of frustration had emerged.

First, we were disappointed with the number of attendees; we knew that there were many, many more gay college athletes out there, and while we certainly did not expect all of them to make the trek to Boston, we had hoped that there would be more, thus providing more experiences to share.

Second, we were frustrated by not having enough time to discuss all the issues that we wanted to, which left us unable to resolve many of the problems that were raised. We recognize the time constraints that must naturally accompany a three-day, broad-based conference, but still, we want to get more out of it.

To try to remedy these frustrations, we’re embarking on the journal project, which will be closely associated with the IGLAC but that will not have the same limitations of time and travel imposed by an annual conference.

We believe that to solve the problems facing GLBT athletes, and to create real acceptance for those athletes in college, it is necessary to have an ongoing and in-depth dialogue, maintained by the athletes themselves. We want to include accounts from athletes of all sports, both recreational and competitive, as well as coaches, trainers, and scholars.

The goal of the journal, then, is three-fold:

• To identify the issues facing GLBT college athletes
• To examine these issues in depth
• To begin to resolve them

In achieving these aims, we hope that this will become a long-term, sustainable journal of writing that provides commentary on current issues as well as traces the history of changing attitudes within the GLBT athletic community. We also hope that by documenting these experiences, we can begin to discover the patterns that will allow all GLBT athletes to achieve complete acceptance.

The structure of the journal will be entirely flexible, in terms of both format and content. We’re looking for essays, stories, open letters, poems, editorials, or any other format a contributor thinks is appropriate.

If you’d like more information about this project, or if you’d like to contribute your own writing, please e-mail us.

Jordan Goldwarg competed on the men's Nordic ski team at Williams College in Massachusetts. Ryan Quinn  was a cross-country skier at the University of Utah.

Read Goldwarg’s coming-out tale; Read Quinn’s coming-out tale. 

Feb. 19, 2004