Athletes from the University of North Carolina, including those from football and baseball, have join forces to make a video for the It Gets Better Project. The video was started by our good friend Dave Lohse, Associate Athletic Communications Director, himself openly gay. It was not a hard sell, Lohse told Outsports.
The genesis of the video is that I approached Cricket Lane, one of our assistant athletic directors, last fall about doing an It Gets Better video. She had me talk to a group called the Student-Athlete Advisory Council. I also talked to all the freshman athletes about diversity issues as part of a session in the Carolina Leadership Academy program.
The genesis of the video is that I approached Cricket Lane, one of our assistant athletic directors, last fall about doing an It Gets Better video. She had me talk to a group called the Student-Athlete Advisory Council. I also talked to all the freshman athletes about diversity issues as part of a session in the Carolina Leadership Academy program.
From there a Facebook group was started. We wanted to keep the video to 2 minutes or less. There were so many student-athletes who volunteered to be in the video that we basically said yes to whoever contacted us. We felt it really didn’t make any difference what sport they represented. With 28 sports we knew we couldn’t include everyone.
Lohse said he does not know if any of the athletes in the video are gay or lesbian, but their message of support is terrific. It’s cool to see an entire athletic department get behind the effort, and it also show the power of having an out advocate like Lohse.
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