With “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as the backdrop, a 60 Minutes / Vanity Fair poll asked: Would you support or oppose having an openly gay person serve in any of the following roles?  The poll, conducted via telephone by CBS News, sampled 967 random adults nationwide and yielded a result that shows more would support an openly gay person in sports than an openly gay person in a high ranking political or legal position.

Percentages for support in the following roles:

• 50% – President
• 55% – Supreme Court Justice
• 56% – Secretary of State
• 61% – Commissioner of Baseball
• 62% – Super Bowl quarterback

Those figures, across the board, are higher than I would expect.  This could be a result of the survey being over the telephone—it’s harder to vocalize your prejudices when asked directly—compared to another style of sampling that would be more anonymous.

It’s a tad disheartening to see higher support for someone in the sports industry more than someone shaping the landscape of our country.  Are people still worried of the “homosexual agenda” and plans to recruit and convert unsuspecting youth?

Regardless of the discrepancy between sports and political roles and the possibility that the numbers are inflated due to sampling procedures, it is encouraging to see a majority of support in all roles.  I doubt any Super Bowl quarterbacks will be coming out anytime soon (and there certainly have been some), but continued growth of support from society will surely help get us to that day.

60 Minutes, CBS News, politics, Super Bowl, Vanity Fair Hide

A new student union opened its doors today on the Ohio State University campus to all sorts of fanfare—ribbon cutting ceremony, giveaways throughout, etc.  To celebrate the opening, there are a myriad of activities planned for the first 30 days.

I’d like to specifically direct your attention to the GLBT functions (the entire list of events is here).  I’m going to try to make it to as many of these as possible and to report my experience accordingly.  If anyone wants to tag along, let me know.

Tuesday, April 13th
11-1pm: “Movies &Munchies”
Multicultural Center Lantern Room
“Early Works of Cheryl Dunye” In these smart & funny stories, black lesbian filmaker Cheryl Dunye explores issues of race, dating, friendship, and love. A facilitated discussion will follow.

Friday, April 16th
All Day: GLBT National Day of Silence
West Plaza

11-1pm: GLBT &Ally Community Resource Fair &Cook-OUT
West Plaza
Meet GLBT student organization leaders and Central Ohio Community organizations. Enjoy free food, games, and prizes. GLBT students and allies will mix, mingle, and discuss ways to build community.

Saturday, April 24th
7pm: The Red Party for AIDS Awareness
Cartoon Room

Cheryl Dunye, Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University Hide

In part one of these coaching questions, spurred by a Washington DC high school hiring female head football coach, we considered whether women can coach men.  The next natural question to consider is whether a gay or a lesbian can/should coach.

This question raises many of the same questions as whether a woman can coach men—whether they can fill the “role” the coach is expected to be (would they be saying a gay man cannot be the father-figure too?)—while certainly raising new asinine questions.  Undoubtedly, those opposed to having a gay coach would raise the archaic and incorrect perceptions that pair homosexuality and pedophilia.  They would kick and scream about the logistics of locker rooms, showers, and the like.

Well, first, homosexuality and those that abuse children are completely different things, and second, there are plenty of female teams with male head coaches that can deal with the logistics of showering, etc.  Most famously, or at least the first that comes to mind, is Geno Auriemma coach of the University of Connecticut Lady Huskies, who are currently on an incredible 74 game win streak.  Correction: 75 game win streak; they just beat Iowa State 38 in the Sweet 16.

That Uconn story has been amazing in general sports terms, but to answer the question at hand, the best story from this year’s women’s basketball tournament has to be about Sherri Murrell.  You see, Sherri Murrell is the ONLY openly gay or lesbian coach in division 1 basketball, and she led her Portland State team to the tournament by winning the Big Sky division.

Pat Griffin, who is the most knowledgeable person I know on the lesbian presence in sport, especially at the collegiate level, wrote this article on her blog.  Griffin’s article links to a Question and Answer with Murrell which is phenomenal: it considers so many of the important issues that you would expect with having a lesbian coach.

I’d encourage you to read the entire Q&A, but here are the segments I consider most applicable.

Why do you think you’re the only out coach in the NCAA?

“I can’t speak for others, but I can speak for myself. There is a fear of the unknown. A fear of job loss, fear of rejection from players, from parents, from boosters. There’s the fear of many different things. So for me, I had to get past the fear of those unknowns and be true to myself. […]

“Well, one of the unknowns is, you may not be fired from your job, but it may ruin your career. There’s a lot of negative recruiting going on right now. There’s big dollars attached to women’s sports now. Negative recruiting is when a coach can’t say enough good about their program that they have to put down another program. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of young women that believe it. I think the negative recruiting is the strongest fear. You may not lose your job because of discrimination, but you may lose your job because all the sudden people are saying, don’t go to that program because coach is a lesbian and then boom the program goes downhill. You lose your job because the program is not successful.”

Are there programs out there still that have no lesbian policies?

“Yeah. Unfortunately. I do know of programs that say we will not tolerate this in our program.”

How does homophobia affect, not just the queer kids. How does it affect the team, individuals?

“Sports is a unique situation. For us, we have 15 ladies on the team that are all going for one goal. They all want to win. You have to check your politics at the door. I don’t care if you’re gay. I don’t care if you’re Black. I don’t care if you’re this or that. We have a common goal and we have to get after it. We’ve all got to come together.”

What kind of reactions have you gotten from administration, players, parents?

“Administration: Athletic Directors are risk management people who want to see the program succeed. I’ve had nothing but support.

“Players: Like I said it’s such a non-issue. They don’t look at me as the lesbian coach, they look at me as Coach Murrell is THE coach. They’ve been awesome. They babysit my children.

“Parents: Unbelievable. They showered us [Murrell and her partner] with baby gifts. Parents have come into my home. We have dinners. It hasn’t been an issue with recruiting.

“I think the bottom line is being are true to yourself. Honesty is lost virtue. I have not had one negative response. Now, are coaches in the stands buzzing around and saying things about me? I don’t know. But the coaches in my conference have been very supportive.”

Murrell’s remarks capture many of the reasons why there has been so little breakthrough with gay coaches: fear of the unknown, fears of negative recruiting, fear of loss job and career.  But, she also mentions that too often we do not give those around us enough credit.  Almost every coming-out story I hear is filled with surprise at the positive response.  And although the sports world is still considered to be the most homophobic, I wish more would challenge and give athletes and fans a chance.

Geno Auriemma, Pat Griffin, Portland State, Sherri Murrell, University of Connecticut Hide

The questions is grossly archaic—bringing us back to the days when a woman’s role in society was to be a stay-at-home mom—yet, the question is just now being addressed and traditional coaching roles being challenged.  Remember: the sports world is old-fashioned and grounded in its views of gender norms.  (Check back tomorrow when we expand the question to consider if gays and lesbians can/should coach.)

The question has come to issue with Coolidge High in Washington DC announcing on March 12^th that Natalie Randolph will be their head football coach (Washington Post article here).  Randolph joins Debbie Vance, from Lehman High in Bronx, NY, as the only female high school football head coaches.

Randolph is certainly qualified: she has played five seasons in the Independent Women’s Professional League and was an assistant coach for two years at another DC high school.  Further, according to the Post’s article, she is very well-liked by the students and the players; when she was introduced to the team, she was met with overwhelming applause.

She acknowledges that people will have negative things to say, but she will not be swayed: “I can’t control what people say.  The first thing is, I love football, no matter whose domain it is. I’m going to do it. If I let people dictate what I do, I wouldn’t be where I am.”

Vernon Davis, tight end for the San Francisco 49ers who grew up in the DC area, blew up his Twitter and provided the predictable arguments against having a woman head coach.  Here are some of his tweets:

-          Back home in dc where I grew up, a nearbye high school just hired all women to coach the varsity football team. That is ridiculous

-          A woman can’t relate to a boy like a man can in my opinion! What do you all think about that? They even have a woman strength coach.

-          Football is a mans sport way, not woman. That’s why there is cheerleading and other things.

-          Females can do anything, but a boy will respond to a man better than a woman when partcipating in this game of football.

-          You show me a woman that can run a better route than Jerry Rice then j will let her be my coach.

-          RT @jdj86: @VernonDavis85 Sum HS boys don’t have a male at home (esp in the DC area) to guide them but fball coaches help fill that gap. 2/2

-          I wish the woman coaches all the luck in the world and hope they become successful at what they are doing. I agree, anything is possible.

Okay, now ignoring that last tweet which screams of agent-imposed-damage-control and the remarks that are absurd (suggesting cheerleading as what women should be doing), the valid themes are that players need a male coach to be like a father—tough, disciplined, authoritarian—and that you need to be able to play the sport in order to coach it.  I guess I’ll just address these arguments in order:

(1) You need a male coach to instill discipline, be a father figure, blah, blah, and blah.

This argument stems from the militaristic style of coaching that tears down the players and builds them back up as a team.  The coaching style definitely has its merits: it does build discipline and character, it does build team camaraderie, and it does challenge boys to become men, as cliché as that sounds.  The argument is furthered by suggesting that these values traditionally are instilled by a father, and as many of these players may not have a father-figure in their life, that the male coach should fill the role.

To counter these points, I would just say first, the authoritarian style can easily go too far and become abusive (see: Mark Mangino); second, there are women that are just as capable of being tough if needed; third, just as a man may be able to get the most out of his players being tough, a woman may be equally successful building a team being compassionate, discovering what motivates the players, etc.; and fourth, there are many sources needed for both father and mother figures—football is not the exclusive source, and further, a female coach can be an important mother-figure as well.

On this topic, the football practice scene from The Blind Side comes to mind (if you haven’t seen the movie yet, go rent it).  In it, the Michael Oher character is new to practice with his coach trying to teach him techniques of blocking.  With progress slow, Oher and his coach both get frustrated.  Then, Oher’s adopted mother Leigh Anne Tuohy, played by Sandra Bullock, walks up to Michael and says, “This team is your family, Michael. When you look at him, you think of me. Now you have my back. Are you going to protect your family, Michael?”  He responds, “Yes, ma’am,” and from that point forward is a dominant left tackle.  I don’t know if this is one of those iconic scenes from the movie that is true or Hollywood-embellished, but it illustrates the point: there are various ways to get everyone to perform and sometimes it is the non-traditional, other-gendered perspective that is most successful.

(2) You need to be able to play the sport to coach it.

I infer this argument from VD’s tweet that he’d allow a woman coach if she can run a route as good as Jerry Rice.  Again, there are certainly benefits if a coach has experience playing the game, but it is by no means a requirement.  Again, see: Mark Mangino, only this time actually see him.  There is no way he could run a route as good as Jerry rice, or a route at all for that matter, but he coached Division I football for years.  Further, football is a sport where the positions require such distinct skill sets that very few have ever been equipped to play at different places (George Blanda, quarterback-slash-kicker extraordinaire, comes to mind as an exception).  If it was required that you could do the job of each position in order to coach, there would be no qualified male coaches either.

Jamele Hill, an ESPN personality who I was fortunate enough to meet a few years ago at Leigh Steinberg’s Super Bowl party, is always on the scene when race or gender gets brought up.  After VD’s tweets, the idea of a woman coach became the focus of Hill’s twitter for a few hours.  She seemed especially keen to point out the fallacy in suggesting you must have athletic ability to coach:

-          OK w/ comment abt young boys responding differently 2 women. but @VernonDavis85 4got his coaches cant run J rice route, either.

-          If ur against women coaching fb, fine. but dont make it an athletic argument. plenty of bad/mediocre male athletes are coaches

Let’s also not forget that Randolph does play.  Five years in a woman’s professional league surely makes her more experienced than many of her male counterparts across the country.

Ultimately, coaching positions, like any other job, should be given based on qualifications.  Race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. should not be disqualifying traits.  If you can do the job, you can do the job.  Check back tomorrow as I write the 2^nd part to this coaching question: can/should gays and lesbians coach?

Jemele Hill, Mark Mangino, Natalie Randolph, The Blind Side, twitter, Vernon Davis, Washington Post Hide

Apologies for the lapse in posts; a spring final and quick spring break trip took priority.  To get back on track, I’ve got something light to share (I also have a queue of heavier topics to discuss in the next few days).

On that note, here is a video from a BBC sports award program to benefit Sport Relief, a United Kingdom fundraising effort to help poor communities and countries.  While my last post highlighted how homophobic the sports world can be within the lines and in the locker room, this video goes in the complete other direction.  The hilarious, gay relationship segment between James Corden, playing his character Coach Smithy, and David Beckham runs from 2:32 to 3:56.

BBC, David Beckham, James Corden, Smithy, Sport Relief Hide