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Home > It Takes a Team! Action Guide for Parents

It Takes a Team! Action Guide for Parents




Making Athletics Safe for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Coaches and Athletes
  • Monitor your own stereotyped beliefs about LGBT people and commit yourself to challenging them.
  • Talk with your daughter or son about LGBT people in athletics to understand questions or negative
    stereotypical beliefs they have about them.
  • Encourage young people to stand up for fairness for everyone, even when peer pressure does not
    support this perspective.
  • Encourage your school.s athletic department to sponsor educational programs for athletes, coaches,
    and parents on LGBT issues in sport.
  • Thank coaches and athletic directors when they do sponsor educational programs focused on
    encouraging fairness, safety, and respect for all.
  • Stop young people from using anti-gay or sexist language and talk with them about why it is not
    acceptable.
  • Role model respectful treatment of LGBT coaches and athletes for your son or daughter.
  • Challenge your own assumptions about the importance of rigid adherence to stereotypical gender
    expression for your children.
  • Consider the possibility that your son or daughter might be LGBT and identify ways you can support
    him or her.
  • Make it clear to your children that they have a right to set their own personal boundaries for
    interactions with teammates and that any unwanted breach of those boundaries is unacceptable.
  • Make it clear to your children that any coach, regardless of sexual orientation or gender, who
    engages in sexual talk or behavior with athletes is unethical.
  • Attend athletic department or school-sponsored programs about LGBT issues.
  • Talk with other parents about the importance of encouraging young people to appreciate differences
    and treat all teammates and coaches with respect.
  • Read books or news articles about LGBT issues in athletics to better understand how to make sports
    safe for all.
  • Use inclusive language that does not assume that all coaches or athletes are heterosexual.
  • Always assume that there are LGBT people on athletic teams and among the coaching and support
    staff even if they have chosen not to identify themselves.
  • Propose a non-discrimination policy for your athletic department that includes sexual orientation and
    gender expression.
  • Treat all athletes and coaches fairly and respectfully regardless of their sexual orientation or gender
    expression.