Homophobia

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• Homophobia
• Seeing the Invisible,
• Talking about the Unspoken
• Phyllis Berck - CAAWS Past Chair
• Karin Lofstrom - CAAWS Executive Director

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CAAWS

• Who is CAAWS?
• Recent work on Homophobia

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Overview

• q CAAWS background
• q Definitions
• q Why CAAWS? Why now?
• q Why is this an important issue?
• CAAWS Consultations Results
• q CAAWS Next steps

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CAAWS is . . .

• Encouraging girls and women
• to get off the bleachers,
• and onto the fields
• and playing courts, into the pools,
• the locker rooms and boardrooms!

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CAAWS Mission Statement

• To ensure that girls and women have access to a
  complete range of opportunities and choices and
  have equity as participants and leaders in sport
  and physical activity. CAAWS is an advocate for
  equity for girls and women in sport and physical
  activity, and promotes the values of equity,
  inclusiveness, fairness,
• and respect.

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Strategic Directions (2 of 5)

• 1. Increased numbers of girls and women becoming
  and staying active in sport and physical
  activity.
• 2. Increased numbers of women in leadership roles
  in the Canadian sport and physical activity
  systems.

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Definitions

• Homophobia is a fear, intolerance or hatred of
  homosexuality and/or of homosexuals. Homophobia
  takes the form of a stereotype, prejudice, and/or
  discrimination against homosexuals, bisexuals,
  and/or transgendered peoples.

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Definitions

• Homosexuality is a sexual orientation or sexual
  attraction towards a person of the same sex.
  Gay refers to men who are sexually attracted to
  men. Lesbian refers to women who are sexually
  attracted to women.

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Why CAAWS? Why now?

• CAAWS matured as an organization
• credibility funding more secure

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Why CAAWS? Why now?

• The timing is right
• Start the discussions in a positive way.

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Why CAAWS? Why now?

• Efforts made to be inclusive positive
• Sport still not welcoming to gay lesbians

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Why is this an important issue?

• Homophobia is a barrier
• Sport is too important to health well-being of
  girls and women
• Scare homosexual heterosexual women away from
  sports.

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Why is this an important issue?

• It affects all levels of sport all participants
  from
• Parents deciding if their 5 old daughter will
  start to play ice hockey
• Will a teenage girl continue to play sport or is
  she influenced by peer pressure to stop?
• Will a lesbian coach get selected for
• a top coaching position?

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Why is this an important issue?

• Will players choose to play for a lesbian coach
  or will their parents convince to play for a
  different coach?
• Will lesbian players be selected at a tryout camp
  by a homophobic coach?
• Will a lesbian referee get top assignments or
  does she have to hide her sexuality?

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CAAWS Consultations

• Consultations in Ottawa, Toronto Winnipeg
• university high performance athletes
• (current retired)
• coaches, teachers, professors, sport
  administrators
• straight and lesbian women
• no one asked to identify their sexuality

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CAAWS Consultations

• Purpose
• To let women know, in a safe environment, that
  CAAWS wants to discuss this issue.
• To get input from womenstraight lesbianwho
  have been impacted by homophobia.

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CAAWS Consultations

• Process
• Two questions were asked in the consultations
• 1. Is homophobia a barrier to the participation
  of girls women in sport?
• 2. What should CAAWS be doing to address this
  issue?

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Consultation Results

• General barriers
• Assumptions/norms around heterosexual behaviour
• Young people use the words gay, fag, homo not to
  describe homosexuality, just as derogatory
  statement as youre so gay!(stupid, lame).

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Consultation Results

• General barriers
• Stereotypes best player automatically
• adyke, Gym teachers are lesbians
• Stereotyping of particular sports ice hockey,
  softball, field hockey
• Whispers and lies vs open discussion

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Consultation Results

• Barriers for Parents
• Homophobia effects choices parents make
• Sports
• Teams (universities or club)
• Coaches

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Consultation Results

• Barriers for Parents
• One woman mentioned that her Mom didnt want her
  to play hockey because she might become a lesbian
  so she didnt play hockey but she did become a
  lesbian.

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Consultation Results

• Barriers for Coaches
• Lesbian head coach feel incredible pressure to
  hide their sexuality.
• Adversely affect how they coach
• Straight coaches are concerned about chemistry
  on a team
• use a persons sexuality as method of team/player
  selection.

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Consultation Results

• Barriers for Coaches
• perception among lesbian athletes that lesbian
  coaches have to work twice as hard to get the
  head coach position.
• Basketball Coach we have an
• Ice Hockey Problem.

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Consultation Results

• Barriers for Athletes
• Name calling jokes made about lesbians
• Negative comments about gays came from the
  outside world more than from the team that had
  openly gay players
• Men are often more openly aggressive in name
  calling then women.

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Consultation Results

• Barriers for Athletes
• Always falls on the lesbian to educate the
  straight crowd.
• Team change rooms was perceived as an issue.
• Gay athletes are more accepted if they are one of
  the top players

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Consultation Results

• Barriers for Athletes
• It was cool to be gay in society but not in
  sport
• Cool to be gay if you are feminine and attractive

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Consultation Results

• Barriers for Athletes
• younger trying to excel in sport, more pressure
  to stay in the closet
• older less pressure, more choices as where to
  play

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Consultation Results

• Barriers for Athletes
• teammates are more supportive or more respectful
  than the public.
• once they get to know you as a person first much
  easier to be accepted.

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Consultation Results

• Policy Barriers
• Homophobia is mentioned in Harassment policies
  but people are uncomfortable talking about it.

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What can CAAWS do?

• Participants were grateful for the opportunity to
  start talking about the issue and want CAAWS to
  continue the discussions.
• Education
• Prevention education training include
• Specific homophobia workshops for athletes/teams,
  coaches, officials, Boards, administrators,
  parents, volunteers
• Inclusion in NCCP Coach education
• Fair Play programs
• Canadian Sport Centre programs

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What can CAAWS do?

• Policy and procedures adopted by sport
  organizations, clubs etc.
• Resources posters,brochures,website
• Issue of homophobia included in diversity
  sessions
• Felt there was fear ignorance of what people
  dont know

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What can CAAWS do?

• Need to educate people about heterosexual
  privilege, assumptions
• Use of inclusive language
• Normalize all types of relationships
• Issue of respect

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What can CAAWS do?

• Awareness
• Need greater awareness discussion
• Focus on Diversity racism, sexism, disability
• Look for opportunities to create discussion
• Partnerships with organizations already working
  in this area USA Womens Sport Foundation

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What can CAAWS do?

• encourage people to speak out and support others
  who do
• Awareness needs different at various level of the
  sport system
• (Community vs. Elite)

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What can CAAWS do?

• Support Systems
• Need to support champions
• Need to support athletes coaches who out
  themselves
• Provide tools/guidelines to create safe
  atmosphere

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What can CAAWS do?

• Coach/teacher/leader sets tone of
  teams/experience

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Next Steps for CAAWS

• CAAWS became a member of the GLISA Gay
  Lesbian International Sport Association
• We are currently working on finalizing our
  discussion paper
• Circulate the discussion paper to National/Multi
  Sport Organizations and Provincial Sport
  Organization in sport community to start
  discussions.

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Next Steps for CAAWS

• Post discussion paper along with a list of other
  resources on the CAAWS website (www.caaws.ca)
• Look for potential partners who would be
  interested in addressing this issue within their
  organizations.
• Coaching Association of Canada (CAC),
• Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS),
• Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES),
• Athletes CAN

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Next Steps for CAAWS

• Integrate information in all our CAAWS programs
  On The Move, VIEWS Voices Inspiring Equity in
  Women and Sport, Women and Leadership Program.
• 7. Apply to do a presentation at the Human
  Rights Conference in conjunction with the Out
  Games to be held in Montreal in 2006.

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• If you have not already had these types of
  discussion in your community, we encourage you to
  initiate discussions to make sport a safer place
  for all.

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• Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women
  and Sport and Physical Activity
• www.caaws.ca