University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 5-2014 "It Starts with Having a Conversation": Lesbian Student-Athletes' Experience of U.S. NCAA Division I Sport Jamie Fynes University of Tennessee - Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Gender and Sexuality Commons, Other Kinesiology Commons, Other Psychology Commons, and the Sports Studies Commons Recommended Citation Fynes, Jamie, ""It Starts with Having a Conversation": Lesbian Student-Athletes' Experience of U.S. NCAA Division I Sport. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2014. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/2709 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Jamie Fynes entitled ""It Starts with Having a Conversation": Lesbian Student-Athletes' Experience of U.S. NCAA Division I Sport." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Science, with a major in Kinesiology. Leslee A. Fisher, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Rebecca A. Zakrajsek, Lars Dzikus Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) “It Starts with Having a Conversation”: Lesbian Student-Athletes’ Experience of U.S. NCAA Division I Sport A Thesis Presented for the Master of Science Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Jamie Fynes May 2014 ii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to all lesbian student-athletes. May you feel comfortable being who you are on your team, and may the sport environment continue to change to where acceptance of individual differences is the norm. This thesis is also dedicated to the ones I hold close to my heart; thank you for your love and support. You know who you are. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deep gratitude to my professors for their support and guidance during my time in graduate school. Special thanks to Dr. Leslee A. Fisher who has given me valuable assistance on my thesis. I would like to thank her as well as Dr. Rebecca A. Zakrajsek and Dr. Lars Dzikus for serving on my thesis committee. I would like to thank Dr. Rebecca A. Zakrajsek again as well as doctorate students Leslie Larsen and Matthew Bejar for their help with the analysis of the results. Your time working with me on this thesis has been greatly appreciated. Finally, I would like to thank those individuals who put me in contact with the participants, and of course, thank the participants themselves. Without all of you, this would not have been possible. iv ABSTRACT According to Griffin (1998), the U.S. NCAA Division I sport environment is not very welcoming for lesbian student-athletes because of existing negative myths and stereotypes. In addition, the experiences of both current and former lesbian collegiate athletes is an underrepresented research topic. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of 10 former U.S. NCAA Division I lesbian student-athletes using a semi-structured personal identity interview guide (Fisher, 1997) and Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) (Hill, Thompson, & Williams, 1997). Five domains, 19 categories, and related core ideas were found in the transcribed interviews. In Domain I: Stereotypes and perceptions of female athletes, participants described how U.S. society projects that female athletes are “lesser than” male athletes. In Domain II: Stereotypes and perceptions of lesbians and lesbian athletes, participants reported that stereotypes about lesbians and lesbian athletes were appearance-driven and sport- dependent. In Domain III: Climate for LGBT* athletes, participants stated that while feeling accepted on their former team, their athletic departments remained fairly silent on LGBT issues and had a kind of “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. In Domain IV: Negotiating identities, participants described the ways in which they negotiated their identities. Specifically, they emphasized the fact that there was more to their personhood than being gay, and that they revealed or concealed certain aspects of their identity depending on the context in they were in. Many practical recommendations for college campuses (Domain V) also came out of the interviews that have the potential to make the sport environment friendlier for lesbian and other sexual minority athletes. These recommendations are useful for applied sport psychology consultants, coaches, and administrators, all of whom play an important part in athletes’ collegiate sport experience. *LGB, LGBT, LGBTQ, etc. will be used in the document depending upon an author’s use of it. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………… 1 A Personal Story………………………………………………………………………………. 1 Brief Literature Review and Key Terms....…………………………………………………..... 3 Recent LGBTQ History…………………………………………………………………….. 4 LGBTQ Harassment………………………………………………………………............... 4 Queer Theory……………………………………………………………………………….. 5 Intersectionality…………………………………………………………………………….. 5 “Passing”…………………………………………………………………………………… 6 Coming Out………………………………………………………………………………… 6 Attitudes toward Those of a Sexual Minority…..…………………………………………... 6 Lesbians in Sport……………………………………………………………………………. 7 Statement of the Problem……………………………………………………………………… 7 Purpose of the Study…………………………………………………………………………... 8 Limitations……………………………………………………………………………………...8 Delimitations……………………………………………………………………………………9 Additional Key Definitions…………………………………………………………………….9 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………………. 12 Recent LGBTQ History……………………………………………………………………… 12 Professional Athletes……………………………………………………………………… 14 LGBTQ Sexual Harassment………………………………………………………………..... 14 Harassment and LGBTQ Youth…………………………………………………………… 15 LGBTQ Youth and Title IX……………………………………………………………….. 16 vi Experiences of Sexual Harassment Amongst Sexual Minority Women………………….. 17 Sexual Orientation and Sexual Harassment……………………………………………….. 18 Queer Theory………………………………………………………………………………… 19 Applying Queer Theory to Sport………………………………………………………….. 20 Intersectionality………………………………………………………………………………. 21 Intersectionality in sport……………………………………………………………………22 Sexual Minority Identity……………………………………………………………………... 23 The Lesbian Stigma……………………………………………………………………….. 25 Coming Out…………………………………………………………………………………... 27 Attitudes Toward Those of a Sexual Minority.……………………………………………..... 28 Lesbians in Sport……………………………………………………………………………... 30 Lesbian Athlete Identity…………………………………………………………………... 32 Coaches and faculty……….………………………………………………………………..33 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………………….. 36 Positionality………………………………………………………………………………….. 36 Epistemology………………………………………………………………………………… 40 Procedures……………………………………………………………………………………. 41 Bracketing Interview………………………………………………………………………. 41 Pilot Interview………………………………………………………………………………41 Main Study Participants…………………………………………………………………… 42 Data Collection………………………………………………………………………………. 42 Data Analysis………………………………………………………………………………… 43 CHAPTER IV: RESULTS……………………………………………………………………… 45 vii Domain I: Stereotypes and Perceptions of Female Athletes………………………………..... 45 Category a: Lesser than Male Athletes……………………………………………………. 45 Category b: Getting Better Over Time…………………………………………………….. 46 Category c: Stereotypes…………………………………………………………………… 46 Domain II: Stereotypes and Perceptions of Lesbians and Lesbian Athletes………………… 47 Category a: Sport-Dependent……………………………………………………………… 47 Category b: Appearance-Driven…………………………………………………………... 47 Category c: Just a “Phase”………………………………………………………………… 48 Category d: Generational Differences…………………………………………………….. 48 Domain III: Climate for LGBT Athletes……………………………………………………….. 49 Category a: Team Atmosphere……………………………………………………………. 49 Category b: Athletic Department Ethos…………………………………………………… 49 Category c: Athletic “Bubble”…………………………………………………………….. 50 Category d: Campus Resources…………………………………………………………….51 Domain IV: Negotiating Identities……………………………………………………………… 51 Category a: Performance vs. Personal…………………………………………………….. 51 Category b: Playing with Heterosexual Femininity……………………………………….. 53 Category c: “Gay” Isn’t All of Who I Am………………………………………………… 54 Category d: Sexual Orientation Fluidity……….………………………………………….. 54 Domain V: Recommendations for College Campuses…………………………………………. 55 Category a: Team Relatedness…………………………………………………………….. 55 Category b: Athletic Department………………………………………………………….. 56 Category c: Campus Organizations……………………………………………………….. 56 viii Category d: Exposure Leads to Normalization……………………………………………. 57 CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION, RECOMMENDATIONS FROM PARTICIPANTS, AND CONCLUSIONS…………………………………………………………………….................. 59 Discussion: Connections to Existing Literature………………………………….................... 59 Domain I: Stereotypes and Perceptions of Female Athletes: The “Balancing Act”..………59 Domain II: Stereotypes and Perceptions of Lesbians and Lesbian Athletes……………......61 Domain III: Climate for LGBT Athletes.…………………………………………………...62 Domain IV: Negotiating Identities………………………………………………………….63