First: your work has made an enormous difference to me in my view of atheletes. I'm bisexual, 44 years old, and some of my worst memories was being bullied in high school, always by jocks. Hearing jocks say "If you can play, you can play" is a huge step. I have always equated jocks with being personally physically threatened, and have never liked them -- or sports -- because of it.
My question: there was a scandal with the SF 49ers the week before the Superbowl, when it turned out that 2 of the 4 players who appeared in an "It Gets Better" video had no idea that it was to end bullying specifically of LGBT teens (because LGBT teens have a 3-4x higher rate of suicide than other teens, among other things). Their responses to a reporter's question indicated they may not have done the video if they had known it was targeted to LGBT teens. The video was subsequently removed from the "It Gets Better" site. Watching it, I can see that neither of the two make any reference to LGBT status; and I can well imagine that a team PR guy put them in front of a camera, had them read a sterile script, and they had no idea what the recording was for. This made me feel like my rights are being used for sports PR, and that the people there don't really stand behind what they are saying. It makes me question every single "It Gets Better" video, and also the "You Can Play" videos.
So: what re-assurance can you give that the players who appear in "You Can Play" project videos know that it is for gay players specifically, that they back that cause, and are not embarrassed about speaking for equality of gay players?
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First: your work has made an enormous difference to me in my view of atheletes. I'm bisexual, 44 years old, and some of my worst memories was being bullied in high school, always by jocks. Hearing jocks say "If you can play, you can play" is a huge step. I have always equated jocks with being personally physically threatened, and have never liked them -- or sports -- because of it.
My question: there was a scandal with the SF 49ers the week before the Superbowl, when it turned out that 2 of the 4 players who appeared in an "It Gets Better" video had no idea that it was to end bullying specifically of LGBT teens (because LGBT teens have a 3-4x higher rate of suicide than other teens, among other things). Their responses to a reporter's question indicated they may not have done the video if they had known it was targeted to LGBT teens. The video was subsequently removed from the "It Gets Better" site. Watching it, I can see that neither of the two make any reference to LGBT status; and I can well imagine that a team PR guy put them in front of a camera, had them read a sterile script, and they had no idea what the recording was for. This made me feel like my rights are being used for sports PR, and that the people there don't really stand behind what they are saying. It makes me question every single "It Gets Better" video, and also the "You Can Play" videos.
So: what re-assurance can you give that the players who appear in "You Can Play" project videos know that it is for gay players specifically, that they back that cause, and are not embarrassed about speaking for equality of gay players?
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