?CHICAGO (AP) You probably never heard of Holly Peterson or Jonathan Jean Pierre. One came out as a lesbian at age 15, when she was playing high school basketball. The other,
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There was little fanfare for either. men professional sport to come out,
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Some are calling Collins a role model for this up and coming generation of gay and lesbian athletes. But in some ways, those young athletes and their supporters also have helped pave the way for pros like Collins.
is coming from the top down, but it also coming from the bottom up,
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is a movement that taken place quietly, she adds, teams, in athletic departments with some coaches and athletes standing up when they needed to It an accumulated movement over many,
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As a small number of high profile athletes followed suit in years to come,
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think it was easier on certain teams, and it kind of evolved over time, says Smith,
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was ready, says Peterson, who now 29. needed to tell someone. team and coach responded well, she says,
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Eventually, though, her parents came to terms with her sexual orientation and she went on to play college basketball at the University of California, Riverside, where she also lived her life openly.
While there,
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was huge for me, says Peterson, who now plays women professional tackle football. was really the first step in my looking at myself as a role model and someone who could make a difference. campuses among them Princeton, the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley now have groups for gay and lesbian athletes.
There are groups, too,
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The website for another organization, the You Can Play Project, includes videos of support from athletic directors, coaches and athletes from colleges and universities across the country.
you can play, you can play, is the tagline repeated over and over in those videos.
If you come out, you also might get an endorsement deal.
Just days after Brittney Griner came out as a lesbian, sportswear company Nike Inc. announced a deal with Griner, the WNBA No. 1 draft pick who soon graduate from Baylor University.
Not that it always easy for gay and lesbian athletes.
Jonathan Jean Pierre, a member of the rowing team at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, says his teammates have never given him any trouble about being gay.
sometimes I still feel like I have to work twice as hard to prove myself,
For Cheap Buy Viagra Online Explore The World Of, says the 19 year old athlete, who plans to discuss these and other issues as a participant of a summit for gay and lesbian athletes that Nike will host next month for the athletes, coaches and college athletic directors.
While more gay and lesbian athletes are coming out,
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are certainly other closeted athletes who are looking to Jason Collins to see what will happen with him, says Hudson Taylor, a former collegiate wrestler who, as a straight supporter of his gay and lesbian peers, founded Athlete Ally.
Either way, many including skater Johnny Weir, who announced he was gay after the last winter Olympics expect that Collins revelation will have a positive impact on young gay and lesbian athletes, partly because so many people are aware of it.
envious of it, the 28 year old Weir says, because there wasn much craze when he came out. I do really respect it. at Ohio State says he, too, has great respect for the athletes at his school who continue to come out. He recalls, for instance, how a member of the university track team named Derrick Anderson recently announced that he gay at a school forum.
That said, he hopes that, one day, coming out in such a public way won be necessary that gay and straight athletes and other students can simply coexist.
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