Sports
New survey measures LGBT friendliness of college athletics
Campus Pride launches sports index spin-off
From left are Prin (no last name given), Shane Windmeyer and Allison Turner at the Campus Pride home base in Charlotte, N.C. (Photo courtesy Campus Pride)
Campus Pride, the organization behind the Campus Pride Index, a national listing of LGBT-friendly U.S. colleges, quietly launched a spin-off in June.
The new Campus Pride Sports Index, in development since 2001, is a resource that helps colleges self assess how welcoming and inclusive their athletic programs are for LGBT students. The same team that launched the main Campus Pride Index, which averages about 80,000 unique visitors per month, also worked on the Sports Index and said there is a need for a separate gauge for athletics.
“Singling out sports in particular is important because it is one of those areas of campus life that has not been as LGBT-inclusive generally as other areas have been,” says Genny Beemyn, a gender nonconforming author and academic who helped edit the responses. “On a lot of campuses, especially at very large universities, sports are a big part of campus life so we want to make sure that LGBT students are treated equally and feel welcome when they participate.”
Participation is voluntary for schools. To begin, a campus official creates an account and takes an online assessment that involves about 50 questions that correspond to five different LGBT-friendly factors. It doesn’t have to be completed in one sitting as sometimes officials have to conduct research to answer some of the questions accurately.
Once completed, the official receives a confidential report of the responses along with results and recommendations. Each school may decide how much of the information it wants to have posted online. The index measures policy, program and practice and asks questions such as, “Is there ongoing training for full-time staff that’s inclusive of sexual orientation,” “Is there a visible reporting mechanism for responding to anti-LGBT harassment, verbal conduct or practices,” “Is there private changing space and showers in locker rooms for transgender participants” and so on.
The survey can be conducted at any time of the academic year. Schools are ranked by earning up to five medals. California State University in Chico, Calif., for instance, has two-and-a-half medals on the index. There’s no cost for colleges to participate.
So far just 14 schools have completed the assessment but Campus Pride officials hope to have about 100 colleges included by year’s end. The June launch was considered a “soft opening.” Campus Pride workers hope to launch the new index with more fanfare this fall, perhaps with a tie in to a major college football program or event.
“We tend to think of colleges as these liberal bastions that have all these progressive policies, but only about 20 percent of U.S. colleges even have a basic non-discrimination policy in place that’s inclusive of sexual orientation,” says Shane Windmeyer, co-founder and executive director of Campus Pride. “It’s even lower around gender identity and expression.”
Unlike, for example, the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, an annual report of businesses and their LGBT policies or lack thereof, both the Campus Pride Index and the Sports Index are voluntary.
“It’s not really our purpose to rank schools on our own,” Windmeyer says. “The Sports Index gives them the opportunity to come out as LGBTQ-friendly, just like an individual has to live openly and come out. We don’t think it’s our job to go to a school and rate them unless they’re willing to do it. And they have to think about what message not participating sends to prospective students as well. If your college doesn’t have the time to participate, then why would you want to go there?”
Schools can improve over time. On the Campus Pride Index, Windmeyer says some schools came back in subsequent years and about 80 percent that returned improved in at least one area. He knows of one college in Ohio that included improving on the index as one goal in its official strategic plan for diversity. Although the Sports Index is new, Windmeyer says he anticipates it will be used as a similar benchmark in coming years.
Windmeyer says early feedback has been positive.
“The Sports Index has been an invaluable tool to the University of Richmond as we continue to ensure all of our campus is inclusive of the LGBTQ community,” says Ted Lewis, associate director of Common Ground for LGBTQ Campus Life at the University of Richmond. “We are very proud of our three-and-a-half medal ranking and the beauty of the assessment is we now have tangible next steps to continue our journey of full inclusion in varsity athletics and recreation sports.”
Sports
Attitude! French ice dancers nail ‘Vogue’ routine
Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry strike a pose in memorable Olympics performance
Madonna’s presence is being felt at the Olympic Games in Italy.
Guillaume Cizeron and his rhythm ice dancing partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry of France performed a flawless skate to Madonna’s “Vogue” and “Rescue Me” on Monday.
The duo scored an impressive 90.18 for their effort, the best score of the night.
“We’ve been working hard the whole season to get over 90, so it was nice to see the score on the screen,” Fournier Beaudry told Olympics.com. “But first of all, just coming out off the ice, we were very happy about what we delivered and the pleasure we had out there. With the energy of the crowd, it was really amazing.”
Watch the routine on YouTube here.
Italy
Olympics Pride House ‘really important for the community’
Italy lags behind other European countries in terms of LGBTQ rights
The four Italian advocacy groups behind the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics’ Pride House hope to use the games to highlight the lack of LGBTQ rights in their country.
Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano organized the Pride House that is located in Milan’s MEET Digital Culture Center. The Washington Blade on Feb. 5 interviewed Pride House Project Manager Joseph Naklé.
Naklé in 2020 founded Peacox Basket Milano, Italy’s only LGBTQ basketball team. He also carried the Olympic torch through Milan shortly before he spoke with the Blade. (“Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie last month participated in the torch relay in Feltre, a town in Italy’s Veneto region.)
Naklé said the promotion of LGBTQ rights in Italy is “actually our main objective.”
ILGA-Europe in its Rainbow Map 2025 notes same-sex couples lack full marriage rights in Italy, and the country’s hate crimes law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. Italy does ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, but the country’s nondiscrimination laws do not include gender identity.
ILGA-Europe has made the following recommendations “in order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Italy.”
• Marriage equality for same-sex couples
• Depathologization of trans identities
• Automatic co-parent recognition available for all couples
“We are not really known to be the most openly LGBT-friendly country,” Naklé told the Blade. “That’s why it (Pride House) was really important for the community.”
“We want to use the Olympic games — because there is a big media attention — and we want to use this media attention to raise the voice,” he added.
Naklé noted Pride House will host “talks and roundtables every night” during the games that will focus on a variety of topics that include transgender and nonbinary people in sports and AI. Another will focus on what Naklé described to the Blade as “the importance of political movements now to fight for our rights, especially in places such as Italy or the U.S. where we are going backwards, and not forwards.”
Seven LGBTQ Olympians — Italian swimmer Alex Di Giorgio, Canadian ice dancers Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver, Canadian figure skater Eric Radford, Spanish figure skater Javier Raya, Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson, and Irish field hockey and cricket player Nikki Symmons — are scheduled to participate in Pride House’s Out and Proud event on Feb. 14.
Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood representatives are expected to speak at Pride House on Feb. 21.
The event will include a screening of Mariano Furlani’s documentary about Pride House and LGBTQ inclusion in sports. The MiX International LGBTQ+ Film and Queer Culture Festival will screen later this year in Milan. Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood is also planning to show the film during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Naklé also noted Pride House has launched an initiative that allows LGBTQ sports teams to partner with teams whose members are either migrants from African and Islamic countries or people with disabilities.
“The objective is to show that sports is the bridge between these communities,” he said.
Bisexual US skier wins gold
Naklé spoke with the Blade a day before the games opened. The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will close on Feb. 22.
More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are competing in the games.
Breezy Johnson, an American alpine skier who identifies as bisexual, on Sunday won a gold medal in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, on the same day helped the U.S. win a gold medal in team figure skating.
Glenn said she received threats on social media after she told reporters during a pre-Olympics press conference that LGBTQ Americans are having a “hard time” with the Trump-Vance administration in the White House. The Associated Press notes Glenn wore a Pride pin on her jacket during Sunday’s medal ceremony.
“I was disappointed because I’ve never had so many people wish me harm before, just for being me and speaking about being decent — human rights and decency,” said Glenn, according to the AP. “So that was really disappointing, and I do think it kind of lowered that excitement for this.”
Puerto Rico
Bad Bunny shares Super Bowl stage with Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga
Puerto Rican activist celebrates half time show
Bad Bunny on Sunday shared the stage with Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl halftime show in Santa Clara, Calif.
Martin came out as gay in 2010. Gaga, who headlined the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, is bisexual. Bad Bunny has championed LGBTQ rights in his native Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
“Not only was a sophisticated political statement, but it was a celebration of who we are as Puerto Ricans,” Pedro Julio Serrano, president of the LGBTQ+ Federation of Puerto Rico, told the Washington Blade on Monday. “That includes us as LGBTQ+ people by including a ground-breaking superstar and legend, Ricky Martin singing an anti-colonial anthem and showcasing Young Miko, an up-and-coming star at La Casita. And, of course, having queer icon Lady Gaga sing salsa was the cherry on the top.”
La Casita is a house that Bad Bunny included in his residency in San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, last year. He recreated it during the halftime show.
“His performance brought us together as Puerto Ricans, as Latin Americans, as Americans (from the Americas) and as human beings,” said Serrano. “He embraced his own words by showcasing, through his performance, that the ‘only thing more powerful than hate is love.’”
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Calendar: February 13-19
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