This page was created by Anastacia Negron. The last update was by Mary A Armstrong.
Unexpected Refuge: Athletics and Greek Life
Similarly, being on a sports team creates strong bonds, but forming relationships as a queer person can be complicated due to the lack of representation and culture of discrimination. Athletics has also been a place of community for many individuals on Lafayette’s campus. On the other hand, it has also traditionally been a place of heteronormativity and hostility. Currently in 2023, our student body is 25% athletes, meaning while they are actively involved in the greater campus culture, they also have other communities of their own. Being on a sports team gives you a built-in family from your first day at Lafayette, creating strong bonds for the next four years. While it can be nice to have the support of your teammates, it can be quite complicated to form those relationships as a queer person. Not only is there a lack of representation and visibility in sports, but there is a culture of discrimination. Due to this history of homophobia and toxic masculinity in athletics, there is a lack of queer male athletes within the queer archives. As a result of this culture, many athletes might feel hesitant to come out and express their true selves.
Catherine Hanlon ‘79, a gay basketball player, experienced extreme isolation as a gay woman in what she describes, “a very big jock, macho football place,” [00:04:05]. Sports was an outlet for Hanlon where she could excel, receive positive feedback, and bond with her peers. Hanlon describes herself as not only a well-respected athlete, but a good student who stayed out of trouble. While Hanlon had her fair share of issues with homophobia at Lafayette including almost getting expelled from the college due to her sexual identity, she also claims to have had a strong network of friends. “By that point, as a senior, there really wasn’t -- I didn’t really feel any great need to get involved, and as I said, my peer group was the teams I was on. So I had a female support group here,” [00:18:44]. Hanlon managed to build a strong support network within her team. During her senior year, one of her friends’ had a feminist mother who introduced her to Rubyfruit Jungle, a book that validated her experiences and finally made her feel seen. Without these connections from her team and exposure to feminist material, Hanlon’s isolation may have been amplified.
We tend to think of Greek Life and Athletics as either good or bad, but for some people it’s not as clear cut. This topic can be quite complex for queer individuals and it is not always black or white. While these spaces may seem hostile to us from the outside, others find a strong sense of community and support within. However, that does not eliminate the negative systemic effects these spaces have historically created.
