Gender, Discrimination, Harassment, And Discrimination

Introduction Homosexuality is defined as forming sexual relationships with members of the same sex (Blonna et al 2010), and for decades now, the societal attitudes towards homosexuality have varied, from casual integration through acceptance and then to repressing it through law enforcement and judicial mechanisms (Gregory 2004).. In recent years the concept of homosexuality has become a controversial topic amongst the sports community. Since the 1920’s Homosexual athletes have competed as Olympians and in various other professional sports. Due to the various stigmas associated with Gays and Lesbians, coming out in the sports world has shown to be an alienating and difficult experience for homosexual athletes and coaches. In most†¦show more content†¦The consequences of men having more power than women, in the sports world, has led to stereotyped gender roles and stereotypes related to gay and lesbian athletes. Gays are considered to be failures of the heterosexual image of man an d therefore being gay is considered weak and is not tolerated amongst athletes. On the other hand the being a lesbian or â€Å"tomboy† is more socially acceptable amongst sports culture (Joseph 1995). A few examples of female athletes who have publicly stated their sexual orientation are, tennis legend Marina Navratilova, who competed in 2004, years after coming out, and Megan Rapinoe, an American soccer player, took part in the 2012 Olympic games (Zeigler, 2014). Karen Hultzer publicly came out during the London Games; she was one of twenty-three Olympians who were publicly competing (Zeigler2014). Almost ass Olympic athletes, who publicly came out as women, have competed in events after their announcements. Even though male Olympic athletes like, figure skater Blake Skjellerup, had announced he was gay he did not compete in the winter Olympics afterwards (Zeigler, 2014). The main ideology associated in the masculine dominant environment is that homosexuality is a weakness, even though this is not true, Professional male