Speaker addresses 'last closet' problem for gay athletes

Introducing soccer coach Dan Woog to an audience of about 25 people Wednesday night in Morrison Hall, Jesse Moyens described his own experience with the IU men's soccer team. Moyens was the head student manager of the team from early 1998 through the summer of 2000, when he told family, friends and team members he is gay. \nIt is because of students like Moyens that Woog said he was here. \nWoog is not just a soccer coach; he is a journalist, educator, author and gay activist. He is the adviser of Connecticut's first high school gay/straight alliance, and he has written 13 books, including "Jocks: True Stories of America's Gay Male Athletes." \nWoog came to discuss experiences like Moyens', addressing what he calls "silent support" -- the tendency of coaches, players, and also members of the community as a whole, to take a passive role in supporting their gay teammates, students and friends. \nA prime example, said Woog, is Moyens' experience. Moyens said coach Jerry Yeagley was supportive of him when they talked about his sexual orientation, but he said Yeagley did not talk to the team about the issue or actively encourage them to accept him. \n"All I received (from the coaches) was the statement that 'this is not something we talk about around Assembly Hall,'" Moyens said. "In the moment that I needed support from these friends the most, this just wasn't something we talk about."\nWoog uses his own experiences to demonstrate the damaging effects such a passive attitude can have on college students and children. He referred to the locker room as the "last closet" in American society, pointing out that the machismo and misogyny of the sports environment do not foster children's exploration of their sexuality. \nWhen comments like "what a fag" and "you throw like a girl" go unchecked, Woog said, children receive a harmful message.\nStudents and players who use racial or ethnic slurs are immediately rebuked, Woog said, but coaches tend to look the other way for gay-bashing. He knows, because he did it himself. As a coach, Woog said he constantly enforced the importance of respect, but if a player said, "that's so gay," Woog would say nothing, for fear of having his own sexuality questioned. He said he was not ready for his players to know he was gay. \nWoog said he does not want other coaches to make the same mistake. When children hear teachers and coaches discipline their peers for every other kind of slur, but say nothing when they attack someone's sexuality, it sends a message that, "If I'm gay, I must be really bad," he said.\nThis attitude is what makes it so difficult for players to come out to their teammates, said Woog. He came out 10 years ago, and he said ever since then, his experiences with the team have been wonderful. He said he feels much closer to his players and said his candidness has opened the lines of communication and brought the team closer together. Woog said he wants coaches and players to know that when they provide a welcome atmosphere for all of their players, their teams can only improve. \nPlayers need to be discouraged from perpetuating a homophobic environment, said Woog, because whether they know it or not, they are almost always in the presence of someone who is either gay or has a gay friend or relative. \n"The assumption of heterosexuality is really really dangerous," he said.\nWoog pointed out that the small audience and the absence of several coaches was proof that there is still a problem. Four coaches were in attendance, representing women's softball, women's soccer, women's water polo and women's volleyball. \nBut women's volleyball coach Katie Weismiller rose to the coaches' defense, pointing out that many coaches were unable to attend because they were in practice with their teams.\nWeismiller said she enjoyed the program and thought it was a good opportunity to learn how to better help her players. \n"We should take any opportunity to educate ourselves as a community," she said. \nWoog said he hopes coaches at IU and across the country share her sentiments.