Helen Carroll knows first-hand the value and importance—and certainly the potentially damaging consequences, especially on recruiting—of addressing discrimination in college athletics, especially related to sexual orientation, either actual or perceived.
She is a former college basketball coach, who claimed the NAIA National Championship in 1984 at the University of North Carolina-Asheville; and she later was a Division III athletic director for 12 years.
She is now the Sports Project Director for the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights ( NCLR ) , a post she's held for six years.
Carroll and Dr. Pat Griffin, the director of It Takes a Team! Education Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues in Sports, an initiative of the Women's Sports Foundation, joined forces to address the issue.
They co-wrote "The Positive Approach: Recognizing, Challenging, and Eliminating Negative Recruiting Based on Actual or Perceived Sexual Orientation," published by the NCLR.
"The report came out of a think-tank [ in 2006 ] where we got leaders from every part of sports together," Carroll said. "The reason we did [ the report ] was, we wanted to be able to establish a guide or a way for athletic leaders, parents and student-athletes to talk about this unethical practice that involves sexual orientation. The reason is, this has been so silent; there hasn't been open dialogue about what it is, what's happening and how it influences sports, [ and ] what could possibly be done to curb, slow down or eliminate this unethical practice.
"You can't really eliminate, slow down or even address a problem unless you're willing to talk about it."
The 20-page report offers a comprehensive analysis of negative recruiting based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, and recommends practices and policies to eliminate it. Negative recruiting, according to the report, is the practice of playing on homophobic stereotypes to deter recruits from attending rival athletic programs by alleging or implying that a rival coach or team members are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
So, is negative recruiting truly a problem, and how big?
"That's the question that is always asked," Carroll said. "It has always been a problem, especially in women's sports, though it's hard to be quantitative about it because people really won't speak about it. But if you're in sports—especially if you're a woman in sports, either coaching or playing—at some point, you're going to be faced with this, definitely.
"Putting an end to negative recruiting is critical, not only to protect LGBT players and coaches, but also to attract and retain the best, most qualified coaches. As long as any athlete or coach can be harmed by being tagged with the 'lesbian' or 'gay' label, the goal of achieving true equality in sports will remain out of reach."
In 2001, NCLR became the first LGBT organization to tackle the rampant homophobia and transphobia in sports with the launch of the Sports Project. NCLR's Sports Project works on all levels of athletic competition, from the NCAA to the NFL, to ensure that LGBT athletes can compete and participate openly and equally.
Carroll said the negative recruiting definitely has been an issue with coaches, because they haven't had a way to get help, stop it, or even talk about it.
"If you're a woman, and this is happening to you from someone else in your conference, whether you're a lesbian or not, you usually don't say much about it because you want it to just go away—and so does your athletic director and your school," Carroll said. "It's [ been ] very difficult for coaches to do anything about this [ practice ] because they haven't had the support or the way to do it. But this report, what it does is, it gives practical ways for administrators and coaches to talk about it and what to do, how to manage it.
"When this happens, it affects the entire athletic department, not just one coach and one team."
Carroll said she wished such a report was around when she coached and was an athletic director, "because it's a practical guide."
She added: "Instead of just talking about how this [ practice ] is a terrible thing, this report talks about what to do about it and how to do it."
The Positive Approach is available in PDF format online at www.nclrights.org/sports.
