As we’ve seen throughout this unit, diversity is essential in the work place. It brings openness to new and creative ideas, a wider range of employee talent, and helps attract new customers. This then creates success for not only the companies financial returns, but the goals of the individual as well. While we have progressed through this unit, reading numerous articles about diversity and inclusion, I have still yet to really see how the LGBTQ+ community faces these everyday challenges.
The article I chose is titled “Between Homohysteria and Inclusivity: Tolerance Towards Sexual Diversity in Sport.” I chose this article because I thought it would be a great addition for our unit on diversity and inclusion. The article does a great job at explaining the issues that are currently happening in sports surrounding gender and sexuality, as well as giving evidence on why sexual diversity is in fact beneficial. The authors are Joaquin Piedra, Rafael Garcia-Parez and Alexander G. Channon and the article was published in April of 2017. These researchers are experts in the field and have done numerous studies about homophobia and homohysteria in all facets. The goal of this particular article is to broaden the knowledge of Individuals who might not know much about it and create a new way of thinking for ones who often neglect people just because of their sexual orientation. The authors do this by providing evidence for why gender and sexual diversity is good for not only sports, but in all fields of work.
The article begins by stating how there are a small number of openly gay and lesbian people in top flight sports which raises the question about whether sporting or social context makes it easy or difficult for these people to come out. There have been various studies about tolerance towards sexual diversity in sport and this article focuses on exactly that. Ever since sports were created, it has always been very male dominant, but even more specifically, a site of hegemonic masculinity. Gender and sexual diversity has always been ignored and the sexual minorities have been stigmatized for quite some time now. The presence of the LGBTQ+ community in sports functions as a challenge to hegemonic ideas about gender. The article states that the reason for this is because male dominance in sports has always been the norm. Often times people are weary to differ from the norm. As a result, causes discrimination and hatred to the minority. “In order to understand the complexity of changes in the sport, you must know the broader theory of inclusive masculinity,” the authors state. This can be defined as “the fear of being socially perceived as gay.”
People for years have been hesitant to come out just from hearing the backlash that goes on towards their community. While it has gotten much better over the years, there is still room for improvement. The fact that in todays society, people are still not accepting of this is a major issue. We must stride as a society to improve because it will end up benefiting all parties involved.
Furthermore in the article, the authors go on to state a bunch of statistics showing how individuals within the LGBTQ+ community have been discriminated against. They use this information to then prove how openness on a team is actually very beneficial for not only the individual, but the team as a whole. They used an example of a losing women’s soccer team where one of the players was very closed off and she didn’t necessarily feel part of the team. The success of the team however shifted quickly when one of the players came out. The team and individual showed growth and leadership that wasn’t there before. This example demonstrates how gender and sexual diversity allows for better performance and helps one grow. Sports should be an open and accepting place where athletes won’t get discriminated against for being sexually diverse.
Link to article- https://link-springer-com.libezproxy2.syr.edu/article/10.1007/s12119-017-9434-x
Citations- Piedra, J., García-Pérez, R. & Channon, A.G. Between Homohysteria and Inclusivity: Tolerance Towards Sexual Diversity in Sport. Sexuality & Culture 21, 1018–1039 (2017). https://doi-org.libezproxy2.syr.edu/10.1007/s12119-017-9434-x