Athletes’ perceptions of the climate for sexual and gender minority athletes and their intervention in bias

ABSTRACT

Young athletes are engaging in sports in an ever-evolving environment where larger discourses and public opinion polls suggest that attitudes toward sexual and gender minorities (SGM) are becoming more tolerant and affirming. In this mixed-methods study, we examined 151 heterosexual college student athletes’ perceptions of the sports climate for SGM athletes and their own self-reported intervention in SGM-related prejudice in sports. Consistent with studies with SGM-identified athlete samples, participants reported high levels of SGM-related bias in the collegiate sporting context. Although participants reported fairly high levels of personally accepting attitudes toward SGM people, few reported intervening in SGM-related bias. Athletes’ affirming personal beliefs about SGM populations were associated with a greater likelihood of intervening in SGM-related bias, whereas perceptions of a heterosexist sports climate were associated with a lower likelihood of intervening.

KEYWORDS:

• Attitudes
• intervention in bias
• mixed-methods
• sexual and gender minorities
• sport

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Seven women were not included in the analytic sample because they identified as lesbian or bisexual; sexual orientation was assessed by asking participants to disclose their sexual identity (i.e. “What best describes your sexual orientation?” Straight, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Queer, Asexual, Other: Text).