Gay High School Coach Com Out to His Players - ABC News

Contents:

• HIGH SCHOOL STUNTS PROTT AFTER GAY ACH WAS ALLEGEDLY FORCED TO RIGN
• FROM LLEGE SWIMMER TO HIGH SCHOOL ACH, GAY ATHLETE STAYED TE TO HIMSELF
• VALOR CHRISTIAN ALLEGEDLY PHED OUT TWO GAY TEACHERS AND IS FACG CALLS FOR CHANGE. NOW IT’S BEG HONORED AS A TOP SCHOOL NATNALLY
• COMG OUT AS A GAY HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL COACH: THE SURPRISG AFTERMATH
• STATE-CHAMPN COLORADO HIGH SCHOOL ACH MIH PORTER OUT AS GAY
• 'I AM A GAY HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL COACH'
• GAY HIGH SCHOOL COACH COM OUT TO HIS PLAYERS

HIGH SCHOOL STUNTS PROTT AFTER GAY ACH WAS ALLEGEDLY FORCED TO RIGN

That’s how I rpond as the rults me on our Out In Sports study, the world’s largt study of openly gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr high school and llegiate athlet who have e out to teammat while petg. After g out of the closet as Ameri’s first openly gay high school ach 1993, sufferg immense homophobia, I returned to llege to plete a PhD on the topic.

In the terveng years between my g out, and my first study 2001, youth culture changed s view on homosexualy.

In my first study, the first-ever study of openly gay athlet on high school and llegiate teams, I found the gay athlet experienced near-acceptance om teammat.

FROM LLEGE SWIMMER TO HIGH SCHOOL ACH, GAY ATHLETE STAYED TE TO HIMSELF

I have for two s argued that was unfair to scribe team-sport athlet as homophobic. I evinced my claims wh dozens of studi on the experienc of gay men and the attus of straight men toward gay men. However, the msage of my rearch has often been drowned out by a few high-profile athlet makg homophobic ments, alongsi the rightful cultural regnn that out gay men were highly unr-reprented a few sports.

The wrongful portrayal of male team-sport athlet beg hyper-homophobic was also fueled by studi of LGBT athlet that foced on said language and around sports. The studi lead to the perceptn that athlet were hostile to gay men, and more broadly, hostile to other sexual and genr mori.

VALOR CHRISTIAN ALLEGEDLY PHED OUT TWO GAY TEACHERS AND IS FACG CALLS FOR CHANGE. NOW IT’S BEG HONORED AS A TOP SCHOOL NATNALLY

Yet sce 1993, the clear trend has been for youth to reject homophobia. Whereas was homosexualy that was unacceptable the 1980s, today is homophobia that is not acceptable.

Why should we therefore thk that the same kid wh gay iends their history class would sudnly treat their gay teammate poorly on the football field?

COMG OUT AS A GAY HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL COACH: THE SURPRISG AFTERMATH

Given the rults of this study, ntued utteranc of sport (and therefore athlet and ach) beg homophobic is to m an act of prejudice. The volleyball ach at Highlands Ranch’s Valor Christian High School said he was phed out of his job last week after employe found a social media post ditg the ach was gay.

“I sat the room beg grilled about how beg gay is a ‘danger’ to the school and to the kids, ” Inoke Tonga’s Instagram post explag the suatn said. “That wh me ‘intifyg as a gay man, they n’t put the kids at risk by havg me ont of them.

STATE-CHAMPN COLORADO HIGH SCHOOL ACH MIH PORTER OUT AS GAY

Tonga, who was the volleyball ach for the 2020-21 school year only, said the mp pastor and athletic director lled him for a meetg Thursday, durg which they berated and beltled him over his sexual orientatn and rmed him that “parents pay too much” to have their kids ached by a gay man and perhaps Tonga wasn’t gay sce he had a love for the children he ached. Toward the end of the nversatn, first reported by Denver7, Tonga said school officials told him he had two optns: Denounce beg a gay man or leave the posn.

But a June 15 post, Tonga wrote: “If you really want to see the lack of chary, love, and passn (or any ‘Christ Like’ attribut) any Christian dividual, om any Christian relign, tell them you’re gay. For whatever reason, talkg about racism, and homosexualy will brg out the bt, but also the worst people.

Inoke Tonga, the former ach for Valor Christian High School’s junr varsy girl’s volleyball team, told CBS 4 Denver that “[the school’s] terms were renounce beg gay or be released as a ach fully.

'I AM A GAY HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL COACH'

“They told me that I uldn’t prent as male here, which is my preferred genr inty, they pulled me to the an’s office and said, if you want to stay here, you have to prent as female, or you n leave the school, ” said the sophomore at the school.

GAY HIGH SCHOOL COACH COM OUT TO HIS PLAYERS

“If we’re tly lled to love thy neighbor, that means love your gay neighbor, love your trans neighbor, love your queer neighbor, and this is not lovg thy neighbor. CARL NASSIB IS THE FIRST ACTIVE NFL PLAYER TO COME OUT AS GAY. From llege swimmer to high school ach, gay athlete stayed te to himself.

‘The most challengg part of beg gay has actually been enuragg myself to be more open wh others, ’ MacJilton Lewis wr. When Brish diver Tom Daley announced he was gay, ronated wh me.