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This article also online at http://www.innewsweekly.com/Pages/ArtsStories/sportsconfab.html
BOSTON, MA – Stacy Dragila put women’s sports on the front page this month with her 15’ 8¼” pole vault jump. It was a new record; the first time a woman had ever officially pole-vaulted that high indoors. Women’s sports will be represented by another first on the weekend of March 29th at the National Gay & Lesbian Athletics Conference. The conference, which is being held at MIT, is the first ever-national conference on gays in sports, and will feature a panel on a women’s sports hot topic: Title IX.
One might ask, what does Title IX have to do with issues that gay athletes face? Diana Cutaia, Women’s Director for the Gay & Lesbian Athletics Foundation (GLAF), the foundation that is hosting the conference, stated, “Title IX has been, and will be the central issue for women’s sports. This amendment has been used as a smoke screen to cut non-revenue producing men’s sports. The law was not meant to bring the advantaged group down to the level of the disadvantaged, but to give every person equal opportunity and access to the benefits and rewards that sport has to offer; that’s what this conference is all about.”
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education. Title IX applies to sports, among other educational activities. The law requires schools and colleges receiving federal funds to give women and girls an equal chance to play sports.
Women’s sports supporters have used Title IX to push for participation opportunities in high school and collegiate athletics. The Women’s Sports Foundation has been one of the leading organizations in activism surrounding Title IX. Their website announces that “one of every 2.5 high school girls now participate in high school varsity sports (compared to 1 in 27 in 1972).”
Recently, this 30 year-old amendment caught headlines when U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige established the Secretary’s Commission on Opportunities in Athletics. According to the Department of Education, “The purpose of the 15-member Commission was to collect information, analyze issues, and obtain broad public input directed at improving the application of current federal standards for measuring equal opportunity for men and women and boys and girls to participate in athletics under Title IX.” The Commission was formed after lawsuits from male athletes argued that smaller sports have been cut back as resources have been shifted to women's teams.
On February 26, the majority of the Commission voted to submit a Majority Report that included recommendations that included changes on how to measure Title IX compliance.
Two Commission Members -- Julie Foudy, the Captain of the U.S. National Women's Soccer Team, and Donna de Varona, an Olympic Gold Medalist -- refused to sign the final report to Secretary Paige and released a Minority Report that they said, “addresses the continuing discrimination against female athletes and the need for strong enforcement of Title IX policies, as well as the serious deficiencies in the Commission's process and report.”
Finally, in a controversial decision, Paige announced that he would not accept any recommendations that did not have unanimous support from the Commission.
As the national debate over Title IX continued, gay and lesbian support groups began to choose sides. On February 27, 2003, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) issued a press release that they had “serious concerns over the unprecedented threat posed to Title IX by the Commission of Opportunity in Athletics Majority Report submitted to the Department of Education yesterday.” According to GLSEN and NCLR, many of the recommendations in the report may dramatically decrease athletic opportunities and scholarships for girls and women, while negatively impacting other Title IX protections.
Additionally, sports that are traditionally associated with gay male athletes: gymnastics, wrestling, swimming and diving, are the ones that are frequently being cut. This issue affects both lesbians on the side of equality for women’s sports, as well as gay male athletes who don’t want to see their Olympic feeder programs cut.
So really, it should come as no surprise that an organization such as GLAF would want to include a discussion on Title IX in its conference. Also, Cutaia, as the panel organizer has tried to select speakers that represent the fact that its members will be on both sides of the debate. “I have put together this panel of both men and women to come together to understand how Title IX works for all athletes, and to try to bring the male and female athlete together because this issue has divided us for so many years.”
The Title IX panel, labeled “Title IX for Men and Women,” is sponsored by the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA). This may seem a little one-sided, as NACWAA’s mission statement reads that they are “a membership organization dedicated to providing educational programs, professional and personal development opportunities, information exchange, and support services to enhance college athletics and to promote the growth, leadership and success of women as athletics administrators, coaches and student-athletes.”
According to GLAF, however, “They are selecting speakers to ensure fairness for both men and women and to present means of cooperation.” The panel is billed as a discussion about the controversy and the facts of Title IX; as well as how it effects the gay sports community. The GLAF program also mentions that, “Title IX isn't just an LGBT issue, but an issue that affects many collegiate men and women in athletics.”
If the speakers are any indication, both NACWAA and GLAF will achieve their goals. Panel contributors include: Rosie Stallman, Director of Educational Outreach for NCAA as the moderator, and as an NCAA representative, she has had to see both sides of the issue at the collegiate sports level; Tyler Duckworth is a Boston high school swimmer who says that he’s fortunate to be swimming because several of his friends at other school have had their programs cut; and Molly Purdue, a former administrator and coach at Provincetown High School who is working on her doctorate at Northeastern on Title IX, she has done in-depth research on the statistics presented by both supporters and opponents of Title IX.
“In the end,” Cutaia says, “The law was not meant to bring the advantaged group down to the level of the disadvantaged, but to give every person equal opportunity and access to the benefits of sport; that’s what this conference is all about.”
If you are interested in attending the National Gay & Lesbian Athletics Conference, check their website for registration as well as information about the hosting organization: the Gay & Lesbian Athletics Foundation at http://www.gayconference.org .
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