LGBT Athletic Community Analysis

Sports influence the ongoing civil rights movement by changing the ideals of sports fans across the nation. During the period of racial segregation of America in the 1930’s, the nation refused to accept anything out of the ordinary such as color and sexual orientation. All sports figures in the 1930’s were white as no matter the type of discrimination, in order to have true equality in place where the best and most talented play, no player can be judged based on their sexual orientation or race, only on their ability to preform. Despite the many examples of discrimination still present today, major sports has shown a significant amount of progress since the

Transgendered people in America have made many great strides since the 1990s. They have encountered violence, lack of health care, and the loss of homes, jobs, family and friends. There have been many phases of the struggle of being transgendered in America over the years. The current phase we must be in now is equal rights. There are many variations of discrimination against the transgendered community. In our society we simply do not like what we do not understand. It is easier to discriminate than to try and understand. We are all created different and we should appreciate our differences. The change must come by addressing the views of the public. There is much justification in the unequal rights of transgendered peoples. The Human

Over the next two decades, half the states decriminalized homosexual behavior, and police harassment grew less frequent and obvious to the public. Also in 1975, it became legal for gays to hold federal jobs. However all this headway also made room for more opposition. In 1977, Anita Bryant was so successful at obtaining a repeal of a recent gay ordinance in her home state of Florida that by 1980, a league of anti gay clubs had come together to make a force, led in part by Jesse Helms. The AIDS scare that began in the eighties did not help the gay image either, but more citizens joined their ranks in order to combat the oppression and fund a search for the cure, so in the end it actually made the movement stronger. According to the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia (2000), by 1999, the anti-sodomy laws of 32 states had been repealed, and in 1996 Vermont granted its gay citizens the right to same sex marriages. Gay rights has come a long way as a social movement, and though it still has a long way to go, it makes a good topic to analyze the process of the social movement.

The Olympics have not only been a prized achievement for many athletes throughout the years, but have been a huge influence of societies all over the world through producing viewpoints, social roles, and societal hierarchies. Observing the continuities and discontinuities within the Olympic games one can gain clarity on how past events still shape the present. Recently new rules set by the International Associations of Athletics Federations (IAAF) have declared that female athletes with abnormally high rates of testosterone must lower their hormone levels or be forced to compete with men. This rule amendment in women’s sports highlights only a small factor of how women have been segregated and discriminated against by a higher power. Through

Weaknesses: The main weakness of the games is the Jewish requirement of most stakeholders. 3% of the US population is Jewish meaning that most athletes and host families are not eligible to participate (“Vital Statistics,” 2016).

For decades, there have been several cases and stories about how the homosexual youth have been mistreated, and Matthew Shepard is one of the many cases. The causes of the oppression may be disturbing to some, but they are clear: discrimination and inequality. This issue is dividing our community into acceptance and refutation. Those who disagree about the gap often see it as a choice between being a heterosexual or a homosexual. Often times, the maltreatment may take place in school, at a workplace, or public. It has been shown that “still, some gay students suffer harassment of their sexual orientation, and many, particularly athletes, stay “in the closet” for fear of unfavorable treatment” (“Gays on

As a sporting mega-event, the Olympic Games have numerous social impacts on the people, not only on those from the host country, but on individuals all over the globe.

While the topic of gender has become a hot debate today in society, many people have doubts on whether or not transgender people should be allowed to play professional sports. More specifically, in the Olympics where recent changes in ruling have created various opinions on the topic. While there is great evidence for both sides of the argument, there is a physical advantage for transgender people in sports. There are both genetic structure advantages and hormone benefits that transgender athletes have over born athletes of their gender. The current rules in place were incorrectly made and has changed the Olympics future for the worse.

According to Heather Skyes in her article “Transsexual and Transgender Policies in Sport”, the vast variety of genders that make up our society today including transsexuals and transgender are still not accepted into the world of sports due to anxieties from large sporting organizations. In our culture, there is a ‘binary structure’ which separates male from female. When a person is transsexual or transgender, the binary structure becomes challenged. There are so many exceptions to the binary structure, that it becomes nearly impossible to universalize “gender inclusive policies”. These individuals increase the ‘anxieties’ that Skyes suggests sporting organizations have, because transsexual and transgender people do not fit the norm.

To begin, sports are apart of one’s culture and the transmission of sports and unison of participation in sports within the Olympics demonstrates the emission of cultures between various countries. Richard Giulianotti describes this relationship by noting “these events engage diverse national societies in common cultural activities in the form of specific sporting

In terms of the level of structural context, many different sports and organizations play a role in developing gender roles. Many girls don’t play football, soccer, or basketball while wearing pink jerseys and little girls don’t run around with them. Boys will get down and dirty. This is true for dancing as well. When someone walks into a studio, he or she doesn’t see little boys dancing around in pink and purple tutus. Instead, little girls are doing jumps and turns. When the opposite gender is doing these things, they tend to stand out. The structure of girls and boy’s bodies are made differently which is why we see a difference between the two when they are playing the same exact sport. The concept of these games may be the same but the

The Olympic Games are a set of friendly competitions that bring countries from all around the world together, but many social, political, and economic problems in the past and present including racial and sexual discrimination and apartheid have prevented the Olympic Games from fulfilling their promise to bring countries together.

Idea that they Olympics have wanted to achieve, was that men and woman are equal and are able to compete. This was finally achieved in London 2012. Where the same number of men and woman competing, first time that this has happened been mainly

Media and sports are huge in today’s society. Sports get their popularity because of media. The audience is more attentive with sports because of the wide range of media outlets out there. As more media outlets are created, more people are interested in sports. Media outlets, such as ESPN and CBS Sports, play a crucial role in the growth of sports. The media loves to share everything that is happening in sports, which is why they share announcements of the LGBTQ people.

Despite it being 2015, there are still many ongoing barriers which are preventing many people of all ages, races, genders and social backgrounds from participating in sports and leisure activities. Economically, some sports are just completely unviable to people from certain backgrounds. Sports such as Polo are completely exclusive to a certain class of people, due to the mass expenses required to get you started. Inner city families, some of whom may have a member of the household unemployed would never be able to foot the cost of the bills to play Polo. Along with the unfeasibility of the costs of certain sports, people are also being excluded from sport due to the social side of the spectrum. Many sports are perceived as having gender ties and many children are brought up to identify that a certain sport shouldn’t be played by boys as it is a "girls sport" and vice versa. This leads to a massive social stigma that is developed during the formative years of schooling that influences children 's decisions on what sports they decide to play. It can also be tied into many cases of Homophobia in schools, where many homophobic slurs may be attached to a girl who enjoys rugby, or a boy who enjoys gymnastics. Due to the low number of combination between the sexes in many sports as children, this leads to a deficiency of integration as adults, therefore making it more difficult to get involved in a sport as an adult, due to the sport being either male