New Research Shows Fewer Lgbtq Youth Participating In Sports

[Hunter Thomson]

The University of British Columbia (Go Thunderbirds!) released new research this month claiming that LGBTQ youth participation rates in sports have drastically reduced over the past twenty years, and that less than a third of LGBTQ youth participate in sport now. The research indicates that in 1998 more than half of LGBTQ youth participated in sports.

 

Both the trend of participation and the incredibly high rate of participation found in the past seem suspect to me. I have no doubt that there were LGBTQ youth participating in sports in the 20th century, but I don't think for even a second that half of all gay boys were playing sports back then. Obviously my experiences are anecdotal and the study is a massive research proposal with a huge N, but there were no gay people playing sports in all the years I played, and I live in a particularly gay-friendly city. The research contradicts my own research done through the University of British Columbia and research done out of the University of Manitoba. Both of our studies indicated that participation rates were much lower, but that they were increasing as acceptance increased. 

 

It's very interesting to me to read this study, simply because it contradicts so much other research. Not that the research that I did and the UManitoba study agreed with each other either, but we had similar trendlines. This new study seems to fly in the face of the idea of increased visibility leading to increased participation rates for LGBTQ youth, especially since my own research showed that youth are eager to participate in safe environments, which are increasing all the time.

 

I'm interested to hear what other people think about the research and whether you think it makes sense in a North American context, given that there's been an increasing number of organizations (You Can Play, Gay Games et al.) which are actively working to increase the visibility of sport in the LGBTQ community. 

 

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095254616300916

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-02-gay-lesbian-bisexual-teens-sports.html

[Sasha Distan]

Is it possible that now that there are so many other youth group options, art clubs, and many 'unrecognised' sports (free-running, various forms of skateboarding and scootering etc) that participation has fallen because LGTBQ children are drawn to other things?

After all, ten years ago at my school the drama/music departments had clubs with maybe 20 students once a week. Now school productions attract 100+ students, there is an Irish Dancing display troupe, a contemporary dance society, a jazz band, three different choirs (one all boys), a full house orchestra, at least 4 multi-piece modern bands... and all of them perform to the public on a regular basis.

 

At least some of those kids would be doing sports if there weren't other options.

[wildone]

Just saw this interview with Brian Burke, not my 'favourite' person, but a lot of respect for him in a lot of other ways, especially how he has championed the You Can Play campaign.

 

https://www.nhl.com/flames/video/you-can-play-brian-burke/t-277437092/c-49827203

[Hunter Thomson]

It's personal for Brian. I hate that it becoming personal is why too many of our allies get involved, but at least there's that. I can accept that from Brian Burke. 

 

Is it possible that now that there are so many other youth group options, art clubs, and many 'unrecognised' sports (free-running, various forms of skateboarding and scootering etc) that participation has fallen because LGTBQ children are drawn to other things?

After all, ten years ago at my school the drama/music departments had clubs with maybe 20 students once a week. Now school productions attract 100+ students, there is an Irish Dancing display troupe, a contemporary dance society, a jazz band, three different choirs (one all boys), a full house orchestra, at least 4 multi-piece modern bands... and all of them perform to the public on a regular basis.

 

At least some of those kids would be doing sports if there weren't other options.

 

Sure, that could be part of it. But there were lots of youth group options before that would have been much safer for LGBTQ youth than sports would have been in the 1990s. I was a boy scout then (boy howdy, how the mighty have definitely fallen since then~!) and it was more arts-oriented than sports were. 

 

The trend is what confuses me. Yes, sports participation is down among all people and there's something to be said about that as well, but the biggest thing my own research showed was that LGBTQ youth weren't getting involved in sports because they thought it was unsafe for them to be there. There's no reason for why that would be less true in 1998 than it is now, and that's the part that I'm not understanding from the UBC study. Even the UManitoba study done concurrently with my own showed that LGBTQ youth would get more involved if they knew of safe places to join a team. 

[Graeme]

I have scanned the report and there's one thing that's missing with the data -- whether the participant in the studies was out. I can see that a gay teenager in 1998 may tell a researcher that they're gay, but not be out, while today a teenager in the same situation is more likely to be out. Could it be that the difference is due to more teenagers coming out, and since they're out, they find participating in sport less attractive (eg. due to homophobia from teammates)?

[Former Member]

I have no information about LGBTQ participation, but at least in California, many school sports programs have been cut due to budget restraints and the over-emphasis on high performance on standardized test results. Fewer programs might mean more competition for participation in the remaining programs. And in California, the suburban schools tend to have more discretionary money for lavish sports facilities that urban schools cannot afford – the difference is related to apportionment favoring newer schools as well as wealthier parents funding well-funded PTA groups that subsidize the ‘extras’ like sports and the arts.