Sports and Sexual Assault of Young Players

In this CNN opinion piece, ESPN Magazine's Roxanne Jones says something that needs to be said, but she says it all wrong. We have to draw back the curtain on youth sports and sexual assault and molestation of children, but her approach will just place this common occurrence further in the shadows.

Jones suggests that we educated middle-school children about "inappropriate behavior and how predators operate." I'm not sure where Jones went to school, but I had this message far younger than middle school, and that's a good thing.

The problem is not the predatory culture of sports, but a weird variation on machismo and a complete misunderstanding of pedophilia and homosexuality. Sports are a playground for pedophiles, it's true, but it's because the very existence of these pedophiles is denied. Everything in the following paragraph is wrong, and everything in the following paragraph is believed.

Sports are for macho, strong boys who will grow up to be macho, strong men. Machismo helps keep these boys from turning into teh gay. Gay and sports don't mix, so obviously coaches can't be pedophiles.


Let's consider this point-by-point:

1. Sports are for macho, strong boys - sports are for everyone. More people would be involved in sports if we dumped the stupid notions. I'm not saying that sports shouldn't be about excelling and winning; they should be about that (at least in part). However, if we only have winners in sports, we're excluding a lot of people who will then not learn sport's lessons about healthy lifestyles, activity, competitiveness, striving, and teamwork. That's a sad thought. Seeing a strong man take the field at a sporting event is not particularly compelling, but when the Bad News Bears come out, we should be cheering. 
2. Machismo helps keep these boys from turning into teh gay - machismo has nothing to do with sexuality. Kids in sports are just as likely to be gay; sometimes they are quieter about their sexuality for fear of being denied access to their sport. Jeff Sheng did an amazing project photographing young LGBT athletes.
3. ...so obviously coaches can't be pedophiles - this old saw has long ago disintegrated to rust. Gay does not equal pedophile, and pedophile doesn't mean gay, even if the pedophile is attracted to children of the same sex. Pedophiles are not interested in the sexuality of their prey; they are interested in the lack of sexuality.

I'll be honest, I stopped being interested in sports when I was a scrawny kid. I'm sure I was taunted as being gay, but I don't think that bugged me so much as the general indication that, since I wasn't tall and strong, I shouldn't be on the field. Now, I'm a less-than-gifted athlete, so it's not a loss for the world, but it was a loss for me. As an adult I've gotten into physical fitness, but sports are still haunted with bad memories.

Anytime you have a group of young children supervised by an individual (or small number of individuals), the possibility of pedophilia and molestation rears its ugly head. It can be school, after-school programs, camps, church groups, or yes, even sports. Sports often add some common ways in which kids can be confused; was that horseplay in the locker room or shower, or was it inappropriate touching? Since of course complaining about or refusing to participate in these kinds of activities will cause a player to lose status and be taunted, it's accepted. I'm not sure that it shouldn't be accepted, and while it can create confusion, it's not the source or cause of the problems. Had Sandusky not showered with the boys he molested, he still would have molested them.

When we finally get over this bizarre fear of homosexuality in sports (as we have or are doing in every other area of life) and accept that homosexuality is in no way linked to pedophilia, we can start to have honest discussions about how pedophiles manipulate situations and children. Until that point, sending a child into a sport is putting that child at risk. If I had kids, I would rather have them coached by someone openly part of the LGBT community; someone who has faced his sexuality head-on in a world of bigotry and fear is someone to be admired and trusted.

To sum up, the complex myth of sports being "free from teh gay" and therefore "free from pedophiles" is based entirely on lies connecting homosexuality and pedophilia, as well as bigotry against LGBT. It's this very sequence of lies that is creating risk for kids by hiding and protecting those who would harm them.