The Georgetown University Student-Athlete Advisory Committee released a video entitled “You Can Play” Nov. 4, prompting mixed responses from the Georgetown community.
The video is part of a larger national campaign that aims to ensure equality for LGBTQ athletes. According to SAAC Board President Annalee Abell (COL ’13, GRD ’14), Georgetown is the first Catholic university to take up the campaign’s mantle. Some LGBTQ Georgetown students, however, felt that they merited more consultation in the making of the video.
“I was happy to find out that GU Athletics put out this product. It signals a commitment to the LGBTQcommunity on campus, and certainly when students apply or athletes apply, it sends a message that they’ll be welcome on campus,” GU Pride President Thomas Lloyd (SFS ’15) said. “I’m not going to lie, I wish it was the product of more collaboration between the two groups, but I think that this is a good starting place.”
Because GU Pride was not consulted in the making of the video, some students felt not everything was done to incorporate an LGBTQ voice into the video.
Craig Cassey (COL ’15) believes that the absence of identified LGBTQ athletes in the video is indicative of an oppressive environment.
“If it really was a safe place where LGBTQ athletes were respected without a question, then we would have had more LGBTQ in that video,” he said. “I believe the SAAC Board probably tried to reach out to some openly queer athletes, but I think either more could have been done from their end, or perhaps the reality is there just weren’t as many openly queer athletes to reach out to, because we truly aren’t a safe place yet for gay athletes.”
Those involved with the making of the video stressed the importance of bringing more awareness to the topic of LGBTQ acceptance in the area of sports.
“I think the biggest thing is that it was really important to us to use athletics to promote this issue because this is probably where it becomes the most controversial, in my opinion,” Abell said. “I think people feel less comfortable coming out, as athletes, because there’s a certain image you want to portray, and sometimes being LGBTQ goes against that image.”
The video, planned and edited by Alex Pettee (MSB ’13, GRD ’14), focused on the perceived tension between LGBTQ and sport atmospheres.
“The theme of the video and the filming was to create this contrast image; you normally think of these issues as the gritty, hard-nosed, fight-like issues,” Pettee said. “From the script to the casting to actual filming of the light … it’s supposed to be a metaphor for the interesting contrast and issues itself as kind of half out there. It’s something you don’t really want to talk about, but at the same time you know that it’s there.”
To cast the film, SAAC asked its representatives to each team to solicit volunteers.
Lloyd, however, believes the dialogue should extend beyond the realm of varsity athletics. He also did not feel that straight allies sufficed in imparting the message.
“[I’d like to see] openly LGBTQ athletes … sort of more diversity within the video,” Lloyd said. “That’s why I say it was more of a starting point, because it was more straight allies who were in the video, but it’s time that we incorporate real change makers into the conversation as well.”
GU Pride seeks to bring a high-profile LGBTQ athlete to campus next semester and develop a culture to encourage athlete involvement.
“In the future, when they do projects like this, they feel comfortable or have easier means of reaching out to us as to who we want to see in the video, and what we think is important to highlight for members of our community and not just the ally community,” Lloyd said.
Despite Lloyd’s assertions, Abell highlighted the purpose of the video, which was shown to members of the LGBTQ Resource Center.
“Once the video was complete, we sent it to the LGBTQ Center for review, and obviously [chair of Georgetown’s board of directors] Paul Tagliabue was super involved with that program as well, so he saw that video,” she said. “The point we were trying to make was using varsity athletes where it’s normally an environment that isn’t conducive to coming out and being who you are, so that’s why we decided to focus on that.”
Although the producers of the video did not incorporate and consult all members of the Georgetown community involved with LGBTQ issues, the future may bring increased dialogue.
“Having those spaces like dialogues, having those events where they attend or co-sponsor, will help build those relationships over time,” Lloyd said. “This video signals that they’re ready for that, and it encourages me to focus our programming or do [some] programming on that in the spring, which maybe I wouldn’t have thought of initially.”
For now, both groups are looking to change the level of collaboration within Georgetown on this issue.
“As for collaboration within the school, I think the video signals that they’re open to collaboration, but it doesn’t yet represent the product between any change in perspective or any change in the relationship between the two groups just yet,” Lloyd said.
A follow-up video and possible dinner event, which would bring LGBTQ groups and the Athletic Department together and feature a speaker, is being planned as a possibility for mid-February.
“What we’re trying to do is create an ongoing dialogue about this issue so SAAC and the Athletic Department have met with the LGBTQ Center to organize a dinner where athletes come together with the LGBTQ Center … then also [have] a conversation. We’re looking into bringing in a speaker and also [playing] the video,” Abell said. “We’re in the process of also making what we’re calling a director’s cut of the film, where we interview people that were involved in the process, and we’re gonna have Paul Tagliabue in that as well, probably interview Shiva at the center, and talk about why they think these issues are important.”
An earlier version of this article was headlined “Despite Video Campaign, GU Pride Dissatisfied.” The headline has been changed to better reflect the content of the article.
