Does swim tend to be a homophobic culture?
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Anonymous
| DS (13) wants to try out competitive swimming. However, he is openly gay and has had many experiences on sports teams involving homophobia, and is very worried that swimming will be the same. In your experiences, is it? Thanks |
Anonymous
| Our MCSL team has several gay/bi teenagers. I'd say its is welcoming generally? |
Anonymous
|
When you say competitive swimming do you mean USA club swimming or summer league?
Generally there’s relatively less bro-ness because practice groups are mixed based on performance not gender. In summer league same but you have a much bigger age range. It’ll certainly depend on the team he’s thinking of joining since I’d get a sense of the culture he’s getting to since team dynamics can be site specific. |
Anonymous
| No one cares but you. |
Anonymous
|
No not at all.
What sports are openly homophobic? I have a 13yoDD and I think a few of the kids in her basketball and soccer teams are gay. |
Anonymous
Same poster, sorry. We did club swim For 3 years and saw no homophobia. Trans friend did it for a year with DD too. |
Anonymous
| Our summer swim team is very welcoming. Can’t speak to winter swim, since I don’t have as much of a view of the culture. |
Anonymous
| As a coach I love all my kids the exact same. I’ve never had issues in my groups with kids being homophobic so I think as a sport it’s fairly welcoming |
Anonymous
|
Our team is welcoming!
And our team swam a team last weekend whose entire theme was Pride! It was great—even their team shirts were Pride themed. Rainbows everywhere. It was very inspiring. |
Anonymous
Our winter club has several open gay teens and they all get along very well. No sign of homophobic whatsoever. |
Anonymous
I think this is going to be team/practice-group/location specific. |
Anonymous
this is a joke right? |
Anonymous
| My son was on the swim team all through high school. His best friend from hs is gay and was out at around age 15. AFAIK it was never any sort of issue. This is anecdotal, but it would seem most schools have a similar culture. |
Anonymous
| Kids’ team is very welcoming. A little off topic but a gendered sport with body coverage uniform requirements can be tough for a trans kid but I don’t think it is the kids being mean as much as some kids resenting the rules. |
Anonymous
So no answer? |