United As One

“United As One.” That was the major takeaway and official closing message at the Big Ten Conference’s inaugural LGBTQ+ Symposium held on May 31-June 1. 

In honor of Pride month, the Big Ten brought together 100 attendees from its 14 member institutions at the conference headquarters in Rosemont, IL. Student-athletes, staff members, and special guests alike were granted a safe space to foster a deeper understanding of the LGBTQ+ community and its intersection with the climate of Big Ten athletics. 

The University of Maryland brought a team of six representatives composed of student-athletes, coaches and athletics department staff. Maryland’s group included Resa Lovelace, the Assistant Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Development and a speaker in one of the symposium’s breakout sessions. 

“What was really powerful about this symposium is we had student-athletes from all 14 schools showing up in one space to be educated, not necessarily thinking about the competition or seeing their peers as their competitors,” Lovelace said. “There were about 60-70 student-athletes who were ready to learn and be engaged in questions like, ‘How do we create a better community for LGBTQ individuals that take up our spaces every day?’”

Underlying the event was a concern for the growing lack of legal protection of LGBTQ+ athletes, specifically transgender athletes.

“We have to be thinking about the state of the world that we live in with there being almost 600 bills across the United States right now that involve anti-LGBTQ and anti-trans legislation and making sure that we're paying attention to the landscape and how that could have an effect within collegiate athletics,” Lovelace said. 
 

Across the symposium’s two days, participants attended two panel discussions and four breakout sessions focused on varying elements of the LGBTQ+ experience in college athletics. 

The first panel, “Current State of College Athletics”, featured a general conversation about LGBTQ+-related topics found on Big Ten campuses and in the professional world. 

“The first panel was a lot of perspective and sharing of insight,” said Maryland women’s basketball assistant coach Kaitlynn Fratz, another one of the university’s symposium attendees. “There were different people on the committee, from an assistant coach, to an admin, to someone in the corporate world…they shared a lot of their individual stories and their truths, but also how being at places that are extremely inclusive changes your experience, and where you're at, and who you ultimately want to be.” 

Following the first panel, participants were split into smaller groups to rotate between breakout sessions. One breakout room included discussions titled “Equipping Allies” and “Intersectionality of Identity.” 

“Equipping Allies” aimed to provide allies with tools and leading practices on engaging community members as well as suggestions for establishing frameworks to educate supporters of the LGBTQ+ community. Maryland alumnus Hudson Taylor ‘11, a former All-American Terp wrestler and notable LGBT ally activist was the keynote speaker for this session. 

“‘Equipping Allies’ was great because allies are extremely important in the LGBTQ+ community,” Fratz said. “Especially in athletics, which traditionally is a straight-dominant profession.”

Lovelace served as a speaker in the “Intersectionality of Identity” breakout, centered around uplifting the lived experiences of those in the LGBTQ+ community. 

“When we were talking about the intersectionality of identity, a lot of it played around…looking at the intersection of [our speakers’] genders, our race, and being a part of the queer community,” Lovelace said. “I think those three intersections, along with working in higher education and college athletics…we don't often think about how [these parts of identity] show up for people all in one way instead of in those three different boxes.”

Lovelace described a real sense of mutual understanding forged in her breakout session, especially because the speakers held their discussion in front of four separate groups of attendees. 

“I think for some of the students that were in the room, we got them to feel like, ‘Oh my gosh, I'm not the only one going through some of these trauma-inducing issues,’” Lovelace said. “I think there was something different that came out of each individual discussion.” 

In the other room, breakout three “On the Field” highlighted the unwritten rules affecting the LGBTQ+ community in locker rooms and “Legal Landscape in College Athletics” explained key laws that currently or will soon impact the LGBTQ+ community.

“Law is not something I'm great at, but it's something that's extremely important because it has a direct impact on your life and your athletes’ lives,” Fratz reflected, describing the policy-related breakout as the most resonant. “We talked about the different cases that are going around the nation that you have either heard of or may not have heard of and about being super intentional about learning, since you can always go research. It was super informative.”

Attendees finished their day with a look onwards in the second full-group panel, “Future of the LGBTQ+ Community in Athletics.” 

Junior field hockey goalkeeper Paige Kieft, Maryland’s student-athlete representative, recalled an interesting observation during the final panel. 

“We kind of had this spur of the moment question at the end, ‘Raise your hand if you're a staff member from a football team, from a baseball team, or from men's soccer,’” Kieft recalled. “And I think there were maybe one or two men's sports represented there. So that's something I would really love to see when we hopefully have future conferences so we can create a shared education that we bring back to our own universities.”

Both Kieft and Fratz highlighted the unexpected networking benefits they found while attending the symposium. 

“We had a dinner the night before [the panels] that was great for meeting people,” Kieft said. “I was a bit nervous as the only athlete from Maryland, but I found athletes from Northwestern, Michigan, Iowa, and they were just so fun to talk to and to hear about their personal stories about why they were there and what's happening at their universities in regards to LGBTQ+ support.” 

“The networking piece enhanced the entire experience,” Fratz added. “When you're learning about these things, and you're feeling safe and in a place to share these experiences, and you know that everybody is inclusive of what you're doing and saying, you feel a lot more open to introducing yourself because you know everybody's there for the same reasons.”

Lovelace, Kieft, and Fratz all greatly appreciated the Big Ten Conference for putting on this LGBTQ+-centric symposium, the first major event of its kind among the NCAA’s Power Five conferences. 

“I was one of the original 10 members across the Big Ten who jumped into the LGBTQ working group,” said Lovelace “So really to see this go from just an idea and a dream to actual reality, it means so much.”

As a student-athlete herself, Kieft has first-hand experience with the benefits of supporting LGBTQ+ athletes and students, on Maryland’s campus and beyond. 

“I took a lot of pride in being part of a conference and a university that wanted to take these first steps and kind of go against what the norm has been in terms of really taking a stand in supporting trans athletes and the overall LGBTQ+ community,” Kieft said.