College swimming champ says he was kicked off team for being gay

College swimming champ says he was kicked off team for being gay

Via Youtube

Two-time NCAA champion swimmer Abrahm DeVine has leveled charges against his former Stanford University swimming coaches, claiming they kicked him off the team because he is gay.

DeVine graduated from Stanford this year, but he was eligible to swim for the team again as a postgrad. He claims the university didn’t invite him back because of his sexuality.

“Plain and simple: There are surface-level reasons I was kicked off the Stanford swim team,” he alleged via Instagram, “but I can tell you with certainty that it comes down to the fact that I am gay.”

View this post on Instagram

As many of you know, I’m an openly gay swimmer and I am the only one at my level. I want to use this post to call out some of the homophobia that I’ve experienced being an athlete, and encourage everyone to be thoughtful and intentional about changing some of the homophobic aspects of the athletic culture that exists today. While I have many specific examples of micro aggressions and outright aggressions that I’ve experienced, homophobia is ultimately much more than an accumulation of experiences. In fact, it is a denial of experience. While I feel like I’ve tried to convey this to many people, many of whom deny any possibility that they contribute it, I’ve started to ask myself: Why is it my job to educate coaches and athletes at the most resourceful university in the world? I cannot continue to try to engage people in this conversation when there is so much fragility to obscure my humanity and character, so much rhetoric to keep me silent. Everyone says they support me, and yet, for the millionth time, I am the only one speaking up. To my coaches who sport the pride flag on their desk, to the athletes who liked my pride photo on Instagram, I need you to wake up to what’s happening around you. How can you say you support me and my equality? How can you not see how Stanford Swim has treated me and used me over the last 4 years? Am I invisible? Plain and simple: there are surface level reasons I was kicked off the Stanford swim team, but I can tell you with certainty that it comes down to the fact that I am gay. This is a pattern. Homophobia is systematic, intelligently and masterfully designed to keep me silent and to push me out. I am a talented, successful, educated, proud, gay man: I am a threat to the culture that holds sports teams together. I want something to change, because I can’t take it anymore. My story is not unique. There are queer voices everywhere and all you have to do is listen. I am asking, begging for some sort of action. If you are reading this, this post is for you! Gay or straight, swimmer or not. None of us are exempt from homophobia. It is your civil duty to educate yourself. If you choose not to, it is at my expense.

A post shared by Abrahm DeVine (@abrahmdevine) on

“This is a pattern,” DeVine further charged. “Homophobia is systematic, intelligently and masterfully designed to keep me silent and to push me out. I am a talented, successful, educated, proud, gay man: I am a threat to the culture that holds sports teams together.”

He continued, “I want something to change, because I can’t take it anymore. My story is not unique. There are queer voices everywhere and all you have to do is listen. I am asking, begging for some sort of action. If you are reading this, this post is for you! Gay or straight, swimmer or not. None of us are exempt from homophobia. It is your civil duty to educate yourself. If you choose not to, it is at my expense.”

DeVine’s former Stanford coaches, Greg Meehan and Dan Schemmel, have both denied any homophobic motives in not inviting him back to the team.

“Abe wasn’t invited back to train with us this fall, as a postgraduate, for reasons entirely unrelated to his sexuality,” they said in a joint statement. “We take pride in the inclusivity and supportiveness that exists on both our men’s and women’s teams, but we will continue to strive, as always, to improve those aspects of our culture.”

Devine previously won NCAA championship for the 400-meter individual medley in 2018 and 2019, and represented Team USA at the World Aquatics Championships in South Korea.

www.queerty.com/college-swimming-champ-says-kicked-off-team-gay-20191003?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Dating Got You Down? Here’s How to Overcome Feelings of Inadequacy in Your Dating Life

Dating Got You Down? Here’s How to Overcome Feelings of Inadequacy in Your Dating Life

Low self-esteem and inadequacy – we don’t like to talk about them, especially in regards to dating, but they’re natural feelings, and we definitely have all felt them.  Dating is…

The post Dating Got You Down? Here’s How to Overcome Feelings of Inadequacy in Your Dating Life appeared first on The Latest Catch.

Dating Got You Down? Here’s How to Overcome Feelings of Inadequacy in Your Dating Life

‘Making Sweet Tea’ is the gay documentary the world needs right now

‘Making Sweet Tea’ is the gay documentary the world needs right now

Making Sweet Tea is a new documentary by artist E. Patrick Johnson and several other gay Black men from the American South.

The film is based off of Johnson’s phenomenal book Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South—An Oral Historywhich highlights over sixty unique life stories from gay Black men born and raised below the Mason-Dixon line.

After publishing the book ten years ago, Johnson turned it into a stage play. Now, he’s teamed up with anthropologist and filmmaker John L. Jackson, Jr. to make it into a powerful feature-length documentary.

The film follows Johnson as he travels home to North Carolina to confront his past, as well as to Georgia, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C. to reconnect with six of the men he interviewed for his book.

Making Sweet Tea made its world premiere last month at the 37th Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival. Next, it will screen this weekend at the 32nd annual Out on Film Festival in Atlanta.

Watch the trailer below.

www.queerty.com/making-sweet-tea-gay-documentary-world-needs-right-now-20191003?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

California High School Cancels Football Season After Varsity Player Alleges Sexual Assault by Teammates

California High School Cancels Football Season After Varsity Player Alleges Sexual Assault by Teammates

Gilroy High School in Gilroy, California has canceled its football season in the wake of allegations that a varsity player was sexually assaulted by several of his teammates, according to the Mercury News. The school said that while it was committed to playing out the season, a majority of the players no longer wanted to take part.

The charges involve four players who allegedly sexually assaulted a teammate in the locker room after practice. The police have issued juvenile citations for sexual battery. Details are being withheld because those involved are minors.

Said Gilroy police Capt. Joseph Deras: “We investigated the allegations and determined there was evidence to support a criminal complaint. The aggravating circumstance was the number of suspects involved, and the use of force or fear played a role in our arresting decision.”

Police said there is “no evidence at this time that this was a hate-motivated crime.”

Earlier reports:

The post California High School Cancels Football Season After Varsity Player Alleges Sexual Assault by Teammates appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.


California High School Cancels Football Season After Varsity Player Alleges Sexual Assault by Teammates