Josh Dixon, Evan Heiter, “Trey”, Randy Lane and straight ally, Alicia Sacramone discuss being out in a judged sport, intervening to stop harassment, pressure to stay closeted or, in Trey’s case, being advised not to come out, whether or not Peter Vidmar should represent athletes, the mental competitive advantage of being “out,” finding love, how to be supportive of a gay teammate, being mentors and what not to do if you want a gay friend to come out to you. Alicia tells us why this topic is so important to her, enough that she broke her year-long media silence. Oh, and since the show is all about love, Alicia shared the story of her recent engagement. 🙂
For just a little taste, Evan’s sage advice for every parent who’s afraid gymnastics isn’t butch enough for their son, “The basis of motor development that he gets from gymnastics will make him a better football player. So, suck it up, watch him do a cartwheel and then score a touchdown. Because those two things go hand in hand.”
Jessica and Uncle Tim talk about gay rights history in sports, violence in Russia leading up to the Sochi Olympics in 2014, plead with the gay community to show “Trey” love, invent a LGBT Salute of Solidarity, a hand sign for fans and gymnasts to throw up in support of gay athletes (see photo below), and Jess explains why there are no lesbians on the show.
The Greek letter lambda. Thow up the triangle to show your love for LGBT gymnasts.
If you appreciate the heroes for this movement, please let them know! Tweet to them, Josh Dixon is @JoshNDixon , Evan Heiter is @yoEv, Randy Lane is @coachrandylane, Alicia Sacramone at @ASac3. You can tweet to “Trey” by tweeting to us @GymCastic with the hashtag, #Trey. He’ll get the message.
This special episode features three gymnasts from the current generation. Josh Dixon is a California native who competed on the 2009 NCAA Championship-winning Stanford team. He was the U.S. floor national champion in 2010 and competing in last year’s Olympic Trials. In 2012 he was the first ever American elite gymnast to come out while actively competing. You know Evan Heiter, he has been on our show before. He was a gymnast at the University of Michigan until retiring in 2010. Evan and teammate Ben Strauss made an It Gets Better video that is an absolute must see (below). The final panelist is “Trey” (not his real name) who chose to remain anonymous. He is a current U.S. international elite gymnast and multiple NCAA champion.
Randy Lane was a member of the 1989 University of Illinois NCAA championship-winning gymnastics team. He currently coaches at UCLA and is an Athlete Ally. Alicia Sacramone is a 10-time World Medalist and could totally kick your ass.
It is super disrespectful to have Alicia on as a guest and then in her introduction reducing her medal count because you don’t agree with her final medal. Check USAG/FIG whatever websites, she has 10 medals. She received that 10th medal and many of her fans believe that she deserved that medal. It happened and not acknowledging it comes off as extremely contemptuous, especially in relation to how much this podcast has showered Anna Li with love.
Thanks for the correction. We went with the number listed on Alicia’s official website. The opening paragraph of her bio reads:
Alicia Sacramone was a member of the Silver Medal winning US Olympic team in 2008 and has won nine career World Championships medals, including three Golds, four Silvers and two Bronzes, the highest career tally in US history.
Here’s the link: http://www.aliciasacramone.com/about/
This has absolutely nothing to do with the webcast or the issue at hand. People like you try to point out “mistakes” like this to stir up trouble because you disagree with the subject matter. Your discomfort is showing.
THANK YOU, R. This mean spirited bullshit is just that. Bullshit. Same kinda crap GGMB got because it’s founder is a LESBIAN. Big deal.
Not true R… and that’s a pretty large assumption to make based off my comment. I fully support the topic of this episode and the discourse that this podcast encourages and brings to the forefront. The gay rights movement is a civil rights issue and just like other civil rights issues, no one should be discriminated against based on their race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. Gay athletes in the major professional sports have become an increasingly hot topic and its nice to see gymnastics, which many consider a “glamour” sport, joining the conversation.
Judging from the comments the gymcastic account posted on twitter, I am hardly the only one who corrected their mistake. I (apparently incorrectly) thought that the gymcastics crew was trying to make a statement about the merit of Alicia’s 10th medal when she was hurt in Tokyo.
Well, thank you for that. I’m sure the spelling was a mistake. Some of us stumble over the keyboard every now and then.
Also, if you can’t spell “first” or at least spellcheck your post, you can’t expect people to respect what you have to say.
So what? You just don’t like the subject matter, do you?
Proofreading is awesome, but these comments are pretty mean-spirited! I just wanted to say thanks for tackling this topic. It so rarely gets discussed in gymnastics, and I’m so glad to see someone bringing it to the fore. These shows of support and openness go a long way in making young LGBT gymnasts feel more comfortable and welcome in their sport.
Thanks so much for this episode, you guys. It’s really appreciated! And so what, they made a mistake. And? This topic RARELY gets discussed as J said, so let’s give them an ovation for this gutsy move! Way to go, you guys.
The lesser Heather who posted above gives all Heathers a bad name.
Thanks to Gymcastic for even broaching this subject. I’m sending Trey and Josh all my love and support for nationals. I hope Trey knows that people are ready and waiting to show him love if he ever decides to come out publicly.
You guys are amazing! Thank you all!
Thanks a lot for the article. Ignore the hatred.
I bow to you guys as a sign of respect and gratitude.
Thank you for being there for us.
GymCastic, Shantay you STAY!
Thank you so much for this discussion – it’s publically long overdue, especially in a sport with such a strong LGTB fan base. It’s indicative of how backward the sport still is when “Trey” still feels he needs to be closeted, when the LGTB community has never been more positive and visable. I hope this discussion eventually helps him become more comfortable with himself as a gay man.
And ftr, sacramone’s final medal IS completely bogus.
OK, where’s this USAG statement? I’d like to see USAG being inclusive.
About Russian winter Olympics and anti gay law I wanna say, that there is a very popular Russian proverb: ” Severity of the Russian laws is compensated by the irresponsibility of their execution.”
Why is this episode not available on Stitcher? it is the only way I have to listen to it!
And thanks for everything, guys! I love your show!
Hi! Thank you!
It is on Stitcher. You might have to go to the website to load it onto your feed. http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/gymcastic/e/episode-43-lgbt-gymnastics-panel-29301310
So glad you like Stitcher! It is available on Stitcher. Just login to the website and add it to your “Listen Later” list. This will add it to your app. Here is the link. Thank you for the kind words!
http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/gymcastic/e/episode-43-lgbt-gymnastics-panel-29301310
Now that three years have passed, and LGBT acceptance has grown, I’m wondering if Trey has come out and if he’s comfortable revealing his identity on this podcast.