I’ve tried to put together some resources about gay athletes that could be used in the context of a broader civil rights unit. There are, of course, so many noteworthy individuals and events that the challenge is in selecting a reasonable number for students to analyze. I’ve tried to choose articles that reflect change over time from a variety of sports and time periods. Below is my general idea about how to present and use these articles (not a fully fleshed out lesson plan), but I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing your ideas.--Travis

Enduring Questions:

• How can sports, as both leisure and entertainment, be both reflective of, and a vehicle for, social and political changes occurring in a given time period?

• Are significant “firsts” in professional sports drivers of social change or reflections of changes already happening?

• In what ways, if at all, are sports a relevant area of study for those concerned with understanding civil rights struggles in US history?

Warm-up/background questions (these assume some prior knowledge, presumably from prior lessons in the unit) My idea with these is to get students thinking broadly about the central questions:

• Why is Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the color barrier in major league baseball considered an important event in the African American civil rights movement?

• In what ways did Kathrine Switzer’s participation in the 1967 Boston Marathon open doors for other women athletes? How do you think that her decision to challenge the ban on women participating might have been influenced by the women’s rights movement? (This being the 50th anniversary of that run, there are a lot of recent articles that could be used as background info/discussion starter.)

Activity/Articles:

Use any jigsaw or other group activity you prefer to have students read any or all of the following and complete the Analysis questions that follow. If each student will only be reading one article, be sure to build in a way for students/groups to share and compare, as the articles are quite varied.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-big-interview-billie-jean-king-m5x95sx6qlr

Overview of Billy Jean King’s life, much in her own words (from 2007)

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19950621&slug=2127538

Article from 1998 about “the growing acceptance of homosexuality in sport”

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1975/12/12/page/62/article/ex-gridder-kopay-admits-being-gay

Image of the original 1975 newspaper article that made David Kopay the first openly gay professional team sport athlete in the US (3 years after retirement)

https://www.si.com/more-sports/2013/04/29/jason-collins-gay-nba-player

Jason Collins (NBA), publicly coming out in Sports Illustrated in 2013

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/05/actually-jason-collins-isnt-the-first-openly-gay-man-in-a-major-pro-sport/275523/

2013 Article about Glenn Burke, the “real” first openly gay MLB player (in 1976)

http://www.out.com/travel-nightlife/london/2012/07/02/fever-pitch

Interview with soccer star Megan Rapino about being gay.

Analysis (students answer these questions for their assigned document. I will create a worksheet/graphic organizer for this in Google Docs and share here):

Sourcing: date, publication (intended audience)--how might these affect presentation?

Contextualization: what related events/development are going on at this time? What does this story and how it is presented indicate about the time period?

Analysis: what in this story is evidence of...

• individual activism

• social change

• barriers to social change

in the struggle for LGTB rights/equality?

Assessment:

Extensions:

Students make a timeline and compare with the UCSC timeline, making connections and drawing conclusions.

Students make predictions about future changes/events/issues concerning sports and the LGTB community.

General Resources for/about LGTB athletes/competitions

http://www.outsports.com/

http://www.glisa.org/outgames/world-outgames/

https://gaygames.org/wp/