Gay Hoosiers Welcome at Indiana University

The Indiana University athletic department will become the first such department to participate in a gay pride festival on June 12. School officials want the Indy Pride appearance to fuel a fanatical relationship between their Big Ten programs and gay Hoosiers.

By Julie Bolcer

PAT KRAFT JONATHAN KITTO X390 (RACHEL JONES CROUCH) | ADVOCATE.COM

Jon Kitto and Pat Kraft

People outside the Midwest often ask how to define a Hoosier, the official term for a resident of Indiana and the mascot for the Indiana University athletic teams. While the answer eludes all but the most devoted followers, recent actions by the school’s athletic department indicate that sexual orientation is an irrelevant aspect. Athletics officials say that their top priority is to cultivate fans crazy about their dedication to the Big Ten school, period.

“It’s someone who is passionate about Indiana athletics,” said Pat Kraft, senior assistant athletic director for marketing. “I see what they’re wearing and if they’re Indiana, I’m all fired up. All I care about is that there are 56,000 people at our football game. Gay or straight, it doesn’t matter as long as they’re Indiana Hoosier fans and they’re excited.”

That game-day attitude prompted Kraft, a former Hoosiers linebacker, to agree to attend his first gay pride event and work a booth at the Indy Pride festival in Indianapolis on June 12. School officials believe the appearance will mark the first time an athletic department has participated in such a festival. According to those involved with the process, the arrangement shows what can happen when the LGBT and sports communities let go of their assumptions and stretch outside their comfort (end) zones.

Jon Kitto, secretary of the Indiana University Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Alumni Association, says the breakthrough began last September, when he attended the dedication of a football facility and heard new athletic director Fred Glass say he wanted to reach out to different communities.

“He wasn’t thinking about GLBT groups when he said that,” said Kitto. “They weren’t looking not to. It wasn’t on top of anybody’s list. We needed to ask.”

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Reader Comments

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Name: Michael
Date posted: 6/7/2010 2:46:52 PM
Hometown: Royal Oak

Comment:
Every year I, a gay man, sit down with a close gay friend and watch the annual Michigan-MSU football game. We yell, we cheer, we root for different teams, but share a bond and friendship that transcends the game. People are people, and they are amazing in their diversity. Perhaps the gays that hate sports and the jocks that hate gays should join together in one club because they are doing equal damage to the young athletes of this world. LET GAY ATHLETES PLAY, openly . . . there's not a sports team on the planet that wouldn't benefit from openly gay players (read: motivated, happy, focused, fired-up) and Indiana University should be commended for realizing that. I, for one, am tired of the labels. LGBT people are first and foremost PEOPLE and the sooner the haters, athletic teams, universities, governments and nations realize that, the sooner they will be able to focus on the issues in life that really matter.
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Name: Jim M
Date posted: 6/3/2010 1:51:34 PM
Hometown: Hillsboro, Oregon

Comment:
Wow, I am appalled at the comments here calling anyone who likes sports a Nazi. Really? Seriously? I am an ex-naval officer, swimmer, water polo player and rugger. I have been with my partner for over 15 years, and have been out ot myself since high school and everyone else since shortly after college (the Naval Academy frowns on such things). So just because I am living MY LIFE and it does not fit inside a certain box some queers feel it should, I'm to be marginalized and demonized as a "nazi". Seriously, you all need to stop listening to Rush Limberger and Fox Noise. Me thinks the small-minded queers doth protest too much......
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Name: Mike D
Date posted: 6/3/2010 2:41:09 AM
Hometown: Newport Beach, CA

Comment:
I personally don't understand how anyone can't love sports. But I am a unique individual as ALL HUMANS are. Do I have to be exactly like eveybody in the gay community to be accepted? That's impossible because we are all free thinkers, we are all different. My closest friend is a straight pro athelete and we have a deep respect for each other. I would love to have his skills, but I don't so I enjoy watching him at his. I know and hang out with many of his teammates and I am nowhere near "in the closet." These guys have even been known to try and set me up once in a while. At the same time I would never date someone who would call me "girl" or anyone with feminine characteristics, just not my type. As a unique gay man I reserve that right. I know that's an unpopular statement with many but it's the truth.
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Name: dwight
Date posted: 6/2/2010 9:25:54 PM
Hometown: crossville,tn

Comment:
i kind of understand some of what your saying but don't say every gay athlete or sports fan is like that i play on a softball team and bb team with all straight redneck boys in a small tn town and all know i'm a big MO!! so i'm not self-hating
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Name: jsully
Date posted: 6/2/2010 2:37:30 PM
Hometown: chicago

Comment:
As a gay TEEN this is astounding. I am 17 years old and will be a senior in high school next year. I LOVE glee, musicals, theatre, painting, and various forms of art. I also go batshit for the Bears, the blackhawks, and all things college football. I was an avid wrestler and was on the football team. I was also OUT when i played for both of them. The people who are decrying this as nothing more than some way for me to celebrate my repressed sexuality and act straight are completely bonkers. You people are the reason that I am scared to join a pick-up football game, to hang out alone with my good male friends. I have nothing against femmes, or any "forms" of acting gay. Just take this as it is -- a baby step to wider acceptance. Maybe this is a stepping stone to something larger. So after this, I will go watch Glee on DVR and tape the Stanley Cup? Or does that exclude me from being one of the beautiful people? Sheesh
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Name: Jon Hazell
Date posted: 6/2/2010 12:41:55 PM
Hometown: Toronto

Comment:
Fourth - Sports are sexy and inspirational. Forgive me for enjoying watching fit sweaty (and sometimes muddy) men pushing themselves to their limits or grappling with each other to get possession of the ball. Forgive me for enjoying watching a fit guy in a tight spandex swim suit or body suit as they plow through the water to race down the sides of mountains at break neck speeds I couldn't dream of doing on those pitches. Excuse me for enjoying the excitement on people's faces as the finish a race, or beat a personal best. And just to be clear I don't only like sports. I LOVE the arts as well. Acting, singing, painting/drawing, or playing the french horn or harmonica. I'm also going to be marrying my sports loving boyfriend next year, I guess that's just another example of how closeted and self hating I must be for enjoying sports. So to all you haters of sport and of people who enjoy sport I proudly raise my middle finger to you who Can't Understand Normal Thinking. Dumb Asses.
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Name: Jon Hazell
Date posted: 6/2/2010 12:14:24 PM
Hometown: Toronto

Comment:
First - Participating in sport is about being active, enjoying an activity with other people or on your own, it's about pushing yourself, and in many cases about enjoying the outdoors. Second - I fail to see how training for marathons, or playing soccer, or snowboarding down breath-taking sunshine bowl in Whistler in any way lowers me on the social totem pole some of you seem to have planted yourselves atop of. Nor do I see how it makes me a self hating gay guy. Yeah I'm so self hating I've likely done more the community in 4 years through my activism than most of you will do in your life time. Third - I play sports because I enjoy them. I love running, in the winter mornings seeing the sun rise on lake Ontario while I'm finishing a 15 or 20k is awesome! I love playing soccer with my team cheering them on when I'm off and pushing myself to do better each time I'm on the field. I love the feeling of making a good play, or stopping one.
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Name: Jon Hazell
Date posted: 6/2/2010 12:07:09 PM
Hometown: Toronto

Comment:
First let me preface this by stating that I came out, as gay, to my parents when I was 17 and everyone else soon after. At McGill University I facilitated the coming out group, was on the Queer McGill executive, volunteered for Queerline (LGBT info/help line), ran an organization that does workshops in Montreal high schools on sexual orientation and gender identity, and helped organize a march on Parliament Hill in support of same-sex marriage back in 2004. I love sports. I was a competitive cross-country skier, I run marathons, I strive to complete an IronMan before I'm 35, I play in a soccer league, and I'm an avid skier and snowboarder. To the people who have commented blasting other Queer people who enjoy watching or participating in sports, YOU'RE FUCKING MORONS. You have no idea what your talking about. The lack of intelligence and pure lunacy in the comments made is shocking. I'm so disgusted and pissed off that I'm going to have to point out your idiocy in 2 or 3 postings
Back to top Post a Comment Report Abuse
Name: Mike
Date posted: 6/1/2010 5:20:30 PM
Hometown: New Haven, CT

Comment:
ERR - I'm a Jarhead, an Athlete and a very self affirmed BISEXUAL man! All my friends and family have know I was BISEXUAL since I was 15 years old! So before any of you lilywhites start calling me a closet case and self hating - now you know where I stand! Listen up GAY PEOPLE! Your cultural status quo is doing more harm to the advancement of your rights and civil liberties than good! Why? Because YOU - AS A CULTURE - have accepted and worse, praised this self segregating identity from the HETERONORMATIVE WORLD OF MEN! I have sex with men, I am in love with a man, I know who I am and what I want - Don't insult me, my brothers and all men who just so happen to share a common sexual preference with you by degrading us with your halfwit comments and opinions - you're no Oscar Wilde! Gay Men, it's time to Reject the Gay Identity and put an end to this emasculation! I'd be happy to be a Member of GLBTI but you're more phobic than ALL the STRAIGHT MARINES I know!
Back to top Post a Comment Report Abuse
Name: Mike
Date posted: 6/1/2010 5:20:15 PM
Hometown: New Haven, CT

Comment:
ERR - I'm a Jarhead, an Athlete and a very self affirmed BISEXUAL man! All my friends and family have know I was BISEXUAL since I was 15 years old! So before any of you lilywhites start calling me a closet case and self hating - now you know where I stand! Listen up GAY PEOPLE! Your cultural status quo is doing more harm to the advancement of your rights and civil liberties than good! Why? Because YOU - AS A CULTURE - have accepted and worse, praised this self segregating identity from the HETERONORMATIVE WORLD OF MEN! I have sex with men, I am in love with a man, I know who I am and what I want - Don't insult me, my brothers and all men who just so happen to share a common sexual preference with you by degrading us with your halfwit comments and opinions - you're no Oscar Wilde! Gay Men, it's time to Reject the Gay Identity and put an end to this emasculation! I'd be happy to be a Member of GLBTI but you're more phobic than ALL the STRAIGHT MARINES I know!

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