Gay Athlete on Going to Church and Butch Players

College junior Laren Robinson, religious student-athlete, talked about being openly gay at a Catholic university, and playing basketball.

Robinson, who grew up in a family of Baptists and Catholics, said she never felt accepted at home, despite her own continued spirituality.

"It's hard to go to Mass and sit there sometimes and listen to people talk about the founding principles of Catholicism and talk about homosexuality," Robinson said in The Hawk, the student newspaper of St. Joseph University in Philadelphia. "But also talk about diversity and trying to be inclusive. At the same time [they] continue to use the Bible and say that you're still sinning. For me it's been more of a personal thing in terms of accepting how I feel about God, and realizing that God loves everybody if He made everyone."

She also addressed stereotypes about female athletes, specifically basketball players, being butch.

"It's a bunch of bullshit, that's what it is," Robinson said. "I mean, for lack of a better term. There are really not that many gay people on basketball teams. I'd like to say that it's because of the stereotypes we have about what's masculine, what's feminine. There are girls who are really big and really strong. That's just part of the life that we live. When you play on a basketball team it's because you're good at that sport. How sexuality comes into play, I don't even know."

Read the full story at The Hawk's website.