Economy Crushes Homophobia in Sports Project

The director of an initiative to fight homophobia in women's sports has seen her position eliminated because of economic troubles. Pat Griffin, the project director of It Takes a Team, announced on her blog on Tuesday that she would leave her post at the end of her contract in January.

"I have a boundless commitment and passion for addressing LGBT issues in sport and will take some time to figure out how to best move forward with this work," she told Outsports.com. "I am not ready to 'hang up the spikes' yet and will take some time to decide how to get back in the game."

Griffin is a professor emerita in the social justice education program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is also the author of Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homophobia in Sports and coeditor of Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice: A Sourcebook for Teachers and Trainers.

The program began in 1996 with the backing of tennis legend Martina Navratilova and the aim of combating homophobia in high school and college sports. Griffin became director of It Takes a Team in 2005.