While surfing the Web last month, I happened upon a story headlined "NCAA Committee Proposes Homophobia Education."

I had two reactions. First, hallelujah! Second, why has this taken so long?

I want to applaud the work of the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics, which has forwarded several recommendations regarding homophobia education to the Management Councils in all three divisions. The work of the committee is important, and the members' beliefs that homophobia in intercollegiate athletics has become a problem with a variety of negative effects for student-athletes, coaches and athletics administrators are justified.

Now you may be wondering why I might have an interest in this subject or why I might even have some expertise in this area.

The fact is I am also an openly gay man.

Lest this guest column come off as too preachy, I want to state at the start that the opinions I express here are germane to my situation only. They are my observations, opinions and experiences as an openly gay man in the world of college athletics. I hope this opinion piece will provoke thoughtful discussion around the office water cooler because there are issues here that need attention.

Last month, the 2001-02 collegiate athletics year began in earnest as college teams initiated their travails in football, soccer, field hockey and volleyball, among other sports. Since the start of the American gay rights movement in June 1969, when the nightclub patrons at the Stonewall Inn in New York City courageously fought off the prejudice of police harassment, the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) Americans have improved dramatically, even though they have done so an excruciatingly incremental basis.

The lack of fairness on this issue is depressing to say the least. As a society, we are constantly bombarded by images of athletes with partners of the opposite sex kissing after golf tournaments or tennis matches. Media guides for professional teams and college programs inevitably talk about the families of individuals in their biographies and most of the bios are replete with photos of their families grinning for the cameras. And how often do we see television networks switching to shots of significant others (always of the opposite sex) sitting nervously in the stands while their beloved coaches or athletes sweat out excruciating moments on the floor or field? Does anyone think the networks would do the same for partners of the same sex?

Now I don't expect the world to change in any radical way. I am an optimist, but I am also pragmatic. Gays and lesbians to this day constitute a group of people against which it is politically correct to practice hate and discrimination openly and in many cases without recrimination.

When I came out of the closet in 1992, I did it for purely selfish reasons. I am incapable at effectively telling a lie. And obfuscating was killing me. It was going to drive me to a premature grave. So I came out. I knew because of my nature I would be totally ineffective at hiding my new life. So I told people. Better to hear it from me than from someone else went my thinking.

While my act began as a selfish venture, I soon became aware on a cognitive level that what I had done went much further. Visibility makes all the difference in the world. It is infinitely harder for a person to discriminate against someone they know and love and respect. And I found that out.

At the time, I was age 37 and I had waited too long to make the choice to come out. After I made the decision, I have never been happier in my life, and the support and the affirmation I received was staggering to me. I know I did the right thing. The coaches I work with, the administrators I work with -- I could not have asked for more from them.

John Swofford, then the athletics director at North Carolina, told me point blank he hoped I had not suffered too much pain over the years feeling the need to hide who I really was. And he assured me that if I was ever treated badly by someone within the athletics program because of my sexual orientation that he would personally handle such an offense in a swift manner.

But what warmed my heart the most was the reaction of the student-athletes. To a man and a woman, the acceptance I felt was utterly amazing. And my willingness to be honest about who I am as a person made them more comfortable with a subject that they all need to know more about, as some of their teammates are inevitably gay, lesbian or bisexual.

And what a great gift that would be to those people. Imagine what productive individuals they could be if they could actually lives their lives without fear of discovery and recrimination? The possibilities are endless.

Dave Lohse is the associate athletics communications director at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.