The Double-A Zone recently posted a story on Kevin Love, a UCLA basketball standout who was the subject of homophobic chants during a recent game against Oregon. A poll ran alongside the story for a little over a week, asking readers if the treatment was disgraceful, just part of the game or if Oregon should be penalized for the actions of its fans.

Fifty percent of more than 250 respondents called the treatment disgraceful and 15 percent said the school should be penalized.  Interestingly, 32 percent said the taunts were just part of the game.

After the game, Oregon Athletics Director Pat Kilkenny left messages with Love, UCLA coach Ben Howland and Athletics Director Dan Guerrero to apologize for the fans’ behavior, and Oregon coach Ernie Kent addressed the fans before the next home game with Southern California. While Kilkenny’s messages and Guerrero’s announcement are commendable, the Love incident and the Double-A Zone poll do raise compelling questions about diversity and acceptance on campus and in athletics.

“Homophobia is one of the places where people do not challenge,” said John Amaechi during a recent panel on gay student-athletes at the NCAA Convention. Amaechi came out after a professional career in the NBA and collegiate career at Pennsylvania State University. He made the case that overt racism is not tolerated, but people don’t often stand up to homophobia.

According to Neil Giuliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), sports is one of the last bastions of discrimination against gay, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered individuals. GLAAD has formed a national sports desk to combat this problem on a national level. “There’s an opportunity for us to really educate people,” Giuliano said in a recent interview.

Giuliano believes student-athletes perform better on the field and in the classroom when they’re “open and able to live honestly among their peers.” 

During the panel, Giuliano acknowledged the story of a 14-time, all-American swimming student-athlete who told Giuliano that, “It took an awful lot of energy to hide and live a double life both with my teammates as well as my coaches, but I felt that I had to do so. I didn’t feel that I was in an environment where I could be open or I could be out. It simply was not that kind of situation. There was homophobia. There were a lot of negative comments. In the end, I probably could have been a much better student-athlete had I not tried to hide as much as I did.”

While the extent of homophobia on campus differs from institution to institution, athletics programs can take steps to combat the impact at their university. Giuliano says the first step is to encourage universities to create anti-discriminatory, inclusive policies that take into account sexual identity. It is also important to “create an atmosphere that’s open to have the conversation,” he said.

In the end, homophobia can be combated if people are willing to bring these issues out of their collective closets, creating an environment that is open and accepting for all student-athletes.