I apology for my absence here in the blogosphere. I cannot seem to focus on writing a coherent blog post right now. I know this is temporary, but until it passes, I got nuthin’. So in the interests of not appearing to be completely MIA, I am writing this post.

I want to thank everyone who has written to me personally or in their blogs about the elimination of my It Takes A Team position at the Women’s Sports Foundation. I appreciate the recognition of what It Takes A Team was accomplishing and the collective sadness that my position is terminated at the end of January. I’ve had some conversations with folks about future possibilities for me to continue this work and I’ll certainly keep you posted as I sift through the ideas. Right now I admit to feeling a little at loose ends. I think it reflects the reality that I am not ready to retire. I feel like I still have a lot to say and do with regards to LGBT issues in sport, but I’ve lost my focus temporarily.

On Wednesday, I am going to the NCAA convention in Atlanta. I will be on a panel with Helen Carroll of NCLR, Laurie Priest of Mount Holyoke College, Ted Rybka of GLAAD Sports Desk and Mark Schuster of Rutgers University. Our panel will focus on the role of Faculty Athletic Representatives in addressing LGBT issues in athletics. It will be one of my last It Takes A Team gigs.

The last ITAT gig will be the first week of February speaking to school counselors about the roles they can play in addressing LGBT issues in their school athletic programs. My final ITAT task will be to work with Helen Carroll on the report that will reflect the best thinking that came out of our October national think tank on equal opportunities for transgender student-athletes. We hope to have that finished and available by early spring. It can’t be too soon either. It seems like state high school athletic associations are becoming aware of the need to create policies for the inclusion of transgender athletes. In the last month, I’ve had conversations with people from four different state athletic associations looking for help and guidance in creating policy. We hope our report will provide the guidance people are asking for. That is, in addition to the Washington state policy which is the first and best policy out there right now. You can see that on the It Takes A Team resources page.


Well, that’s it for now. Here’s hoping I get some inspiration soon. You’ll be the first to know.

View Original Post at ittakesateam.blogspot.com

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