Three Strikes and You're out: Culture, Facilities, and Participation in Among LGBTQ Youth in Sports

Background

School-based sport and physical education (PE) are critical settings for youth development. Despite changing societal attitudes and efforts to increase inclusion within school-based sport settings, LGBTQ youth are confronted with barriers to participation. Compared to their heterosexual peers, LGBTQ youth are less likely to participate in sport. Further, LGBTQ youth have indicated that sport is not a safe and welcoming setting, and have identified the binary structure of bathroom and locker room facilities, alongside the policing of gender and sexuality that occurs within, as sites of exclusion and denigration. As such, there is a need to understand how facility safety influences both the likelihood of youth sport participation and feelings of safety when participating in school-based sport and PE.

Methods

Representative samples of students were systematically surveyed at five high schools in Michigan in 2014 (n = 1046). The schools are demographically diverse from each other and include urban, suburban, and rural communities. Respondents self-reported whether they played sports and, if so, whether they felt safe playing sports based upon their sexual orientation (SO), gender identity (GI), and gender expression (GE). In addition, safety using bathroom and locker room facilities (FAC) and exposure to anti-LGBTQ language were measured. To examine the hypothesis that trans and LGBQ students’ feelings of safety using facilities will mediate the association between their trans and LGBQ identities and their reported rates of playing sport and feelings of safety, mediation models were used, controlling for race, gender, sexual orientation, grade, and hearing anti-LGBTQ language and school.

Results

Both GI and SO were significantly associated with safety in facilities. Trans students reported significantly lower average safety in facilities than cisgender girls and boys, β = −0.64, −0.57 (respectively), p<0.001. Holding LGBQ identity was significantly associated with lower self-reported levels of safety in facilities than heterosexual students, β = −0.32, p<0.001. Models examining the effect safety using facilities on playing a sport and safety playing sport showed a significant effect, β = −0.37, p<0.01 and β = 0.60, p <0.001 (respectively). The indirect effect of trans identity and sexual orientation on playing sport, through the mediator of bathroom accessibility (GI→FAC→PS; SO→FAC→PS), were highly significant in comparison to both cisgender girls and boys and heterosexual students as indicated by the 95% CI [0.08, 0.47]; CI [0.04, 0.24] (respectively). Likewise, among those who played sports, the indirect effect of GI and SO on safety playing sport, through the mediator of facilities safety (GI→FAC→PS; SO→FAC→PS), was highly significant in comparison to both cisgender students as indicated by the 95% CI [-0.66, -0.23]; CI [-0.38, -0.11] (respectively).

Implications

Results indicate that facilities, such as locker rooms, play a large role in the likelihood of LGBTQ youth sport participation, as well as feelings of safety. To promote inclusion and an equity of opportunities within these critical settings for youth development, constructing and renovating facilities can help provide more options to accommodate the multiple needs and identities of diverse students, while making them safer spaces for gender nonconforming, gender expansive and LGBQ youth.