FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | October 27, 2010

New GLSEN Project to Improve Climate for LGBT Students in Elementary and High School Sports

A Statement from NCLR Sports Project Director Helen Carroll

(San Francisco, CA, October 27, 2010)—The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) announced on October 25, 2010 that Dr. Pat Griffin, former Director of It Takes A Team! Education Campaign for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Issues in Sport at the Women’s Sports Foundation, has joined GLSEN to develop and direct a program to address LGBT issues in youth and high school sports. The GLSEN Sports Project, which will launch in 2011, will help elementary schools and high schools create and maintain athletic and physical education climates that are based on the core principals of respect, safety, and equal access for all students and coaches regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity and/or expression.

Statement by NCLR Sports Project Director Helen Carroll:

“This is a great opportunity for collaborative work in advocacy and education between the NCLR Sports Project and the GLSEN Sports Project. With Pat Griffin directing the GLSEN Sports Project to lead the way for high schools and NCLR's Sports Project covering the legal landscape, I see a brighter future for our LGBT student athletes and their leaders.”

Griffin and Carroll recently authored On the Team: Equal Opportunity for Transgender Student Athletes. The report is the first ever to thoroughly address the complete integration of transgender student athletes within high school and collegiate athletic programs.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights is a national legal organization committed to advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education.
www.nclrights.org.

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