don't ask don't tell

Today I was thinking about the debate that one of the groups did on don’t ask don’t tell and also about the movie we recently watched on the coach from Penn State. In high school my varsity coach was a homosexual. It was one of those things where we all knew and she knew that we knew but it didn’t really matter because it wasn’t that big of a deal to us. She never straight out told us that she was gay, and we didn’t need her to tell us. We respected her personal life enough not to comment on it if she didn’t want us to. She and her partner both worked at our school and were both varsity coaches for soccer and swimming. A lot of people in the school and different sports knew and would sometimes make little jokes about it but nothing serious or cruel. I think that coaches should have the right to say if they are gay or not, but also have the right to keep it to themselves. My coach believed if she made a big deal about it then everyone would and since it is her personal life outside of her job as a coach then she had no reason to broadcast it when her team, the only people who mattered to her, already knew. However some coaches might feel differently about it and want to share it with their teams.

Personally I think that students in this era can handle homosexuality now without prejudice because it is pretty mainstream in everyday life, at least where I live. I do think it depends on if you trust your audience or not though. Our coach for example did a lot for us in finding scholarships and team building. But I also think it is a little different for girls then boys coaches. I dont know why but a lot of boy's that I have known feel uncomfortable around homosexuals, more so then the girls Ive known. But hopefully times are changing. My coach started a while back so that might be the reason she didn’t say anything to us about it, but I noticed that from my sister’s time there to the end of mine that she opened up a lot about it to either parents she was close to or even to us by inviting her partner to our games.

Allyson Nomura

KIN 338i

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