Wade Davis II, out former NFL player, and Darnell Moore, writer and activist, are launching a youth summer camp program aimed at bringing together LGBT athletes and straight allies.
Source: youbelonginitiative.com
The discussion about gay athletes and the NFL seems to have strayed a bit. Blogs are gay-baiting straight players with "gotcha" photos and salacious headlines. Industry insiders are whispering about the possibility of not one, but four players coming out at once. Nike has made it clear that an endorsement deal is ready and waiting for the first out player. While the debut of an out NFL player (or several) is something to look forward to as it would force the league to confront its homophobia in a more tactile way, youth advocate and out former NFL player Wade Davis says many of us are missing the point.
"I actually think the quest for the first gay athlete is the wrong starting place. We should be working to make sure that we can create safe enough spaces within sports and elsewhere that would make disclosure a safe possibility," Wade told BuzzFeed via email.
With that disconnect in mind, Davis has teamed up with writer and activist Darnell L. Moore to launch the YOU Belong Sports & Leadership Initiative, which will focus on supporting LGBT athletes and straight allies. The initiative is partnered with Outsports and the You Can Play project.
Speaking about the inspiration for the camp, Moore noted, "We wanted to come up with a proactive solution to the problems that we both assessed — namely, the dearth of attention paid to young people within the larger LGBTQ movement and the lack of conversation and programming centered on the needs of LGBTQ youth within sports environments."
Here is Davis and Moore's interview with BuzzFeed about YOU Belong, LGBT youth, and what the athletes they work with actually are thinking about.
Darnell L. Moore (left) and Wade Davis II.
Source: youbelonginitiative.com
YOU belong isn't the first time you both have teamed up to address issues in the LGBT community. You also collaborate on a column for Huffington Post Gay Voices. Where did this meeting of minds begin?
Darnell: We work together in New York City and would talk, almost daily, over lunch. Our lunch chats would spill over into early-morning and late-evening phone conversations. We soon discovered that we shared so much in common, even though our lives are vastly different: our commitment to LGBTQ issues, LGBTQ youth, and youth of color concerns, and a desire to address issues faced by black men and boys. Our conversations turned into tangible partnerships. We started speaking on panels together, co-facilitating public conversations, co-writing articles, and engaging youth work together. So this initiative emerged as a result of the work we've been engaging over the past year.
How did you both come up with the idea for a youth sports camp that targets not only LGBT athletes but straight allies as well?
Darnell: We cannot really recall specifics, but we should credit Bryan Epps, a friend, who planted the seed. It was almost as if we had an epiphany during one of our lunch outings. We wanted to come up with a proactive solution to the problems that we both assessed — namely, the dearth of attention paid to young people within the larger LGBTQ movement and the lack of conversation and programming centered on the needs of LGBTQ youth within sports environments. We figured that our combined experience in sports, education, youth development, and advocacy would provide the perfect foundation for a sports camp targeting LGBT athletes and allies.