A chameleon on the court: Understanding factors that contribute to invisibility /visibility for Division I intercollegiate gay athletes

Although gay athletes are definitely a part of the current composition of Division I athletics teams, few studies address this particular population. Further no study has reported the factors that support visibility/invisibility for this population of students. This qualitative phenomenological study explored the question: What factors contribute to the visibility/invisibility of Division I gay male collegiate athletes? The purpose of this study was to disclose those internal and external factors that may contribute to whether a gay athlete passes as heterosexual or conceals his identity? Further, this study also sought to understand the outcomes of visibility and the ways higher educational institutions can make gay athletes feel more included.;I conducted a series of three interviews with each of the eight participants. I focused on their life histories surrounding sport and self-identification as gay, their current experience being visible/invisible to their team and coaches, and their reflection on the meaning of being both gay and an athlete within Division I athletics. Using the most compelling quotes from interviews I then constructed unique profiles reflecting their background.;I used Colaizzi's (1978) approach for analyzing data. The analysis included the extraction of significant meanings related to the phenomena, clustering the data into themes, an exhaustive description of the phenomenon, and finally an unequivocal statement expressing the essence of the phenomenon. Data was collapsed into four themes: internal factors of invisibility/visibility, external factors of invisibility/visibility, the gay athlete acceptance continuum, and the costs and benefits of invisibility/visibility. Factors reflect an updated model of Clair, Beatty, and Maclean's (2005) conceptual model of the decision to pass or reveal one's identity.;Most importantly this research makes suggestions for the higher educational community, including faculty, staff, coaches, athletics administration and the NCAA on ways to make the experience of Division I gay athletes more positive. This research confirms the ways in which athletics culture silences gay male identity particularly for those athletes from high profile team sports.