The declining existence of men’s homophobia in organized university sport

Throughout the 1990’s the literature concerning homophobia in sport highlighted intolerance and discrimination against gay male athletes; however, matters began to change in the 2000’s. In this research we use a five year longitudinal study, conducted at the end of the decade, investigating university athletes for homophobic attitudes among both individual and teamsport athletes. Using questionnaires of 216 male athletes and 30 interviews, we show that homophobia has decreased from practically non-existence to non-existence among the men we study. Although similar research has been conducted in the United States, this research provides the first-ever quantitative account of athletes’ attitudes toward having a gay male teammate in the United Kingdom. We highlight the study’s results, couch them within inclusive masculinity theory, and discuss how matter might vary at other institutions.