Texas high school coaches’ attitudes and perceptions of LGB + athletes: A qualitative analysis

LGB+ youth experience higher rates of mental health concerns and lower sport participation compared to their heterosexual peers, despite sport's potential benefits in LGB+ youths’ lives. These disparities are shaped by exclusionary barriers, such as discrimination, which can make sport environments feel unwelcoming for LGB+ athletes. Coaches, who are highly influential in their athletes’ lives, play a key role in shaping the sport experiences of LGB+ athletes on their teams. Because research on high school coaches’ perceptions of their LGB+ athletes has been scant, we conducted a qualitative investigation of responses to an open-ended survey question to address this gap. Participants were 439 high school coaches ( M age = 44.6 years; men = 199 [45.6%]; White = 72.0%; heterosexual 82.9%) from athletic departments across Texas. Through reflexive thematic analysis guided by queer theory, we identified three higher order themes that reflected the coaches’ perspectives: (a) Coaches have varying levels of acceptance, (b) Just shut up & play: I don’t want to know, and (c) Openly LGB+ athletes disrupt the team. Our results call attention to the systems, practices, and policies that allow heterosexist attitudes to persist within sport. Analyses illuminate avenues for LGB+ athlete inclusion policies and training for coaches.