My sister and best friend on the team were the only two who knew I was gay, and they encouraged me the whole way. I went to the board and drew the lines to equal the phrase “Coach I’m gay.” My sister and friend started yelling out the letters to correspond to the spaces, and I was nervously filling them in as everyone watched.
I was getting ready to write the “gay,” and it was easy to write because I had accepted who I was. My teammates and coaches realized what I was writing, and I was soon showered with hugs, cheers and loving words. I was finally out and knew I had the support of my teammates and coaches.
This experience inspired me to write my senior capstone and thesis on “How a sports team can effect a LGBTQ+ coming out process within collegiate sports.” My research was the first published LGBTQ+ qualitative analysis done by our communication and marketing department at McDaniel.
I learned even more about myself doing this research by hearing other openly or closeted athletes tell their stories and them leaning on me as an outlet and someone they could safely talk to. I felt more connected to not only the sports community but now my community as an LGBTQ+ member.
I was then honored to receive “Female Athlete of the Year 2019” at graduation. It was a great honor because I knew that my story, my process, my research and my community made me into the best athlete I could of possibly be at McDaniel. I never would have received this award if I wasn’t embracing my true self as the only two-sport athlete at McDaniel who was fully out.
McDaniel changed my life. Without my best friends, family, coaches and teammates, I wouldn’t be Lindsey Farrell. They taught me just because I’m gay, it does not make me less of an athlete.