Kate Fagan, ESPN columnist and former
University of Colorado basketball player talks about about her new must-read memoir
“The Reappearing Act” with Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of
OUTTAKE VOICES™.
This timely book addresses sexual identity in the closeted and paranoid
world of big-time college sports. We’ve all been following the
coming-out stories of male athletes Jason Collins, Michael Sam and
recently Derrick Gordon but it’s rare to hear the experience from a
lesbian female athlete. Not only did she have ...
Kate Fagan, ESPN columnist and former
University of Colorado basketball player talks about about her new must-read memoir
“The Reappearing Act” with Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of
OUTTAKE VOICES™.
This timely book addresses sexual identity in the closeted and paranoid
world of big-time college sports. We’ve all been following the
coming-out stories of male athletes Jason Collins, Michael Sam and
recently Derrick Gordon but it’s rare to hear the experience from a
lesbian female athlete. Not only did she have to deal with the
homophobic culture of college sports but her best friends were part of
Colorado’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes where they ran weekly Bible
studies at an Evangelical Free Church. Kate actually joined them for
nearly a year while she was struggling with her sexual identity even as
they prayed for others “living a sinful lifestyle.” In “The Reappearing
Act” Fagan shares her personal coming-out story as she embraces her true
self. We talked to Fagan about her new book and her spin on our LGBT
issues.
When asked what her personal commitment is to LGBT civil rights Fagan
stated, “That’s a fine line because I am a member of the media. I’m a
columnist and feature writer for ESPN and because of my relationships
that I have with folks who do work at the “You Can Play Project” which
works to end homophobia in sports and at “Break The Silence” which
specifically focus on ending homophobia in women’s sports, I do often
get stories about female athletes and male athletes who want to come out
and they want me to be the one to tell that story. I think in this day
and age in sports that these stories are important and people are
interested in them. So it’s actually good business to develop strong
relationships with these communities and be able to tell their stories
in a sophisticated, mature way and I dance that line of journalism and
also wanting to tell these stories in a really strong compassionate way
which I think all journalist want to do about any story. But my personal
experience of playing women’s college basketball and seeing all of this
closeting and fear in all these issues, on a personal level in my own
time I do like to support certain groups and speak usually to very small
gatherings about women’s sports and how we can tackle some of these
issues. So I have a personal commitment to trying the best that I can to
help the environment in women’s sports which is where my passion lies
because of my personal experience that I write about.”
Kate Fagan is a columnist and feature writer for espnW, ESPN.com and
ESPN: The Magazine. Previously, Fagan spent three seasons covering the
76ers for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Her work was cited in the anthology
The Best American Sports Writing 2013 and she has also been featured on
Longreads, a site that curates the best in long-form journalism and
fiction. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
For More Info: bykatefagan.com
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