Washington University Campus Life will hold an open house for LGBQTIA* athletes and community allies at the end of the fall semester.

Assistant Director for Leadership and LGBTQIA* Involvement Travis Tucker decided to hold the open house, which doesn’t have a set date yet, to gauge student interest in reviving the Athlete Ally organization, which has fizzled out since its founding a few years back.

Washington University’s Athlete Ally chapter would be a part of the nationwide Athlete Ally Association, which seeks to support queer athletes and change discriminatory sport policies.

“The Wash. U. Athlete Ally group was started several years ago as a way to bring awareness and create community for student athletes on campus,” Tucker wrote in an email to Student Life. “The group is part of a larger group of chapters that have been created across the country. The organization has been inactive the past few semesters, but we hope to bring it back to active status.”

According to Tucker, the goal of Athlete Allies is to give LGBTQIA* athletes the chance to meet and connect.

“Although some athletes may know other athletes that are LGBTQIA* identifying, they tend to be regulated to teammates or if they have friends from other teams,” Tucker wrote. “We would like to create an opportunity to open the community up for folks.”

Amanda Hua, a sophomore on the varsity volleyball team, helped Tucker plan the open house. She hopes the open house will show queer athletes that they have support.

“The goal is to get as many people to come as possible, even if they’re not queer,” Hua said. “Having allies there as support can be very helpful.”

In addition to providing support, Hua believes that opening the meeting to allies will allow students who haven’t yet come out to be a part of the open house.

“The other added bonus of including allies is that if you’re not out but you want to come to these meetings, you can come as an ally,” Hua said.

Hua hopes that a large showing at the open house will lead to reviving Athlete Allies. She believes it’s important to have an organization for queer athletes specifically.

“There are a lot of queer groups on campus that are non-athletic,” Hua said. “As athletes, it’s hard to make that time commitment, and it’s hard to find people who are both queer and athletes.”

According to Alli Levitas, a sophomore on the club ultimate frisbee team, LGBTQIA* athletes face a unique set of obstacles.

“As a queer athlete, your experiences aren’t the norm in the athletic or queer communities, and having people who identify with that is important,” Levitas said.

For Tucker, Athlete Allies is first and foremost about students being able to connect through shared life experiences.

“People need to know that they are not alone in how they are feeling,” Tucker wrote. “Many of the students that I work with feel that they are the only ones that are struggling being queer when that is just not the case. Providing opportunities for people to meet and connect is a high priority for me and my work, and I am thrilled that we can offer an opportunity to reconnect this community together.”