Star Athlete Hints At Using Athletic Position For LGBT Activism



UT-Tyler Women's Golf Athlete Katie Hicken (Source: Wes Bloomquist)

UT-Tyler star golfer and student athlete Katie Hicken hinted at using her platform as an athlete for LGBT activism in a tweet on May 8.

Hicken, who is openly gay, retweeted a news article about California Institute of Technology (Caltech) tennis player Julia Reisler, 21, who refused to play against East Texas Baptist University (ETBU) on March 24 because it is exempt from parts of Title IX due to its private, religious status.

"I simply couldn’t bring myself to take the court against a school that openly discriminates against my community," she said in an op-ed for Outsports, an LGBTQ publication.

At this, Hicken tweeted, “I hope to be as brave as she is in our fight for equality!”
Will Hicken resort to political activism next semester by refusing to play religious schools because of their Christianity? Will she attempt to be as “brave” as the Caltech tennis player she admires and attempt to isolate Christian athletes for their traditional, Judeo-Christian views?

I hope not.

Despite her growing Left-leaning views, Hicken has been a model of decency and civility in her work with student government during the 2017-2018 school year where she served as parliamentarian.

From supporting a new student food pantry to challenging student tuition hikes, Hicken has repeatedly expressed herself with respect for others, reflection and with her attention on ideas, not class, with few exceptions. Hicken would degrade her own personal brand and reduce the quality of campus discourse if she now turns her attention to class warfare and identity politics.

Moreover, to penalize a private school you don't even want to go to and that no gays are forced to attend is just outright petty. If you don't like it then don't go there. It's just like if you don't like Burger King then don't eat there!

But extremists like Resiler apparently cannot handle that somebody out there somewhere might not approve of their actions. It's amazing how so much power to penalize others actually looks like fear under close examination.

I often wonder what the solution for this kind of stuff is. How do you have peace with people like Reisler unless you agree with everything she says?

For today the issue is LGBT stuff. What will it be tomorrow? And what will it be like to live in a society that forces assent as Reisler could do if she is successful in her goals?

According to her op-ed, the Caltech athlete has called for schools like ETBU with codes of conduct that do not affirm LGBT beliefs to lose their federal funding and for the NCAA to ban them from membership.

Is there anything more militaristic than this? It's incredible. There is no compromise and yet Hicken cheers. Truly incredible.

So what shall we do? Shall we fight class to class? Shall we break up into our various superficial groups: whites versus blacks, men versus women, rich versus poor, tall versus short? What a sucky society that would be!

How boring to have the limits of your identity confined to your skin color or to who your father is.

What Reisler offers is an unpleasant vision of a resentful society too preoccupied with destroying one's enemy than to actually go on living.

As history and literature have shown time and again, resentment and revenge do not satisfy the soul. For after your enemy is dead, you still have to live with the pain of whatever he did to you. And unfortunately, there will always be something in this fallen, imperfect world that hurts you. Revenge is worthless. It never fills the gap it promises to heal.

What Reisler fails to see is that whenever we experience injustice, forgiveness, not revenge, is the way forward. That is, if we want to live, if we want to heal, then forgiveness is the only way forward. The way we deal with life's disappointments, such as when people do not approve of us or other people say unkind or untrue things about us, is to forgive them, to release them and move on.

It doesn't make it right, but it does set you free. It doesn't mean it's okay. It means that it happened, you acknowledge it and you choose to release it. You practice letting things go.

We cannot make room for the future if we are always holding on to the past.

This is the way to do life. This is the way to truly live. We forgive and in doing so we separate from the people and unpleasant experiences that have hurt us. We can truly let go and move beyond the injustices that keep us stuck and in a feeling of despair.

This is a future full of hope, when we learn to forgive. It's a future I hope Hicken and other athletes keep open rather than following Reisler's example.

Twitter: @jhescock

Feature Image: Wes Bloomquist via UT Tyler Patriots

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