• Letters from CAMP Rehoboth
    • Current Issue
    • Past Issues
    • Advertising Information
    • Where Can I Get Letters?
    • The Write Stuff
  • Events
    • Block Party 2023
    • SUNFESTIVAL 2023
    • Women's FEST
    • CAMP Rehoboth Chorus Ensemble - Music of the Night
  • Programs
    • Arts & Culture
    • Education & Advocacy
    • Health & Wellness
    • Community Building
    • CAMP Facilities
  • About Us
    • Membership
    • Volunteers
    • Board of Directors
    • CAMP Rehoboth Staff
    • Reports and Financials
    • History
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Press
  • Resources
    • Beach Guide Directory
    • LGBTQ Resources
    • LGBTQ Providers
    • LGBTQ Delaware Data
    • Trans & Nonbinary Resources
    • BIPOC LGBTQ Resources
    • LGBTQ Local and National Resources Guide
  • Contact
  • Shop
close× Call Us 302-227-5620
close×

Search form

GA4 Tracking Code

June 15, 2012 - The Outfield by Dan Woog

Akil Patterson’s Project

When University of Nebraska assistant football coach Ron Brown made anti-gay comments recently—among other things, he threatened the Omaha city council with eternal damnation if it passed a bill prohibiting businesses from firing workers because they’re gay—many people were outraged.

Akil Patterson was too. But he understood better than many others where Brown was coming from. Patterson is a former Division I football player. Like Brown, he’s African American.

But Patterson’s life path has been very different. A gay man, Patterson is dedicating his life to making sure that young athletes do not get bullied or harassed for any reason. Particularly for being gay.

Patterson began his collegiate football career at the University of Maryland. He “adored” the school. Yet he did not feel the same warmth toward the people he was around—primarily football players and coaches. “It was a dark period,” he recalls. “I was always on the defensive.”

Deeply closeted—feeling estranged from other gay men and women, and with no black gay role models—he became a binge drinker. He transferred to California University of Pennsylvania, where he continued to party but earned a degree.

He played briefly with the United Indoor Football League’s semipro Billings Outlaws in Montana. He’d already started to come to terms with himself, thanks to an eye-opening trip to Europe. Yet not until he returned to his real love—he’d been a state high school wrestling champion—did he feel confident enough to come out, and truly begin to live.

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes,” Patterson says. “That weighs heavily on your soul. I want to be at peace, be around people who uplift me.”

He found that place, surprisingly, back in College Park, Maryland. Now an assistant wrestling coach there, he’s surrounded by people—coaches and athletes—who understand and embrace him. They’re like a family to him. Around them, Patterson talks about his life and his relationships. It’s an openness he never felt before. That openness has enabled him to reach out to others, through something he calls The Patterson Project.

“It’s a mission of love,” he says. Through it—by blogging, speaking, and serving as a role model—Patterson educates whoever will listen, from elementary school youth through college students, about the importance of being true to yourself.

“The Patterson Project offers a different spin on the life of LGBT athletes, because it doesn’t just focus on sexuality,” he says. He emphasizes the mental, physical, social, and psychological aspects of living life with integrity. He learned many of those skills while working in youth detention centers and courts. With his imposing size (he’s 6-foot-3-inches) and athletic accomplishments (he’s still a highly ranked Greco-Roman grappler), Patterson has vowed to counter the destructive influences of people like Ron Brown.

As a big, strong athlete, he knows he does not fit the stereotype of a gay man. He could easily “pass” as a straight jock—he did for years, all through college. But Patterson says that would not serve anyone well. Not him, and not young athletes who need role models.

“It’s like years ago, during a previous era, when light-skinned black people could pass as white,” he explains. “But that wouldn’t achieve equality. If gay people want to be equal, we have to show who we are. We’re coaches, teachers, lawyers, doctors. We’re people.”

In his second stint at Maryland, he says, he’s now seen as “a person.” In part, that’s because 2012 is a different time than just 10 years ago. In part, it’s a reflection of the difference between the wrestling and football cultures.

Though wrestling demands mental and physical toughness, Patterson calls it a “humbling” sport. “You’re not going to make a million dollars” as a wrestler or coach, he says.

Because they compete individually, Patterson says, wrestlers—like gymnasts and swimmers—must have incredible fortitude to succeed. Wrestling helped give him the confidence and fortitude to come out.

But all gay athletes, whether participating in an individual or team sport, must contend with something others don’t: the conflict between their identity as an athlete, and as an LGBT person.

Patterson walks the walk of an athlete. He talks the talk. He’s grown up in the black community, and understands the culture that allows Ron Brown to say it would be an “honor” to be fired for his stance.

That’s why it’s so important for Akil Patterson to speak not about religion or politics, but about humanity, whenever he talks about his life journey as a black gay athlete.

Or simply, his life journey as a human being.

Dan Woog is a journalist, educator, soccer coach, gay activist, and author of the “Jocks” series of books on gay male athletes. Email Dan Woog
 

‹ June 15, 2012 - CAMP Arts by Doug Yetter up June 15, 2012 - CAMPdates ›

Past Issues

Issues Index

  • February 3, 2012 - Issue Index
  • March 9, 2012 - Issue Index
  • April 6, 2012 - Issue Index
  • May 4, 2012 - Issue Index
  • May 18, 2012 - Issue Index
  • June 1, 2012 - Issue Index
  • June 15, 2012 - Issue Index
    • June 15, 2012 - Acknowledgments
    • June 15, 2012 - The Way I See It by Steve Elkins
    • June 15, 2012 - Speak Out - Letters to Letters
    • June 15, 2012 - In Brief
    • June 15, 2012 - CAMPmatters by Murray Archibald
    • June 15, 2012 - Bachelor Auction 2012
    • June 15, 2012 - CAMP Out by Fay Jacobs
    • June 15, 2012 - CAMP Stories by Rich Barnett
    • June 15, 2012 - Amazon Trail by Lee Lynch
    • June 15, 2012 - View Point by Richard J. Rosendall
    • June 15, 2012 - Before the Beach by Bob Yesbek
    • June 15, 2012 - Booked Solid by Terri Schlichenmeyer
    • June 15, 2012 - Volunteer Spotlight by Chris Beagle
    • June 15, 2012 - Volunteer Thank You
    • June 15, 2012 - High CAMP by Brent Mundt
    • June 15, 2012 - Eating Out by Fay Jacobs
    • June 15, 2012 - CAMPshots Gallery Index
    • June 15, 2012 - CAMP Arts by Doug Yetter
    • June 15, 2012 - The Outfield by Dan Woog
    • June 15, 2012 - CAMPdates
    • June 15, 2012 - Ask The Doctor by Michael
    • June 15, 2012 - Gray & Gay by John Siegfried
    • June 15, 2012 - Buzz Worthy by Deb Griffin
  • June 29, 2012 - Issue Index
  • July 13, 2012 - Issue Index
  • July 27, 2012 - Issue Index
  • August 10, 2012 - Issue Index
  • August 24, 2012 - Issue Index
  • September 14, 2012 - Issue Index
  • October 12, 2012 - Issue Index
  • November 16, 2012 - Issue Index

Follow Us

Follow us on Social Media!

RECEIVE WEEKLY EMAIL

Information

  • Letters
  • Events
  • About Us
  • CAMP Center

Support CAMP

  • CAMP Membership
  • Volunteer
  • Contact Us
  • Donate
Copyright © CAMP Rehoboth, 2023
  • p. 302-227-5620
  • info@camprehoboth.com
  • 37 Baltimore Avenue, Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971