A new documentary will take an in-depth look at the “culture of exclusion, bigotry and discrimination” that continues to face LGBTQ athletes despite the queer community’s social advances as a whole.
Two-time Olympian Gus Kenworthy, NFL draftee Michael Sam and soccer players Robbie Rogers and Megan Rapinoe are among those featured in “Alone in the Game,” which debuts June 15 at the American Film Institute Docs Film Festival in Washington.
As the “Alone in the Game” trailer reveals, many of those athletes’ biggest challenges arise beyond the playing field. “If there wasn’t homophobia in sports, and if everyone felt comfortable in being who they were, then everyone who is gay would be out,” Rapinoe says in the clip above.
The documentary’s creator and executive producer, David McFarland, hopes his film will help to “affect real change at the highest levels of American sport.”
“I have the privilege to examine these issues at the highest levels of sport — live these issues, really — up close and in person,” he told AFI last week, “and these experiences have given me a true and factual understanding of just how serious these problems are for LGBT athletes and how great an impact the world of sport can make when the right decisions are made by those in positions of power.”
McFarland added, “One of the biggest obstacles in making the film was getting certain key power parties in sport to show up and participate. This begs a very serious question for our leaders in sport: are we living in a time when equality and inclusion truly exists for LGBT athletes?”
Following its festival premiere, “Alone in the Game” will air on AT&T’s Audience Network on June 28.
