Big Ten Conference hosts inaugural 'LGBTQ+ Symposium'

The Big Ten Conference held an “LGBTQ+ Symposium” on June 1 to kick off Pride Month.

The event was organized at the conference’s headquarters in Rosemont, Illinois, and featured a variety of speakers that addressed over 100 student-athletes, coaches, and officials.

The symposium also included four breakout sessions: “Equipping Allies,” “Intersection of Identity,” “On the Field,” and “Legal Landscape of College Athletics.” Topics discussed in the sessions included LGBTQ-related legislation, “best practices for allies on how to engage, support, and understand LGBTQ+ individuals,” and “exploring what identity means.” 

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Over 20 guest speakers delivered remarks, including one with no apparent connection to athletics, Patrice Palmer. Palmer identifies as transgender and non-binary and serves as the Assistant Dean of Social & Cultural Inclusion for the College of Business at Colorado State University.

Palmer is also a “DEI motivational coach” who delivered a TEDx Talk in 2020 entitled, “Are you a Man or Woman? …I’m BLACK.” The lecture centered around gender and race, with Palmer noting at one point that, “When I sit in rooms that are black-designated, my queerness has to stay out the door.”

The Big Ten Conference, a premier college athletics conference that is composed of 14 schools, announced the creation of an 18-person “LGBTQ Working Group” during last year’s Pride Month celebration. 

The working group aims to “elevate and amplify the voices of the LGBTQ+ community and to foster meaningful dialogue with community members and allies across the conference.” It also played a central role in organizing this year’s symposium.

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Several Twitter users expressed their displeasure with the event. One user replied to the announcement post saying, “I wish you were kidding,” and another asked, “When is the [heterosexual] symposium?”

Longtime Big Ten member University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign also celebrated Pride Month by publishing open letters written by several individuals who attended the conference. 

In one of the pieces, Illinois Assistant Athletic Director Kam Cox highlighted the symposium and what it taught him about “allyship.” 

“Good allies will notice and confront the various circumstances that have the effect of invalidating the queer community,” he wrote. “For example, an ally will push back against a friend who makes an offensive comment, and an ally will also help reshape heteronormative institutional policies that may be discriminatory.”

The Big Ten Conference and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have been contacted for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.

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