Name: Harvey Van Blerkom

Social Justice Group: Sports and Equality

Date of Fieldwork: November 17, 2017

Name of Organization: Athlete Ally

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Allison Grover, board member

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We interviewed Allison Grover and learned about Athlete Ally’s mission. We also learned about people who were not members of LGBT but still stood up for their rights.

What I learned:

I learned that Allison created a group in Goldman Sachs for LGBT rights. I also learned that there are many activists who don’t belong to the LGBTQ who stand up. We also learned that we need kids idols to promote LGBT rights.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

Through the fieldwork, I learned that there are a lot of steps that we can take to get the LGBT movement going in sports. We also learned that it will be really difficult to be able to volunteer on this topic, though it was possible for us to get some hands-on experience. I thought that it would be really easy to do this, but now I realized that we will have to do things in a very innovative way to get out in the field. I think that we should try to get some active fieldwork in the future because I don’t think that interviewing is always good. I also learned that it will take a long time to get equality which means that I will have to be an activist for this cause even after I finish this project.