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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 5 71 ning — in his opening remarks. "Public discussion on the top- ic that we're going to talk about tonight would have been taboo in the past," Burke said, after discussing significant mile- stones toward inclusion over the last decade. "Slowly but surely that's changing. Ignorance and bias must be replaced by inclu- sion and respect. I remember learning a very, very important value from my parents and I bet it's something all of you have heard as well: 'Judge not lest you be judged.' " Rankin, a former softball coach at Penn State, expound- ed on a 2010 study into the climate facing NCAA athletes, which found that about five percent identify as part of the LGBTQ community, although most are closeted. They are so, in many cases, because of a sports society not yet ready to be accepting. "I keep doing this," she said, "(because) I find that I am so tired of having to go to funerals, of seeing senseless deaths of young people because they are gay or perceived to be gay." Purdue wants to be at the forefront of change. In the athlete-led panel discussion, the group talked of steps schools like Purdue can take that would lead to more open acceptance. Horrocks, a freshman bas- ketball player, told of an ac- ademic advisor whom she knew would be open to dis- cussion because of "Safe Zone" pam- phlets on her desk. "It was rainbows, so of course I was going to look at it," said Hor- rocks, drawing laughs from the 200 or so in attendance. "I was reading it and it was talking about how to address student-ath- letes who want to come out to you. It was a lot of informa- tion and I stopped reading it because I was like 'Oh, I can talk to her about it.' That was the first person older than 22 on cam- pus, who holds a job here, that I spoke to about my relationship with my girlfriend." Mosier pointed out that training for coaches and captains is critical, so that they know the best ways to foster an open envi- ronment. There have already been steps in the right direction. Dafforn, who swam at Purdue until 2011, says he saw a "Safe Zone" sticker posted in the of- fice of Cathy Wright-Eger, Pur- due's Wooden Leadership Ad- visor. "And I've seen other offices that have 'Safe Zone' stickers up, which I thought was great, because if I'm a closeted stu- dent-athlete walking around, maybe I'm not comfortable yet sharing my story and being who I am, but I know I'm walk- ing around in an environment where I can go to somebody, an administrator or coach and talk about this issue," Dafforn said. "Just knowing that they know about LGBTQ stuff is enough for some people to feel at least a little bit safer." — Kyle Charters