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born in 1980 in Akron, Ohio
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Andrea Zimbardi earned a spot on the University of Florida softball team as a walkon and became the best fielding catcher in Gators softball history. Her fight against homophobia, however, is likely to be her more enduring legacy in intercollegiate sports.
Gators softball coach Karen Johns kicked senior co-captain Zimbardi off the team in March 2003, allegedly because of Zimbardi’s sexual orientation. An SEC honor roll student, Zimbardi charged that Johns and Assistant Coach Heather Compton-Butler harassed players by imposing their Christian beliefs regarding homosexuality, spoke negatively about other players and coaches they assumed were lesbians, and retaliated against Zimbardi after she reported concerns to the school’s athletic director.
Attorneys from the National Center for Lesbian Rights represented Zimbardi in her case against the university. In 2004 UF reached a settlement, agreeing to provide diversity training regarding sexual orientation for coaches, athletic directors, and staff in exchange for Zimbardi’s relinquishing further legal action.
In what it called an unrelated move the university added “sexual orientation” to its anti-discrimination policy in 2003, among the last of 62 members of the Association of American Universities to do so—nearly fifty years after the infamous Johns Committee (named for Florida State Senator Charley Johns) conducted a purge of gay and lesbian faculty, staff, and students at UF. Since the abrupt ending to her softball career, Zimbardi has spoken to audiences across the nation on equity in athletics.
SOURCES:
Buzinski, Jim. “Homophobic Coach Out.” Outsports: On Campus, 21 June 2005, http://www.outsports.com, 3 October 2009.
Buzinski, Jim. “Florida Settles With Lesbian Athlete.” Outsports: On Campus, 27 January 2004, http://www.outsports.com, 3 October 2009.
Buzinski, Jim. “Homophobia Alleged in University of Florida Softball.” Outsports: On Campus, 21 May 2003, http://www.outsports.com, 3 October 2009.
English, Antonya. “Former Softball Player Alleges Harassment at UF.” St. Petersburg Times, 11 June 2003, http://www.sptimes.com, 3 October 2009.
Letellier, Patrick. “A Home Run Against Homophobia.” The Advocate, 13 April 2004, http://www.thefreelibrary.com, 19 October 2009.
London, Laura. “Playing in the Closet: Homophobia in Sports.” Women’s Sports Foundation,
http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org, 3 October 2009.
“NOW Demands Changes after UF Axes Softball Player,” The Gainesville Iguana, August/September 2003,
http://www.afn.org/~iguana/, 3 October 2009.
“Our Program–Keynote Speech Andrea Zimbardi: “Facing the Fear…Being Out in NCAA Division I Athletics,” Gay and Lesbian Athletics Association, http://glaf.org/index.html, 3 October 2009.
2008 National Team Roster and Bios, USA Softball, http://admin.usasoftball.com, 3 October 2009.
Featured GLBT Ohioans
Oct 1st Jacqueline Woodson Oct 2nd Samuel Steward Oct 3rd Jean O’Leary Oct 4th Mel Roberts Oct 5th Andrea Zimbardi Oct 6th Philip Johnson Oct 7th Natalie Clifford Barney Oct 8th Billy Strayhorn Oct 9th Barbara Grier Oct 10th Michael Cunningham Oct 11th Elizabeth Birch Oct 12th Hart Crane Oct 13th Berenice Abbott Oct 14th Jermaine Stewart Oct 15th Mary Oliver Oct 16th Paul Lynde Oct 17th Judith Butler Oct 18th Howard Brown