Last fall, in partnership with its athletics department, the Carnegie Mellon University Queer Athlete and Ally Collective (QAAC) was formed to support queer athletes and create better allies.
Women’s swimmer Jackie Ruhnke founded the group and serves as its president. “I loved the UAA DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) Summit (in June 2023) and speaking to athletes in other affinity groups. In the spring (2024), I was on a panel for schools that came to tour the university. I shared how my queer identity is connected to my experience at Carnegie Mellon and as an athlete. I am very proud of who I am and wanted others to be proud of themselves,” she described.
She wanted to start a group for queer athletes and allies this past fall and found the administration immediately receptive. “The support of the athletics department was amazing. The staff liaison to our group is also my coach (men’s and women’s swimming and diving head coach Matt Kinney) and an advocate for me,” Ruhnke described. “Everyone encouraged the formation of QAAC, including securing funding for us to hold events. We wouldn’t have been able to do what we do if not for the amazing people we work with.”
“I have been openly gay since 1993 and during my (12-year) coaching tenure at Mary Washington, I tried to do what I could to support gay athletes, which at the time was just by being out,” Kinney explained. “I have been a resource at Carnegie Mellon, but we didn’t have anything organized. My experience has been that people are more receptive to ideas that are student-led. It has so much more impact that way and I am happy to help Jackie in any way I can.”
The First Months
With the backing of the administration, Ruhnke now faced the challenge of finding others to be involved. “I started IG DM’ing (Instagram direct messaging) the few queer athletes I knew at CMU. I said, ‘This is an idea I have. You don’t have to be on the executive board. I just want as many voices as possible to be a part of the group.’ Most are still on the executive board,” she stated.
She also stressed the importance of having allies on the executive board and with the help of a teammate, quickly found a strong ally in football student-athlete Rayce Thompson. “Izzy (Miller, women’s swimmer) reached out to me about the group and asked me if I wanted to be a part of it. As a straight person, I am not pushing direction, but rather amplifying what queer board members want to do,” Thompson remarked.
“We are so proud of the work that Jackie, Rayce, and our student leaders are doing to strengthen our community and ensure everyone feels a deep sense of belonging within Carnegie Mellon athletics and at our university,” said Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Director of Athletics Josh Centor. “QAAC made an immediate impact last year, and I can’t wait to see how the organization continues to grow this coming year.”
Ruhnke found that not only did the group provide a platform for queer athletes, it strengthened her own identity as well. “Since starting QAAC, I have been much more comfortable being myself even though I was open before. We are slowly changing the culture, providing information through events and conversations. Sometimes it is as simple as letting allies know it is okay to laugh at a queer joke I may say,” she laughed.
The initial QAAC executive board was made up of seven student-athletes. Thompson served as vice president of events and Miller was the vice president of finance. Two other women’s swimming and diving student-athletes joined Ruhnke and Miller on the board with Malia Steel as vice president of events and Cat Bryan as vice president of marketing. Kyr Brenneman of the Tartans’ softball team (vice president of operations) and women’s soccer player Kate Bergan (vice president of education) joined Bryan as first-year students on the executive board. Thompson, Brenneman, and Miller were all sophomores with Ruhnke being the only junior.
“With three people from our team on the board, it was easy to get together and have conversations without having to continually plan formal meetings. I’ve had a good amount of impact championing the LGBTQIA+ community over my career, and we have seen progress, but it’s also incredible to promote and support this younger generation in exploring what they are capable of, and Jackie has proven how powerful that can be,” Kinney stated. “It is wonderful to see all that they are accomplishing.”
“It is great having a core group of athletes come together to be on leadership board. I could not have done this on my own at all. Our board is majority queer, but we understand that the athletics climate is different from school to school. A different mix of queer and straight athletes can be just as effective doing the work,” Ruhnke stated.
Being a Christian Football Student-Athlete Ally
Thompson is a Christian leader on the Carnegie Mellon campus, leading two Bible studies and being an active member of the Tartan Athlete Fellowship, which is associated with the Coalition for Christian Outreach. “The notion in our group is that God doesn’t disqualify you because you are queer. He made you queer. Unfortunately, we see Christian churches saying, ‘Come as you are’ and then requiring queer people to be perfect before they even step into the faith community.”
“(Biblical verse) Isaiah 1:17 is paramount to the Christian role in society. It says, ‘Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.’ We are called to stand up for those who are being attacked, especially those being attacked by Christians,” he explained. “We must stand up and make powerful change. I see this work as an extension of my ministry, to ensure that the world looks a little more like heaven. As long as homophobia exists, it looks a little less like that.”
He also notes that there is a major difference in how male and female queer athletes are perceived. “To be queer and female is often associated with being strong, while there is a stigmatism to being queer and male as being weaker. I have heard homophobic slurs in football since I started playing at 10 years old. The culture in ‘masculine’ sports, especially football, is deeply rooted in homophobia,” he described. “I have 114 teammates. Statistically, some of them are queer, but none are out as being so either out of fear and/or their own ingrained homophobia. Male queer athletes may feel they won’t be accepted and internalize that. There is a process where we need to change the way we talk and act to erase the stereotype in all male sports.”
Events and Support
QAAC held its first event, cookie decorating, on “National Coming Out Day” on Oct. 11, 2023. “People pronounce QAAC in different ways, but we leaned into the ‘quack’ pronunciation by having cookies shaped like ducks. That was well-attended, and it was a lot of fun,” Ruhnke communicated. “We also held a community education and discussion event, where we shared a lot of important information about the queer community and respecting one another’s identities. We had open conversations with attendees about being queer and being an ally.”
The group was pleased with its attendance for its first event. “The reasons we have been successful are our athletic director being in my corner and top leadership there for me when I need support. They connected me with coaches and spoke to them about this new group,” she added. “Having queer coaches at CMU has been phenomenal. It allows us to be more open about our identities, what is going on with QAAC, and what is going on in the city.”
“Our athletes have come out and rallied behind our message and our goal,” Thompson expressed. “We have had overwhelmingly positive support from queer athletes and Christian athletes. There has been no outright opposition though I know comments have been made, whether it is little digs and ‘jokes’ in poor taste, but most of our athletes know better than to be openly hostile if they have different personal beliefs.”
Ruhnke has been encouraged by the overwhelming support by her fellow student-athletes. “We have a list of messages of support we have received. I was confident I would have all their support, and they were very clear and strong on where they stood and how strong their allyship was,” she explained.
One of the biggest annual events at Carnegie Mellon is Spring Carnival, when the campus community joins alumni in celebrating class reunions over three days with amusement park rides, booths, food, and buggy races. “We teamed up with the LGBTQ+ student organization on campus (PRISM) during Carnival for what we called ‘Transformation Through Queeration.’ We invited artists, performers, and any of those with creative things to share, prioritizing queer people. It was fun and very upbeat, and we had great student drag performances,” Ruhnke reported.
Looking Ahead
Ruhnke and the QAAC executive board have developed three main goals moving forward: introducing a membership component, more collaboration with on- and off-campus groups, and connecting with other queer athletes at UAA institutions.
“We are aiming to foster more communication between queer athletes and allies. We are striving to have each of our seven board members host a small event, on or off campus, to have conversations, not necessarily an educational event, but bringing queer and all athletes together to eat good food and get to know one another,” she discussed.
“We just got QAAC off the ground last year, so this year we are looking to have a true membership program. We would like to produce a newsletter that queer athlete and allies can be plugged into queer culture and identity,” Thomson added. “We also want to provide a space for queer athletes to come and connect, and to show incoming and potential students that Carnegie Mellon is a welcoming place and that being queer and Christian is accepted here.”
QAAC partnered with Plaidvocates, the athletic department’s peer health and wellness advocacy program for student-athletes, and with Pittsburgh Action Against Rape during Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month in April. Ruhnke would like to see QAAC do that again this coming spring in addition to working with other groups in Pittsburgh. She wants to initially focus on connecting with other UAA student-athletes, but later expanding that to working with other universities outside of the UAA. “Even if a queer athlete is at a school without a group or doesn’t feel supported, visibility alone is a form of protest, and others will see that. If that is the work you are doing, it means so much to people you won’t even know.”
“It is great to see the connections Jackie has already made through the UAA and to talk about ideas for the future. We have talked about some great ideas, including having queer coaches support QAAC and trying to come up with both fun and educational events,” Kinney said.
Finally, Ruhnke would like to see QAAC connect with queer alumni from Carnegie Mellon who were out when they were in school or may have come out afterward, building an alumni network.
With the executive board already in place, they returned to campus this semester focusing on their goals for 2024-25 and planning for the second annual cookie decorating event on National Coming Out Day 2024 on Oct. 11. “One of my favorite things is to create opportunities for queer joy and queer connection, whether on a level of difficult experiences or just having fun and being ourselves. I want to expand that concept on campus, for queer and non-queer athletes alike,” she summarized.