In and Out of the Locker Room
by Jeff Kagan
Upon hearing the quick rhythm of Truett Lee Vaigneur, Jr.’s speaking voice, one might place him as an auctioneer from Baton Rouge
or perhaps a fast-talking city official from Atlanta. His southern twang has a
twist of what sounds like Cajun. As difficult as it is to pinpoint exactly
where he’s from, the avid tennis enthusiast hails from Barnwell, South
Carolina. Truett was born in the same hospital as the Godfather of Soul, James
Brown, also known as “the hardest working man in show business” which is quite
fitting, as Truett just might be “the hardest working man in academia”.
Truett
is an adjunct professor and counselor at several of the City
University of New York campuses and he’s currently working on an Educational
Doctorate (EdD) degree in Interdisciplinary Studies at Long
Island University’s C.W. Post Campus. “I research subcultures within the
mainstream campus culture, for the past few years it’s been gay male college
athletes, specifically athletes playing non-team sports. The focus is identity
formation,” he says. And he’s channeling his extensive research into a
documentary on the subject entitled The
University Pool which showcases three gay former college swimmers and
how being athletes has influenced their individual development,
helping to turn them into the successful young men they are. He says, “I
wanted to create conversations with gay athletes that was not focused in a locker
room environment. While the locker room seems like a great place to start, the
subjects aren’t always in a relaxed state, walking around in towels and taking
showers, especially young men who are still discovering themselves.” Truett’s
work follows the logic that an athlete is gay both inside the locker room, and
when they leave it. “Every athlete — college or pro — identifies with
athleticism, but how strong the identification is will actually be a result of
what happens away from the playing field. There are family influences,
religious influences, etc.; researching athletes is not a brush-stroke
technique.”
As an academic, Truett studies the developmental
aspect of gay athletes, but his interest in participating in sports began many
years ago, when he was younger. Sports were a source of great enjoyment for him
in junior high school back in South Carolina, where he played baseball,
volleyball and tennis, the latter being his favorite. “I played a lot as a
child, but my family moved from one small southern town to another when I was
in high school, and there were no team sports other than football and
basketball, so I stopped playing altogether.” he says. Sports can play a very
important role in our lives, but the sport itself isn’t the defining aspect of
who an athlete is. Being a tennis player is a major factor of how
Truett identifies himself, but he says that the sport itself hasn’t done much
to change his life. The key is participation, which leads to further
development of his self-esteem and a positive self-image as an athlete. He
says, “It enhances who I am, however, it is my involvement with tennis and the various LGBT sports
leagues that has really changed who I am by showing me I can just be myself
as a gay man — and an athlete.” In The
University Pool, Truett hopes to show that it is possible for young gay men
to be athletes and also be out of the closet. The three young men who we
featured in the documentary may have had difficult times in the past, but the
reality is that athleticism was there. It was a positive factor that gave them
confidence and a sense of self-awareness that they might not have had
otherwise.
