Sports and Orientation Equity
Wade Davis
Former NFL athlete Wade Davis—an advocate, writer and public speaker on race, gender and orientation equity—will present a lecture at Dickinson on Monday, Nov. 3, at 7 p.m. in Allison Hall. It is free and open to the public.
Davis is the executive director of the You Can Play project, an organization that works to ensure equality, respect and safety for athletes, without regard to sexual orientation. He also is co-creator of the YOU Belong Initiative, a project that provides LGBTQA youth ages 14–24 access to various sports. Its goal is to create a safe space where LGBTQ youth and straight allies can become well-rounded athletes, leaders and human beings.
Davis’ writings and interviews have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, The New York Times, The Advocate, OutSports and other media outlets, including President Barack Obama’s White House blog. Davis also served as the LGBT surrogate for Obama during the 2012 presidential election. In the early 2000s, Davis played for the Tennessee Titans, Washington Redskins and Seattle Seahawks as well as two NFL Europe teams.
Davis will deliver the Poitras-Gleim Lecture, the flagship event of a program formerly known as the Public Affairs Symposium. The lecture was endowed by a gift from Ted and Kay Gleim Poitras and provides a forum to explore and promote cross-disciplinary thought and communication. The Student Senate's Public Affairs Committee oversees the Poitras-Gleim Lecture and is tasked with fostering vibrant campus discussions about academic and political issues through seminars, lectures and debates.
For more information, email Senate@dickinson.edu.
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Published October 31, 2014