Athlete Ally Action Awards to Honor Wash U Campus Chapter
October 5, 2021 (New York, NY) — Today, Athlete Ally announced that Washington University in St. Louis’ Athlete Ally Campus Chapter will be honored at the Seventh Annual Athlete Ally Action Awards, with chapter representatives Aliya Schenck and Alana Bojar accepting the award on the chapter’s behalf. The award will be presented by Gotham City FC of the NWSL. Athlete Ally is a nonprofit organization focused on fostering inclusive athletic environments and mobilizing the athletic community to champion LGBTQI+ equality. The awards ceremony, which will also commemorate Athlete Ally’s 10 year anniversary, will be shifting to a virtual format, taking place on October 26th at 7:30pm EST. Additional honorees include Olympic gold medalist and Athlete Ally Ambassador Quinn and the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream.
Washington University’s Athlete Ally Campus Chapter works to champion LGBTQ+ inclusion on campus through programs and activities including educational trainings for campus sport teams, Pride Nights, and by working to expand their school’s transgender athlete inclusion policy. In the past year, chapter members’ activism soared to incredible heights. Current Activism Chair and former Co-President Aliya Schenck and former Co-President Alana Bojar spearheaded a letter from college athletes to the NCAA calling for the institution to move championship events from states with anti-transgender legislation which was signed by over 500 athletes across the country, and profiled by Sports Illustrated.
“All student-athletes should be safe and protected when competing in NCAA championships,” Aliya Schenck and Alana Bojar wrote in the letter. “Your silence on this issue is only allowing more states to pass these bills. We urge you to act now and make a strong statement against these bills, saying that the NCAA will not host championships in states that openly discriminate against LGBTQI+ athletes.”
“Athlete Ally is incredibly proud of the work our Washington University in St. Louis Campus Chapter has done to fight for LGBTQ+ inclusion in athletics,” said Anne Lieberman, Athlete Ally’s Policy and Program Director, who worked closely with Schenck and Bojar on the letter. “College athletes are not just the future of athlete activism — they’re bringing about meaningful change right now. It’s an absolute honor to present Washington University in St. Louis’ Campus Chapter with an Athlete Ally Action Award.”
“On behalf of the Washington University Athlete Ally Chapter, we’re incredibly honored and humbled to receive an Action Award from Athlete Ally,” said Aliya Schenck. “Working with Athlete Ally has given our chapter a platform to fight for trans athletes, and I am immensely proud of the work we’ve done so far. I am excited to see what we can accomplish this year and in the years to come, but more than that, I am thankful that Athlete Ally gave us the tools to create a space where athletes are celebrated for who they are, in and out of sport.”
To learn more or purchase tickets to the Awards, click here.
About Athlete Ally and the Action Awards
Athlete Ally believes sport will change the world when it welcomes and empowers all people. As a leading national nonprofit working at the intersection of sport and LGBTQ equality, Athlete Ally works to end the structural and systemic oppression that isolates, excludes and endangers LGBTQI+ people in sport. We educate individuals and institutions to understand obstacles to inclusion for LGBTQI+ people and how they can build an inclusive culture within their athletic communities. We work to ensure sport governing bodies, teams and leagues adopt policies that reflect the diversity of their constituents. We incubate athlete activism to advance LGBTQI+ equality in and through sport.
The Seventh Annual Athlete Ally Action awards are made possible due to generous support from the National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Soccer, TransPerfect, The Coca-Cola Company, Citi, Dow, Gatorade, RenaissanceRe and the United States Tennis Association (USTA), in addition to individual supporters and other corporate support.