Members of the LGBT community and allies recently gathered at the William Way LGBT Community Center ballroom to learn more about Braeden Lange, a 12-year-old gay lacrosse player, and how his coming-out story inspired a movement.
The Nov. 6 event featured a screening of a segment on ESPN’s SportsCenter. The piece detailed how Lange came out to his parents on Feb. 9, dealt with cyber-bullying, and ultimately realized he wasn’t alone after viewing a 2005 ESPN piece on Andrew Goldstein, another gay lacrosse player.
Lange’s father, Scott, reached out to Goldstein about his son and Goldstein sent Lange a video of encouragement along with his helmet from when he played with the Long Island Lizards.
“When I was his age, I didn’t have a role model, and to know that this kid can have one, it makes all of the tough years I went through worth it,” Goldstein said.
Goldstein also encouraged other gay lacrosse players to send Lange some videos. However, when he contacted Nick Welton, a gay lacrosse coach from Seattle, a bigger idea became reality.
On May 24, months after Lange came out, Goldstein and Welton organized the inaugural Courage Game in honor of Lange.
“The purpose of the Courage Game is to encourage and support gay youth, rebuke bullying, and promote wider education and awareness for LGBT equality,” the event’s website states.
Before the screening of the ESPN piece, Lange participated in a Q&A panel moderated by Goldstein. Other members of the panel included ESPN’s Greg Garber, who reported on both Lange’s recent story and the 2005 piece on Goldstein; Lange’s parents, Scott and Mandy; and Welton.
Among the stories shared on the panel was Lange’s parents’ reaction to him coming out. Mandy Lange said she was initially nervous about how others were going to react but ended up being proud of her son’s bravery.
“This was the proudest I’ve ever been as a parent — to have a son so brave and so secure that he felt he could come out and do this,” she said.
However, Scott Lange, who always had a deep appreciation for lacrosse with his own father, initially took Braeden’s coming-out as what he references as “a terrible first reaction.”
“I thought, I guess Braeden can’t play lacrosse anymore,” Scott said. “I immediately thought he couldn’t do all of these things anymore and it took me a day or so to wrap my head around the fact that of course he can. Of course he can still do all of these things.”
The panel also discussed messages the Lange family received from around the world. This included a message from a 53-year-old father who stopped talking to his son after he came out. However, after viewing the ESPN piece on Lange, he realized his son never chose his sexuality. He thanked the Lange family for helping him correct a big wrong.
The next day, Scott Lange received a message from the son.
“That really struck close to home for me,” Scott said. “There was this guy who watched [the ESPN piece and realized] ‘I really screwed up.’”
Garber, who said there is “a lot of nonsense on sports television,” noted the significance of Lange’s story after he learned of its influence on that father and son.
“How many kids is Braeden going to talk off the ledge?” Garber said. “He’s already done it a number of times. That’s all you can hope for.”
When audience members asked questions, the next Courage Game became a topic of conversation. Welton said he anticipated including more sports and teams, including a women’s team.
“I don’t see it ending with lacrosse,” he said. “There are many channels of interest — many sports and many industries outside of sports.”
Meanwhile, Mandy Lange is putting together the Courage Home, a homeless shelter for LGBT youth in Philadelphia. She would like to partner with The Attic Youth Center and expand to provide more opportunities for the organization.
“If I’ve learned anything, it’s that [homeless LGBT youth] are resilient, amazing people who’ve just been dealt a shitty hand and if there’s anything that we can do about that, it will be done,” she said. “So stay tuned.”
Braeden Lange said the most rewarding aspect of receiving this attention wasn’t necessarily getting a lacrosse game named in his honor. Instead, he appreciates the chance to help others.
“There are other people out there who didn’t get a Courage Game or didn’t get the same opportunity I did and I just feel really bad for them,” Lange said. “I just want to help spread the word and maybe one day change the world so that people don’t really have to care about their sexuality.”