There’s a new student group this semester at Harvard. QUADS–Queer Undergraduate Athletes Do Sports—has been officially approved by the university. According to Harvard senior diver David Pfeifer, one of the group’s five founders, QUADS is now 15-members strong and growing. The first official meeting will be held in March.
“There is still kind of a stigma or ostracization regarding LGBT athletes. That’s the main reason [we] started a club,” Pfeifer told Outsports for in a recent interview, which went on to report:
Pfeifer specializes in the 3-meter springboard, and at his final home meet on Feb. 2, he won the 3-meter springboard with a score that matched his best score this season—359.55 points.
“My mantra for this year has been that I want to go out with a bang,” Pfeifer said. “To see this win as proof that I am taking steps to improve myself even as a second-semester senior, it’s great.”
The 5-foot-7, 175-pound Pfeifer felt positive after winning 3-meter at his last home meet, but he also left the meet excited that he was one of at least five LGBT athletes at the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet on Feb. 2-3.
In addition to Pfeifer, Harvard swimmer Schuyler Bailar and Yale diver Wayne Zhang have previously talked publicly about being LGBT. Pfeifer encouraged Princeton divers Liam Fitzgerald and Charlie Minns, who both identify as gay, to come out publicly in this story.
Creating visibility and a connection among LGBT athletes has been a passion for Pfeifer this school year.
