Courtney Fraser played recreational soccer for years, but after high school things got tougher when she was repeatedly targeted with slurs like “dyke” on the field, with one incident prompting her to leave the field for good.

And she’s far from the only one to experience this. An international study on gay, lesbian and bisexual athletes released over the weekend suggested 84 per cent of gay men and 82 per cent of lesbians who participated in the survey had been subject to similar slurs.

The report, Out on the Fields, summarizes responses from nearly 9,500 gay, lesbian, bisexual and straight participants surveyed in six countries, including Canada, and is the first international and largest study to date on the subject according to its authors.

Although survey results showed Canadians were the most positive about sports accepting lesbians, gays and bisexuals, 81 per cent of Canadian participants reported witnessing or experiencing homophobia in sport.

Three years ago, Fraser was playing soccer in Newmarket, Ont., with her then-girlfriend when the opposing team subjected Fraser’s girlfriend to a string of slurs. After repeatedly asking them to stop, she retaliated, and the referee then handed her a red card. Fraser was most disappointed by the reactions of her teammates, who were good friends.

“Instead of supporting (us), they actually got mad at her for retaliating,” Fraser said.

Teammates hinted Fraser and her partner were being sensitive and taking it too personally, not realizing that this was just an extension of what the pair experienced off the field.

“I didn’t go back to a game after that and neither did she,” Fraser said.

It became clear to her the referee didn’t know how to handle the situation, making her wonder about the kind of training refs and coaches receive.

“I don’t think the referee at the time realized how big of an impact that could have on someone,” said Fraser. “He probably didn’t think I wasn’t going to come back to the sport again.”

Now Fraser works to create awareness around these issues while training inclusion ambassadors, who take the message back to their communities across Ontario through Pride House Toronto, an organization promoting inclusion around the Pan/Parapan American Games. In addition to this imitative, the Canadian Olympic Committee launched One Team late last year, partnering with two prominent anti-homophobia organizations to work towards greater sexual diversity in sport.

But the damage from the type of harassment Fraser experienced can be “profound,” says Sandra Kirby, a Canadian Olympian and one of the seven academics who contributed to the report.

Despite studying the issue of harassment in sport extensively, the results of the survey surprised Kirby.

“I thought that education around the country was improving in this and that physical education in particular was a site you’d be talking about these things,” Kirby said. “Instead we see that it’s one of the places people cite quite frequently where people experience harassment.”

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A common reason cited for gay men and youth not playing team sports was bad experiences in gym class. That was the case for Erik Denison, the Canadian man who spearheaded the project from Australia.

“My (physical education) teacher told me not to come to class anymore because he couldn’t keep me safe,” the 36-year-old said.

As a result, he gave up on team sports in high school, only resuming when he moved to Australia in 2008 and eventually helping organize the 2014 Bingham World Cup held in Sydney, a gay inclusive rugby competition.