Sports
Ready to roll
Gay Games vet focuses on bowling this time for practical reasons
Jeremy Glasser with the Gold Medal he won at the last Gay Games in 2010. He brought it and his bowling pin for a quick photo shoot this week at Night Out at the Kastles. (Washington Blade photo by Kevin Majoros)
When Jeremy Glasser went to his first Gay Games in Sydney, Australia in 2002, he competed in both bowling and tennis. Considering both sports run the entire week of the Games, it was a lofty undertaking. Added to that challenge was the issue of dragging his bowling ball and tennis racket half way around the world.
Next month, Glasser will compete in his third Gay Games in Cleveland, his first on American soil, and will limit himself to one sport.
“For Cleveland, I chose to compete in bowling because I can just throw my bowling ball in the trunk of my car and drive there,” Glasser says. “For Paris in 2018, I will probably choose tennis since it will be easier to transport my racket.”
Another reason for choosing bowling in Cleveland is that he wants to defend his gold medal in team bowling that was won in the 2010 Cologne Gay Games.
Growing up in Dayton, Ohio, Glasser played the obligatory little kids sports such as T-ball and soccer. In junior high, he coached volleyball but most of his focus was on academics.
After moving to Washington, where he works as a paralegal and is an alumni of George Mason University, Glasser and his partner at the time were looking for something to do outside of the bar scene. They joined an LBGT bowling league in 1996 and Glasser has continued to bowl with the Capital Area Rainbowlers Association (CARA).
The bowling led to a season with the Chesapeake and Potomac Softball League and then the Capital Tennis Association. Glasser is currently a member of both CARA and the Association.
“I bowl in a CARA league during the winters and play on the CTA league in the summers,” he says. “Bowling is my social outlet and tennis is my exercise.”
At the Gay Games next month, Glasser will compete in the singles, doubles and team events in bowling. He recently used the Liberty Bell bowling tournament in Philadelphia as a tune-up and will continue to practice bowling weekly along with his tennis play leading up to the Games.
Glasser has a few reasons for staying in the sport of bowling for almost two decades.
“I love the social aspect and there are so many nice and friendly people,” he says. “Since you don’t have to be athletic, I feel that bowling is inclusive of everyone. All types of people can bowl.”
Glasser, who is hearing impaired, is active with the International Gay Bowling Organization and serves as national Co-Chair of the Deaf & Disabled Bowlers Advisory Committee. Their goal is to give everyone an opportunity to participate and to foster a sense of belonging at tournaments and events. They also provide ASL interpreters and ensure that all event venues are ADA compliant.
“Another wonderful thing about bowling is that the handicap pin count scoring system allows an average bowler to directly compete with a good bowler,” he says. “Not every sport offers a chance for all to feel equal.”
Now 40, Glasser says that his favorite thing about the Gay Games is the opening ceremonies. Washington, D.C. is generally the last team before the host team to march into the stadium during the parade of athletes.
“Once Team DC comes into the stadium, it is already packed with athletes and fans. The noise level will be incredible and I won’t be able to stop smiling,” Glasser says. “There is a real sense of acceptance and belonging to a greater community.”
He adds laughing, “I mean the Pointer Sisters are going to be there. I’m so excited. Right?”
Sports
Attitude! French ice dancers nail ‘Vogue’ routine
Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry strike a pose in memorable Olympics performance
Madonna’s presence is being felt at the Olympic Games in Italy.
Guillaume Cizeron and his rhythm ice dancing partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry of France performed a flawless skate to Madonna’s “Vogue” and “Rescue Me” on Monday.
The duo scored an impressive 90.18 for their effort, the best score of the night.
“We’ve been working hard the whole season to get over 90, so it was nice to see the score on the screen,” Fournier Beaudry told Olympics.com. “But first of all, just coming out off the ice, we were very happy about what we delivered and the pleasure we had out there. With the energy of the crowd, it was really amazing.”
Watch the routine on YouTube here.
Italy
Olympics Pride House ‘really important for the community’
Italy lags behind other European countries in terms of LGBTQ rights
The four Italian advocacy groups behind the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics’ Pride House hope to use the games to highlight the lack of LGBTQ rights in their country.
Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano organized the Pride House that is located in Milan’s MEET Digital Culture Center. The Washington Blade on Feb. 5 interviewed Pride House Project Manager Joseph Naklé.
Naklé in 2020 founded Peacox Basket Milano, Italy’s only LGBTQ basketball team. He also carried the Olympic torch through Milan shortly before he spoke with the Blade. (“Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie last month participated in the torch relay in Feltre, a town in Italy’s Veneto region.)
Naklé said the promotion of LGBTQ rights in Italy is “actually our main objective.”
ILGA-Europe in its Rainbow Map 2025 notes same-sex couples lack full marriage rights in Italy, and the country’s hate crimes law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. Italy does ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, but the country’s nondiscrimination laws do not include gender identity.
ILGA-Europe has made the following recommendations “in order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Italy.”
• Marriage equality for same-sex couples
• Depathologization of trans identities
• Automatic co-parent recognition available for all couples
“We are not really known to be the most openly LGBT-friendly country,” Naklé told the Blade. “That’s why it (Pride House) was really important for the community.”
“We want to use the Olympic games — because there is a big media attention — and we want to use this media attention to raise the voice,” he added.
Naklé noted Pride House will host “talks and roundtables every night” during the games that will focus on a variety of topics that include transgender and nonbinary people in sports and AI. Another will focus on what Naklé described to the Blade as “the importance of political movements now to fight for our rights, especially in places such as Italy or the U.S. where we are going backwards, and not forwards.”
Seven LGBTQ Olympians — Italian swimmer Alex Di Giorgio, Canadian ice dancers Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver, Canadian figure skater Eric Radford, Spanish figure skater Javier Raya, Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson, and Irish field hockey and cricket player Nikki Symmons — are scheduled to participate in Pride House’s Out and Proud event on Feb. 14.
Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood representatives are expected to speak at Pride House on Feb. 21.
The event will include a screening of Mariano Furlani’s documentary about Pride House and LGBTQ inclusion in sports. The MiX International LGBTQ+ Film and Queer Culture Festival will screen later this year in Milan. Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood is also planning to show the film during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Naklé also noted Pride House has launched an initiative that allows LGBTQ sports teams to partner with teams whose members are either migrants from African and Islamic countries or people with disabilities.
“The objective is to show that sports is the bridge between these communities,” he said.
Bisexual US skier wins gold
Naklé spoke with the Blade a day before the games opened. The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will close on Feb. 22.
More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are competing in the games.
Breezy Johnson, an American alpine skier who identifies as bisexual, on Sunday won a gold medal in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, on the same day helped the U.S. win a gold medal in team figure skating.
Glenn said she received threats on social media after she told reporters during a pre-Olympics press conference that LGBTQ Americans are having a “hard time” with the Trump-Vance administration in the White House. The Associated Press notes Glenn wore a Pride pin on her jacket during Sunday’s medal ceremony.
“I was disappointed because I’ve never had so many people wish me harm before, just for being me and speaking about being decent — human rights and decency,” said Glenn, according to the AP. “So that was really disappointing, and I do think it kind of lowered that excitement for this.”
Puerto Rico
Bad Bunny shares Super Bowl stage with Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga
Puerto Rican activist celebrates half time show
Bad Bunny on Sunday shared the stage with Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl halftime show in Santa Clara, Calif.
Martin came out as gay in 2010. Gaga, who headlined the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, is bisexual. Bad Bunny has championed LGBTQ rights in his native Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
“Not only was a sophisticated political statement, but it was a celebration of who we are as Puerto Ricans,” Pedro Julio Serrano, president of the LGBTQ+ Federation of Puerto Rico, told the Washington Blade on Monday. “That includes us as LGBTQ+ people by including a ground-breaking superstar and legend, Ricky Martin singing an anti-colonial anthem and showcasing Young Miko, an up-and-coming star at La Casita. And, of course, having queer icon Lady Gaga sing salsa was the cherry on the top.”
La Casita is a house that Bad Bunny included in his residency in San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, last year. He recreated it during the halftime show.
“His performance brought us together as Puerto Ricans, as Latin Americans, as Americans (from the Americas) and as human beings,” said Serrano. “He embraced his own words by showcasing, through his performance, that the ‘only thing more powerful than hate is love.’”
LGBTQ activists mourn the Rev. Jesse Jackson
Trump falsely links trans people to terrorism
Fellow lawmakers praise Adam Ebbin after Va. Senate farewell address
LGBTQ groups question US health agreements with African countries
European Parliament resolution backs ‘full recognition of trans women as women’
FOIA lawsuit filed against State Department for PEPFAR records
Trans sports bans rooted in eugenics
Pride flag raised at Stonewall after National Park Service took it down
Trans students not included in new India University Grants Commission equity rules
Calendar: February 13-19
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State Department5 days agoFOIA lawsuit filed against State Department for PEPFAR records
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Opinions5 days ago
Trans sports bans rooted in eugenics
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New York5 days ago
Pride flag raised at Stonewall after National Park Service took it down
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India5 days ago
Trans students not included in new India University Grants Commission equity rules
