Sports
LGBT sports leagues thriving in N.C. after HB2
Businesses offer support as protest against discriminatory law
Last August, the Washington Blade reported on the successful launch of Stonewall Sports franchises in two small cities in North Carolina. Their success, despite having small populations, was a result of good leadership and community support.
Earlier this year, North Carolina passed a law known as HB2 that strikes down local LGBT anti-discrimination laws. North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory has repeatedly defended the law, which is being challenged in court.
The effects are wide-ranging and include banning transgender people from accessing restrooms and other facilities consistent with their gender identity and blocking local governments from protecting LGBT people against discrimination in a variety of areas.
The economic fallout has included musicians cancelling concerts and the NBA pulling its All-Star game from the state. The economic impact of all of this has been estimated at well over $100 million, according to experts.
The Blade revisited the cities of Wilmington and Greensboro along with two larger cities, Raleigh and Charlotte, to discover the impact of what is referred to by all of the teams as āHate Bill 2.ā
Stonewall Raleigh launched in 2013 and has exploded into a multi-sport giant with 1,000 athletes. It is offering leagues in kickball, dodgeball, volleyball, bowling and flag football along with a running club.
āAll you really feel here is the backlash against the bill,ā says Raleigh Commissioner Jonathan Melton. āPeople actually became kinder and it spurred more support for the LGBT community.ā
Melton, who plays in five of the leagues, says that when you walk down the street in Raleigh, you see signs in almost every window opposing the bill. A favorite among the players is one that says āEveryone welcome except Pat McCrory.ā
The Raleigh leagues are supported mainly by straight bars and restaurants and their support has increased and included fundraisers and vigils for the Orlando shooting victims.
āWe live in a more progressive bubble here in Raleigh,ā Melton says. āSeveral of the bars here changed to gender-neutral bathrooms after HB2.ā
Stonewall Charlotte began in 2014 and is now offering kickball, dodgeball, bowling and volleyball to close to 800 athletes. There has been an elected official such as the mayor or city council members at every event where they have had a presence.
āThis is a divided state because we are in the heart of the Bible Belt,ā says Charlotte Commissioner Jason Boone. āSome people are going to stick to their religion and not ride the social wave. HB2 has been a constant weight hanging over North Carolina.ā
Most of the sponsors in Charlotte are LGBT themed and there has been an uptick from organizations looking to partner with Stonewall on community events.
They have recently been involved in a tampon drive for womenās shelters and have created Stonewall meet-ups for things such as yoga, fitness boot camps, self-defense and flower arranging.
āWe want to use our structure and framework to create events that give back to our community,ā Boone says. āSometimes it is as simple as just making a connection.ā
When Stonewall Greensboro kicked off in 2014 it struggled with recruiting new players and the teams were small. What they didnāt struggle with was sponsorship and support from the local community.
āNot too much has changed after HB2,ā says Greensboro commissioner, Will Fisher. āWe have been able to hold a few anti-HB2 fundraising events with proceeds going to local LGBT organizations.ā
Now at 148 players in their kickball league, Stonewall Greensboro has been interested in adding volleyball but is still vying for space in the area and facing high costs.
āWe had some really nice silent auction things happen recently as local businesses stepped up their support,ā Fisher says. āI really wanted them to flex their guns for us and am so happy that they came through.ā
The smallest North Carolina city to host a Stonewall league, Stonewall Wilmington, is receiving donations from businesses just to spite HB2. Ironically, the biggest challenge that has faced them this year has been finding someone who has a key to the bathrooms on the city fields.
Created in 2015, Wilmington has 260 players in kickball and volleyball though the numbers fluctuate due to the tourist nature of the town.
āWhen I reach out to businesses for sponsorship they tend to cite HB2 as a reason for their donation or why they want to help the community,ā says Wilmington Commissioner Frank Wolfgram.
Receiving more monetary sponsorships in the face of HB2 is one thing, but one organization actually changed its policy in a show of support.
āThe volleyball facility that is hosting our league, Captān Billās has waived their standard requirement that all teams be co-ed,ā Wolfgram says. āThey didnāt want to discriminate against the LGBT community.ā
Sports
Brittney Griner, wife expecting first child
WNBA star released from Russian gulag in December 2022
One year after returning to the WNBA after her release from a Russian gulag and declaring, āIām never playing overseas again,ā Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner and her wife announced they have something even bigger coming up this summer.
Cherelle, 31, and Brittney, 33, are expecting their first child in July. The couple shared the news with their 715,000 followers on Instagram.
āCanāt believe weāre less than three months away from meeting our favorite human being,ā the caption read, with the hashtag, #BabyGrinerComingSoon and #July2024.
Griner returned to the U.S. in December 2022 in a prisoner swap, more than nine months after being arrested in Moscow for possession of vape cartridges containing prescription cannabis.
In April 2023, at her first news conference following her release, the two-time Olympic gold medalist made only one exception to her vow to never play overseas again: To return to the Summer Olympic Games, which will be played in Paris starting in July, the same month āBaby Grinerā is due. āThe only time I would want to would be to represent the USA,ā she said last year.
Given that the unrestricted free agent is on the roster of both Team USA and her WNBA team, itās not immediately clear where Griner will be when their first child arrives.
The Griners purchased their āforever homeā in Phoenix just last year.
āPhoenix is home,ā Griner said at the Mercuryās end-of-season media day, according toĀ ESPN. āMe and my wife literally just got a place. This is it.ā
As the Los Angeles Blade reported last December, Griner is working with Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts ā like Griner, a married lesbian ā on an ESPN television documentary as well as a television series for ABC about her life story. Cherelle is executive producer of these projects.
Next month, Grinerās tell-all memoir of her Russian incarceration will be published by Penguin Random House. Itās titled “Coming Home” and the hardcover hits bookstores on May 7.
Sports
Applause and criticism for Staley’s trans-inclusive stance
South Carolina Gamecocks womenās coach made comments on Sunday
If not for a conservative transphobic blogger, this moment should be a celebration of NCAA womenās basketball coach Dawn Staley and the women of the South Carolina Gamecocks.
On Sunday, they concluded their undefeated season with a decisive win and a championship title. But when Staley faced reporters before that big game, Outkickās Dan Zakheske asked her an irrelevant, clickbait question about transgender women in sports, referring to them as ābiological males.ā
Staley could have ignored the question, or stated she had no opinion, but instead the legendary coach offered a crystal clear endorsement of trans women competing in womenās sports, something outlawed in her home state of South Carolina for girls in kindergarten through college.
āIām of the opinion,ā said Staley, āIf youāre a woman, you should play. If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play. Thatās my opinion.ā
Zakheske clearly wasnāt satisfied with that declaration of allyship and Staley swiftly cut him off.
āYou want me to go deeper?ā she asked.
āDo you think transgender women should be able to participate,ā he started to say, when the coach stole the ball and took it downtown on a fastbreak. āThatās the question you want to ask? Iāll give you that. Yes. Yes. So, now the barnstormer people are going to flood my timeline and be a distraction to me on one of the biggest days of our game, and Iām okay with that. I really am.ā
Staley is herself a Hall of Fame player a leading voice for diversity.
Reaction to her comments were swift, from LGBTQ rights organizations, athletes and inclusion opponents.Ā
āCoach Staley simply spoke the truth that trans women are women and should play if they want,ā said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, in a post on Instagram. āAll of us can take a page from Coach Staleyās playbook as a sports leader and as a person of high integrity guided by faith, compassion and common sense.ā
A White House pool reporter revealed President Joe Biden called Staley Sunday evening to congratulate her and the Gamecocks on their championship win. But itās not clear if she and the president, an outspoken supporter of trans rights, discussed her remarks on trans athletes.Ā
A number of Black leaders in the LGBTQ movement applauded Staley for taking a stand.Ā
āCoach Staley has always been a trailblazer, but sheās also shown that true leadership is about advancing justice and equality for everyone,ā said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson. āBy expressing her full-throated support for transgender athletesā inclusion in sports, sheās sending an important message ā our shared humanity matters.
āCoach Staley showed courage and vulnerability, in choosing to answer the question and make a powerful statement of support for trans people on one of the biggest days and biggest stages in sports history,ā said Kierra Johnson, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, in a statement. āNot only does that make her a leader we can all aspire to like, it makes her a class act. She has etched her legacy in the history books with her play, her coaching, her heart and her smarts.ā
In congratulating Staley on her championship title victory, Dr. David J. Johns, the CEO and executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, also commended her for āher unwavering advocacy and support for transgender people in sports.ā
āIn a time when transgender athetes face unjust scrutiny, discrimination and exclusion from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, her courage to speak truth to power and in support of inclusion and fairness sets a powerful example for us all, and is a testament to her integrity and compassion.ā
The NBJC leader was referring to Mondayās announcement by the NAIA, the governing body of athletic programs at small colleges nationwide, voting 20-0 to essentially ban trans women from competing with other women beginning Aug. 1, as ESPN reported.
āIt is a shocking and devastating development that the NAIA, an organization that has done so much to open doors, is now slamming those doors shut on transgender athletes,ā said Sasha Buchert, Lambda Legalās senior attorney and director of the organizationās nonbinary and trans rights project.Ā
āInstead of standing up in support of transgender young people, the NAIA has simply turned its back on them ā permanently depriving them of the benefits of competition. Would that they had the courage of victorious University of South Carolina womenās basketball coach Dawn Staley, who didnāt miss a beat in clarifying that transgender women should be able to play.ā
However, praise for Staleyās stance was not universal.
Riley Gaines, failed former college swimmer and paid shill for the anti-inclusion organization, Independent Womenās Forum, called Staley āentirely incompetent or a sell-outā on Fox News. āPersonally, I donāt think she believes what she said.ā
Gaines has turned her fifth-place tie with out trans NCAA champion Lia Thomas into a career as a crusader against inclusion and a former advisor to the presidential campaign of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Val Whiting, a former Stanford University and professional womenās basketball player, tweeted her strong disagreement with Staley. āA lot of my basketball sisters feel differently but trans women do not belong in womenās sports. Itās not fair nor safe for biological women. There has to be another solution for trans women to be able to compete athletically besides having them compete against biological women.ā
A lot of my basketball sisters feel differently but trans women do not belong in womenās sports. Itās not fair nor safe for biological women. There has to be another solution for trans women to be able to compete athletically besides having them compete against biological women.
— Val Whiting (@iamcoachval) April 7, 2024
Zaksheskeās Outkick colleague, anti-trans pundit David Hookstead, also went all-in with a transphobic post.
āDawn Staley says she supports men who identify as women competing against real women in sports. Her view could literally destroy womenās basketball forever. Why wonāt more people stand up for women?ā
Dawn Staley says she supports men who identify as women competing against real women in sports.
— David Hookstead (@dhookstead) April 6, 2024
Her view could literally destroy womenās basketball forever.
Why wonāt more people stand up for women? pic.twitter.com/2A59KTqvHb
Hookstead then boasted that Staley blocked his account.
Republican South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace retweeted Zaksheskeās account of his interaction with Staley, calling her support of trans athletes āabsolute lunacy.ā That in turn won praise from Caitlyn Jenner, who retweeted Whiting and posted her thanks to Mace, along with this comment: āThere is nothing complicated about this issue!āĀ
What is complicated is that Jenner has never explained why she has competed with cisgender women in golf ever since her transition almost a decade ago.
Youāre a hypocrite. pic.twitter.com/42DKwA9jmF
— Art Candee šæš„¤ (@ArtCandee) April 7, 2024
Caitlyn Jenner flew from Malibu to New York this week to join her fellow Republicans in their nationwide quest to keep transgender girls and women from competing in sports with other women.
āLetās stop it now while we can,ā said the Olympic gold medalist, at a news conference carried live by Fox News Channel.
Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman organized the event so that Jenner could speak in support of his February executive order banning trans athletes at more than 100 county-owned facilities.
āTrans women are competing against women, taking valuable opportunities for the long-protected class under Title IX and causing physical harm,ā said Jenner without providing supportive evidence of her claim. Jenner said the ban would defeat āthe woke agenda.ā
Her comments drew praise from former NCAA swimmer and paid shill Riley Gaines, who represents the Independent Womenās Forum and has also worked with the failed presidential campaign of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on his anti-trans athlete platform.
We stand with Executive Blakeman as he faces shameful retaliation from @TishJames for merely protecting sports on the basis of sex
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) March 18, 2024
Thanks to you both, @Caitlyn_Jenner @NassauExec !!šš¼ https://t.co/vAsWfayI7l
āIf the left wants to fight this battle on this hill, itās a losing battle,ā said Jenner. āWe will win the battle.ā She claimed she spoke on behalf of women and girls, contradicting her past statements in support of trans girls competing according to their gender identity and despite the fact she herself still competes in womenās sports.
Shortly after the ban was announced last month, New York State Attorney General Letitia James and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, both Democrats, denounced it and accused Blakeman of ābullying trans kids.ā
James called the order ātransphobic and deeply dangerous,ā and argued that it violates the stateās anti-discrimination laws. The state attorney general challenged it in court March 1 with a ācease and desist letter,ā demanding that Blakeman rescind the order, saying it subjects womenās and girlsā sports teams to āinvasive questioning.ā
As the Los Angeles Blade reported, Blakeman’s legal team countered with its own lawsuit on March 5, claiming her cease and desist letter violates the 14th Amendmentās equal protection clause.
āNot only was the executive order legal, but we had an obligation to defend it,ā Blakeman said Monday.
The order has also been challenged by the New York Civil Liberties Union, which filed suit last week on behalf of a womenās roller derby league based in Nassau County that welcomes trans women and would be barred from using the countyās facilities by Blakemanās executive order.
Just days before the Long Island news conference, Jenner joined Olympian Sharron Davies, who also campaigns against trans inclusion in sports, for an conversation with a British newspaper, the Telegraph, which has been outspoken against trans inclusion.Ā
They recalled that in their day, tests to determine sex were mandatory in order to compete, and Jenner said she has been āpushingā for sex tests to return to sports, decades after sports organizations around the world abandoned the practice because they were unreliable. āIf they continue down this road, it will be pretty much the end of womenās sport as we know it.ā
āI can still hit a golf ball 280 yards,ā Jenner continued, not mentioning she plays from the ladiesā tee. She did however opine about not being āa real woman,ā acknowledging that many trans women disagree with her view.
āThey keep saying, āOh, Iām a real woman, Iām a real woman,ā and Iām going, āNo, youāre not,āā said Jenner. āI will use your preferred pronouns, I will treat you as a female, you can run and dress and do whatever you want, I have nothing against that, itās fine, but biologically youāre still male.ā
She added: āāLet me explain ā I am biologically male, OK? Iām XY. Thereās nothing I can do to change that. If you believe in gender dysphoria, and I think most people do realize itās not a disease, itās a mental condition, just like some people are left-handed and some people are right-handed, itās kind of the way youāre born and Iāve dealt with it my entire life.ā
āI consider myself a trans person, I am still genetically male, I changed all of my ID right down to my birth certificate so technically yes, I am female, but on the other hand I know Iām not.ā