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Meet D.C.’s biggest gay sports fans

Local LGBT folks take joy eschewing stereotypes, following favorite teams

Published

7 years ago

on

gay sports fans, gay news, Washington Blade

From left are Abby Holtz, Redskins linebacker Houston Bates and Sami Holtz. (Photo courtesy Holtz)

D.C. is known for its rabid fans whether they’re hoping for a Washington Redskins win, attending a Caps match or watching players round the bases at a Nationals game. Meet four of D.C. sports’ biggest gay supporters who bleed their team colors with pride.

Sami Holtz

Team: Washington Redskins.

Sami Holtz, an elementary physical education teacher hailing from Silver Spring, Md., has been a huge Redskins fan for years. Her wife, Abby, is more of a newcomer. She found herself engulfed in a world of burgundy and gold once the couple started dating.

“I didn’t marry you as much as I married the Redskins,” Abby jokes after listening to Sami excitedly recount tales of games.

And Sami has plenty.

One of her favorite memories is when she and her best friend went to a game right after free safety Sean Taylor’s murder in 2007. Sami says her ticket happened to have Taylor’s picture as the featured player. It’s a memento she still has to this day.

She recalls the multiple times she and her best friend, who is straight, attended Redskins games when the team was on a continuous losing streak. The pair still went to support and found themselves upgraded to club-level seats for half the games because the stadium was empty. But it only made the experience more fun for them both.

“Diehard Redskins fans are diehard Redskins fans. Whether they suck or they’re awesome, we don’t care. We go anyway,” Sami says.

Sami, Abby and Sami’s best friend are all members of Women of Washington Redskins, an organization for female fans. Through the organization, the trio have gone to the practice facility to run with the players. They were also given the opportunity to visit training camp for the day.

Sami and Abby aren’t limited to the Redskins. They enjoy attending games for D.C.’s women’s soccer team Washington Spirit as well. Sami says she loves watching U.S. women’s soccer games because she loves the sport but also because a couple players are LGBT. The couple also has been known to attend D.C. United games. For Sami, every D.C. game crackles with energy.

“I’ve been to D.C. United games and they make the whole stadium shake. D.C. area teams have such a rich history of fandom,” Sami says.

Jim Ensor

From left are Julian Bushcer, Jim Ensor and Travis Worra. (Photo courtesy Ensor)

Team: D.C. United

Jim Ensor’s allegiance to D.C. United shouldn’t come as a surprise as he’s been playing soccer since he was a child and played on his college team.

Playing a sport as a gay man was a difficult feat for Ensor in those early years. He first told his family, which he describes as “a big, loving family but they were Catholic.” His family took it well and armed with hope from their acceptance, Ensor told his college coach.

“I was having difficulty and he kept saying, ‘What is it? What are you struggling with?’ So when I told him, he was OK with it and supportive. It explained some of the difficulties I was having focusing. It made me better. I could focus more on the task at hand instead of worrying,” Ensor says.

Ensor lives in Arlington, Va., with his fiancé, whom Ensor says isn’t as into sports. His family is also planning on attending the wedding.

And his love for soccer continued.

He became a D.C. United fan after attending one game with friends, a playoff match when they first won the MLS Cup in 1996.

Ensor’s made peace with his sexuality-related struggles in sports and hopes other athletes can find the same courage.

“Athletes put too much pressure on themselves and spend too much time assuming the world will reject them. But you want to be part of the team, you want to participate and compete,” Ensor says.

Randy Meck

Randy Meck (in front/middle with sunglasses) at a Hokies Tailgate. (Photo courtesy Meck)

Team: Virginia Tech Hokies.

Randy Meck considers himself a lover of multiple sports teams including the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Cowboys, Cincinnati Reds and the Nationals. But no team won his heart quite like the Virginia Tech Hokies.

Meck, who lives and works in McLean, Va., at the corporate headquarters for Hilton Worldwide, became a Hokies fan while a student at Virginia Tech. Years later, he is now a season ticket holder.

He attends most home games and even tries to catch a couple road games when he can. It’s also a sure thing to spot Meck at a Caps or Nationals game at some point during the season. When he’s not physically at a game, he’s transporting himself there via TV screen.

Being such a big sports fan made coming out to his family and friends a bit confusing for them.

“Most of them were like, ‘Wait a minute — you’re a big sports fan, you can’t be gay,’” Meck says. “I think for them it helped break down some of the gay stereotypes. There’s plenty of straight men who are not into sports. It doesn’t matter whether you’re gay or straight, it’s just what you’re into. I have plenty of gay friends in the D.C. area who go to games.”

Meck believes that the future of the gay community and sports will be a positive one as more athletes become brave enough to come out.

“Thirty, 40 years ago there were very few black athletes in pro sports and we know that has changed,” Meck says. “As athletes come out of the closet earlier and earlier … I can’t fathom coming out of the closet in high school. These days kids are coming out in fifth, sixth, seventh grades. By the time they get to high school, if they’re an athletic kid, they are now a gay athlete. And if they continue those guys are going to be the pros.”

He expects more current pro athletes to start coming out because of the changing society. He cites Michael Sam as an example and says his unsuccessful NFL run was due to skill level, not coming out.

“There were questions whether or not he would be a good pro player even before he came out of the closet,” Meck says. “If he was one of those guys who was highly ranked coming out of college and going into the pros, he would still be playing in the NFL and I don’t think it’d be a problem at all.”

Mario Villafranca

Mario Villafranca, second from left. (Photo courtesy Villafranca)

Team: Washington Capitals.

Mario Villafranca grew up watching college football games thanks to his father and brothers. He attended the University of Texas and became a huge supporter of its football team. He also would attend Texas Stars games, a minor league hockey team located in Austin.

After moving to D.C., Villafranca dipped his toe into the NHL hockey waters when he attended his first Caps game. He’s been a fan ever since.

Villafranca is proud that the NHL is a supporter of the LGBT community and has a gay ally for every team. Goaltender Braden Holtby is the Caps’ appointed gay ally.

“Seeing Holtby at the gay Pride parade as a straight athlete, sends a great message to the D.C. community and across the country,” Villafranca says. “But there’s still some locker room stereotypes that don’t upset the players as it much as it bothers some of the mainstream male typical fans of sports.”

His husband Michael isn’t as big a sports fan but now and then he will root along for Texas football.

As for if the gay community is active enough in the D.C. sports scene, Villafranca says don’t let appearances fool you. He sees plenty of gay diversity at games from bears to twinks.

“I’m part of the bear community. I know men who are joyously flamboyant and they love playing on the D.C. sports teams and follow right along beside me,” Villafranca says.

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Sports

Brittney Griner, wife expecting first child

WNBA star released from Russian gulag in December 2022

Published

1 week ago

on

April 16, 2024

By

Cherelle and Brittney Griner are expecting their first child in July. The couple shared the news on Instagram. (Photo courtesy of Brittney Griner's Instagram page)

One year after returning to the WNBA after her release from a Russian gulag and declaring, “I’m never playing overseas again,” 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. 

“Can’t believe we’re less than three months away from meeting our favorite human being,” 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 “Baby Griner” is due. “The only time I would want to would be to represent the USA,” she said last year. 

Given that the unrestricted free agent is on the roster of both Team USA and her WNBA team, it’s not immediately clear where Griner will be when their first child arrives. 

The Griners purchased their “forever home” in Phoenix just last year.

“Phoenix is home,” Griner said at the Mercury’s end-of-season media day, according to ESPN. “Me and my wife literally just got a place. This is it.”

As the Los Angeles Blade reported last December, Griner is working with Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts — like Griner, a married lesbian — 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, Griner’s tell-all memoir of her Russian incarceration will be published by Penguin Random House. It’s titled “Coming Home” and the hardcover hits bookstores on May 7.

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Sports

Applause and criticism for Staley’s trans-inclusive stance

South Carolina Gamecocks women’s coach made comments on Sunday

Published

2 weeks ago

on

April 9, 2024

By

South Carolina Gamecocks women's basketball head coach Dawn Staley. (NBC News Today YouTube screenshot)

If not for a conservative transphobic blogger, this moment should be a celebration of NCAA women’s 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, Outkick’s Dan Zakheske asked her an irrelevant, clickbait question about transgender women in sports, referring to them as “biological males.” 

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 women’s sports, something outlawed in her home state of South Carolina for girls in kindergarten through college. 

“I’m of the opinion,” said Staley, “If you’re 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. That’s my opinion.”

Zakheske clearly wasn’t satisfied with that declaration of allyship and Staley swiftly cut him off. 

“You want me to go deeper?” she asked. 

“Do you think transgender women should be able to participate,” he started to say, when the coach stole the ball and took it downtown on a fastbreak. “That’s the question you want to ask? I’ll 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 I’m okay with that. I really am.” 

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. 

“Coach Staley simply spoke the truth that trans women are women and should play if they want,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, in a post on Instagram. “All of us can take a page from Coach Staley’s playbook as a sports leader and as a person of high integrity guided by faith, compassion and common sense.” 

A White House pool reporter revealed President Joe Biden called Staley Sunday evening to congratulate her and the Gamecocks on their championship win. But it’s not clear if she and the president, an outspoken supporter of trans rights, discussed her remarks on trans athletes. 

A number of Black leaders in the LGBTQ movement applauded Staley for taking a stand. 

“Coach Staley has always been a trailblazer, but she’s also shown that true leadership is about advancing justice and equality for everyone,” said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson. “By expressing her full-throated support for transgender athletes’ inclusion in sports, she’s sending an important message — our shared humanity matters. 

“Coach 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,” said Kierra Johnson, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, in a statement. “Not 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.”

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 “her unwavering advocacy and support for transgender people in sports.” 

“In 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.”

The NBJC leader was referring to Monday’s 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.

“It 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,” said Sasha Buchert, Lambda Legal’s senior attorney and director of the organization’s nonbinary and trans rights project. 

“Instead of standing up in support of transgender young people, the NAIA has simply turned its back on them — permanently depriving them of the benefits of competition. Would that they had the courage of victorious University of South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley, who didn’t miss a beat in clarifying that transgender women should be able to play.” 

However, praise for Staley’s stance was not universal. 

Riley Gaines, failed former college swimmer and paid shill for the anti-inclusion organization, Independent Women’s Forum, called Staley “entirely incompetent or a sell-out” on Fox News. “Personally, I don’t think she believes what she said.” 

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 women’s basketball player, tweeted her strong disagreement with Staley. “A lot of my basketball sisters feel differently but trans women do not belong in women’s sports. It’s 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.” 

Zaksheske’s Outkick colleague, anti-trans pundit David Hookstead, also went all-in with a transphobic post. 

“Dawn Staley says she supports men who identify as women competing against real women in sports. Her view could literally destroy women’s basketball forever. Why won’t more people stand up for women?”

Hookstead then boasted that Staley blocked his account. 

Republican South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace retweeted Zaksheske’s account of his interaction with Staley, calling her support of trans athletes “absolute lunacy.” That in turn won praise from Caitlyn Jenner, who retweeted Whiting and posted her thanks to Mace, along with this comment: “There is nothing complicated about this issue!” 

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. 

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Sports

Caitlyn Jenner backs NY county transgender athletes ban

‘Let’s stop it now while we can’

Published

1 month ago

on

March 21, 2024

By

Caitlyn Jenner endorses Nassau County's transgender athlete ban during a press conference. (YouTube screenshot)

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. 

“Let’s stop it now while we can,” 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. 

“Trans women are competing against women, taking valuable opportunities for the long-protected class under Title IX and causing physical harm,” said Jenner without providing supportive evidence of her claim. Jenner said the ban would defeat “the woke agenda.” 

Her comments drew praise from former NCAA swimmer and paid shill Riley Gaines, who represents the Independent Women’s Forum and has also worked with the failed presidential campaign of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on his anti-trans athlete platform.

“If the left wants to fight this battle on this hill, it’s a losing battle,” said Jenner. “We will win the battle.” 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 women’s 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 “bullying trans kids.” 

James called the order “transphobic and deeply dangerous,” and argued that it violates the state’s anti-discrimination laws. The state attorney general challenged it in court March 1 with a “cease and desist letter,” demanding that Blakeman rescind the order, saying it subjects women’s and girls’ sports teams to “invasive questioning.”

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 Amendment’s equal protection clause.

“Not only was the executive order legal, but we had an obligation to defend it,” 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 women’s roller derby league based in Nassau County that welcomes trans women and would be barred from using the county’s facilities by Blakeman’s 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. 

They recalled that in their day, tests to determine sex were mandatory in order to compete, and Jenner said she has been “pushing” for sex tests to return to sports, decades after sports organizations around the world abandoned the practice because they were unreliable. “If they continue down this road, it will be pretty much the end of women’s sport as we know it.”

“I can still hit a golf ball 280 yards,” Jenner continued, not mentioning she plays from the ladies’ tee. She did however opine about not being “a real woman,” acknowledging that many trans women disagree with her view. 

“They keep saying, ‘Oh, I’m a real woman, I’m a real woman,’ and I’m going, ‘No, you’re not,’” said Jenner. “I 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, it’s fine, but biologically you’re still male.”

She added: “​Let me explain — I am biologically male, OK? I’m XY. There’s nothing I can do to change that. If you believe in gender dysphoria, and I think most people do realize it’s not a disease, it’s a mental condition, just like some people are left-handed and some people are right-handed, it’s kind of the way you’re born and I’ve dealt with it my entire life.“

“I 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 I’m not.”

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