Members of the D.C. Strokes Rowing Club with their gold medals from the recent U.S. Rowing Masters National Championships. (Photo by Arend Fish)

As August winds down, many of the LGBT sports leagues in the D.C. area are wrapping up their summer leagues and kicking off their fall leagues. Tournaments are a big part of this time of year and the D.C. teams are always ready to play.

Congratulations to the D.C. Strokes Rowing Club (dcstrokes.org) for bringing home the gold at the U.S. Rowing Masters National Championships in the Men’s Heavyweight B 8+ Final. The championships were held from Aug 9-12 on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass., with about 2,000 athletes rowing for titles. As a team, the Strokes finished an impressive 21^st out of 101 teams.

The D.C. Sentinels (teamdcbasketball.org) basketball team will be sending four teams to the Hurricane Classic tournament in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on October 13-14. About 200 athletes will play in the tournament where three of the Sentinel teams will compete in the B Division and one in the A Division.

Members of the District of Columbia Aquatics Club (swimdcac.org) will be heading to Swarthmore College in Philadelphia on Oct. 13 to compete in the H2OUT swim meet hosted by the Philadelphia Fins Aquatic Club.

The DC Gay Flag Football League (dcgffl.org) has formed two championship teams to represent D.C at Gay Bowl XII in Denver on Sept. 21-23.  The players for the two teams were drafted from the League which has expanded to about 260 players. The Gay Bowl is expected to draw 40 teams with 600 players from across North America.

Players from the Chesapeake and Potomac Softball League (eteamz.com/caps/) will head to Central Park in New York on Sept. 1-2 to compete in the Gotham Softball Classic.

On Oct. 13-14, the CAPS will host the Mid-Atlantic Gay Invitational Classic at Watkins Regional Park and Fairland Regional Park. The tournament will feature Open B, C and D Division competition.

The Federal Triangles Soccer Club (federaltriangles.org) has wrapped up its Summer of Freedom League. Congratulations to the Cobalt team for winning the 2012 league title. On the final night of play there was a drag soccer mini-match. Check out the hilarious video on the Triangles website.

The Triangles will be hosting the Rehoboth Beach Classic XIV this weekend in Rehoboth Beach. The player format is 11 vs. 11 with both men and women competing.

The D.C. Front Runners (dcfrontrunners.org) have announced their fall Race Circuit schedule. Runners must finish six of the 11 posted races and walkers must finish four walk events to qualify for the circuit.

The Capital Tennis Association (capital-tennis.org) will host the Capital Classic XX on Sept. 14-16 at the East Potomac Tennis Center.  Singles and doubles will be contested on both hard and clay courts.

The Lambda Links Golf Club (lambdalinks.org) will host their Day Club Championship on Sept. 15 and 23. They will also host their annual Halloween tournament on October 28.

On Sept. 15, the Federal Triangles Soccer Club, D.C. United and Team D.C. will present the third annual United Night OUT at RFK Stadium as D.C. United takes on the New England Revolution at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be picked up at Nellie’s Sports Bar or online at unitednightout.com.

The LGBT sports community would like to give a special thanks to outdoor gear giant REI (rei.com) for recently coming out in support of same-sex marriage. The company has supported Ski Bums events since 2010 and this was a bold move coming on the heels of the Chick-fil-A firestorm.

CEO Sally Jewell recently published a note to REI’s 11,000 employees pledging the company’s full-hearted support of same-sex marriage. REI is based in the state of Washington where voters will approve or reject same-sex marriage on Referendum 74 on Nov. 6 in the general election.