Sports
Gay games galore
Winter growth means many local Team D.C. leagues at capacity for spring


Team D.C. Fashion Show (Washington Blade photo by Jonathan Ellis)
The LGBT sports community of Washington continued to grow over the winter months. The leagues are all at full capacity and new teams are popping up every few months. Most of the groups are in training for Gay Games 9 to be held in Cleveland/Akron in August. Several of the teams are offering Gay Games scholarships for those in need.
The Team D.C. Fashion Show & Model Search will be held on Saturday at Town with the doors opening at 7 p.m. Clothes will be auctioned off the models to fund the Team D.C. College Scholarship Program which grants awards to local, openly gay student athletes. This year’s show features fashions from Tattee Boy, Mensuas, UnderBriefs, T Christopher New York, Fireboy, Adam & Eve, Skiviez, Body Aware and Universal Gear.
The Team D.C. SportsFest is coming on April 10 at 6 p.m. at Room & Board. This is a great opportunity to meet and greet with members of about 30 LGBT sports teams from the area and enjoy cocktails on the outdoor deck.
Team D.C. will host Night OUT at the Wizards on March 28 as the Wizards take on the Indiana Pacers at the Verizon Center. Tickets are $20 (normally $36 at the box office).
Stonewall Dodgeball kicked off its inaugural season this week with play on Tuesday nights at the Cleveland Elementary School. Registration for the league sold out fast and was capped at 100 players.
Also new in town is TriOut, an LGBT offshoot of the D.C. Triathlon Club. The group will target regular triathlon races along with LGBT-themed events such as Pride Run, Swim for Life and the Gay Games.
The D.C. Sentinels basketball team is wrapping up its third season of the Washington, D.C. Gay Basketball League. On April 5, members will be sending teams to compete in the Coady Roundball Classic in Chicago.
The Capital Area Rainbowlers Association is hosting its Crazy Bowling Tournament, a singles event, on March 8 at the AMF Annandale Lanes in Annandale, Va. On March 29, they will host the CARA Championship Tournament at AMF Centreville Lanes in Centreville, Md.
The D.C. Gay Flag Football League will kick off its eighth season with 20 teams vying for the spring championship title. Registration capped out at 260 players, but you can still sign up for the supplemental draft, which begins after week three.
The Washington Renegades Rugby Football Club began its spring season last week with league play scheduled to run through May 10.
Charm City Volleyball will host the Charm City Invitational 29 on March 29-30 at the Volleyball House in Elkridge, Md. Recreational volleyball is hosted on Wednesday nights and competitive play on Sunday mornings.
The D.C. Strokes Rowing Club is hosting Winter Erg Training through March 13. Their Learn to Row Program begins registration in early March and offers an introduction to the sport of rowing and the opportunity to advance to their Novice Program. The XXI Stonewall Regatta will be held on June 1 on the Anacostia River.
Registration events for the 2014 summer season of the Chesapeake and Potomac Softball League begin this month. The season begins on May 4 and their MAGIC Tournament will be contested on July 5-6.
The spring league of the Capital Tennis Association will run from March to May and the spots filled up quickly. Registration for the summer league will open on April 1 and will run from May to September.
The Federal Triangles Soccer Club with be holding the fifth annual FTSC Women’s Winter Wrap-Up Indoor Cup on March 23 at the Dulles Sportsplex. Registration for the Summer of Freedom League will open in late April.
Season six of Stonewall Bocce will begin on March 20 at Logan Circle. Registration is closed but you can still get on the waiting list.
The North American Gay Volleyball Championships XXXII will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center from May 22-25. The event will be co-hosted by New York’s Gotham Volleyball and Capital City Volleyball.
UltimateOUT Frisbee is offering Frisbee play for members of the LGBT community at all levels including beginners on Saturdays starting in March.
The spring season has also begun for Washington Scandals Rugby. Practices are being held on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Garrison Elementary School.
Stonewall Kickball begins its spring season which runs from March 23 to May 11 at Stead Field on Sundays. The group also offers Thursday night play in conjunction with D.C. Kickball.
Sports
English soccer bans transgender women from women’s teams
British Supreme Court last month ruled legal definition of woman limited to ‘biological women’

The organization that governs English soccer on Thursday announced it will no longer allow transgender women to play on women’s teams.
The British Supreme Court on April 16 ruled the legal definition of a woman is limited to “biological women” and does not include trans women. The Football Association’s announcement, which cites the ruling, notes its new policy will take effect on June 1.
“As the governing body of the national sport, our role is to make football accessible to as many people as possible, operating within the law and international football policy defined by UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) and FIFA,” said the Football Association in a statement that announced the policy change. “Our current policy, which allows transgender women to participate in the women’s game, was based on this principle and supported by expert legal advice.”
“This is a complex subject, and our position has always been that if there was a material change in law, science, or the operation of the policy in grassroots football then we would review it and change it if necessary,” added the Football Association.
The Football Association also acknowledged the new policy “will be difficult for people who simply want to play the game they love in the gender by which they identify.”
“We are contacting the registered transgender women currently playing to explain the changes and how they can continue to stay involved in the game,” it said.
The Football Association told the BBC there were “fewer than 30 transgender women registered among millions of amateur players” and there are “no registered transgender women in the professional game” in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
The Scottish Football Association, which governs soccer in Scotland, is expected to also ban trans women from women’s teams.

FIFA has announced Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup, despite concerns over its human rights record that includes the death penalty for homosexuality.
The Associated Press reported FIFA confirmed the decision on Dec. 18. The AP noted Saudi Arabia is the only country that bid to host the 2034 World Cup.
“This is a historic moment for Saudi Arabia and a dream come true for all our 32 million people who simply love the game,” said Sport Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al- Faisal, who is also president of the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee, in a statement the Saudi Press Agency posted to its website.
Saudi Arabia is among the handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death.
A U.S. intelligence report concluded Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “likely approved” the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018. A federal judge in 2022 dismissed a lawsuit against Prince Mohammed after the Biden-Harris administration said he was immune to the lawsuit because he is the country’s prime minister.
Human rights activists have also criticized the Saudi government over the treatment of women, migrant workers, and other groups in the country.
“No one should be surprised by this,” Cyd Zeigler, Jr., co-founder of Outsports.com, an LGBTQ sports website, told the Washington Blade in an email after FIFA confirmed Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup. “FIFA, the International Olympic Committee, and many other world governing bodies routinely turn to authoritarian countries with terrible human-rights records to host major sporting events. There are simply few other countries willing to spend the billions of dollars it takes to build the needed infrastructure.”
Peter Tatchell, a long-time LGBTQ activist from the U.K. who is director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, in a statement described FIFA’s decision as “a betrayal of the values that football should stand for: Inclusivity, fairness, and respect for human rights.”
“This is not about football; it’s about sportswashing,” said Tatchell. “The Saudi regime is using the World Cup to launder its international image and distract from its brutal abuses. By granting them this platform, FIFA is complicit in whitewashing their crimes.”
Qatar, which borders Saudi Arabia, hosted the 2022 World Cup.
Consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in Qatar.
“Saudi Arabia was the only country to bid for the 2034 FIFA World Cup,” said Zeigler. “So, until FIFA, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and other governing bodies ban major human-rights violators from hosting, we’ll continue to see events like this in Saudi Arabia, China, Qatar, and other countries with terrible LGBTQ rights issues.”
The Blade has reached out to FIFA and the Saudi government for comment.
Sports
Controversy grows over member of Calif. university’s women’s volleyball team
Coach suspended, NCAA sued, more rivals forfeit

San Jose State University’s women volleyball team has collected yet another W by forfeit — its seventh so far this season — as controversy swirls around one player on its roster. She’s one of the seniors, and she has been dragged in the media by her own co-captain, who outed her as transgender.
The Washington Blade is not naming this student athlete since neither she nor the school have confirmed or even commented on her gender identity.
SJSU visited San Diego last weekend for a match before the Aztecs’ biggest home crowd of the season — including protesters waving “Save Women’s Sports” banners and booing one player on the Spartans team in particular: The woman who is reported to be trans.
Security was tight, with metal detectors and extra guards and police officers present. Video posted to YouTube by a right-wing sports media site — which names the player — shows an angry fan arguing with security about his First Amendment rights.
Video recorded during Nov. 9’s game shows a player for San Diego was injured following a spike by the player rumored to be trans, and had to be helped off the court. However, the video clearly shows that player was injured by landing poorly on one foot, not as a result of the spike.
The Aztecs defeated the Spartans 3-1, but San Jose has still punched its ticket to the conference finals, thanks to its record number of forfeits.
Wyoming was set to visit SJSU Thursday, but for the second time is joining other universities that have forfeited games against the Spartans, all without providing a reason. Boise State announced it will forfeit an upcoming match set for Nov. 21, its second forfeit against SJSU.
In September, the Spartans’ co-captain, senior Brooke Slusser, outed her own teammate, the player at the center of this controversy, in joining a federal lawsuit against the NCAA spearheaded by anti-trans inclusion activist and former college athlete Riley Gaines.
Slusser said in the lawsuit and in subsequent interviews that the player in question shouldn’t be on her team. The suit claims the NCAA’s policy on trans athletes violates Title IX by allowing “men” to compete in women’s sports and use women’s locker rooms where they display “full male genitalia.”
The NCAA policy for trans athletes participating in women’s volleyball aligns with that of USA Volleyball, which requires trans female athletes to suppress their testosterone below 10 nmol/L for a period of one year before competition. That is also how the NCAA determines eligibility. SJSU has stated repeatedly that all its players are eligible.
The lawsuit also asks the NCAA to revoke any titles or records won by trans female athletes in women’s competitions, which seems to be specifically aimed at stripping out trans NCAA champions Lia Thomas and CeCé Telfer of their titles in swimming and track and field, respectively.
Prior to this season, the player rumored to be trans did not attract any attention other than being a successful starter, like Slusser. But now that she is in the media spotlight, Slusser has come forward to tell right wing media, including Megyn Kelly, why she feels another woman two inches taller than she is poses a danger.
“I don’t feel safe,” Slusser said on “The Megyn Kelly Show” last month. “I’ve gone to my coaches and said I refuse to play against [her] … It’s not safe.”
In the video, both Kelly and Slusser refer to the player as “him” and a “man,” and name her.
Now comes another twist: San Jose State University suspended associate head coach Melissa Batie-Smoose with pay, indefinitely, after she filed a Title IX complaint against SJSU. She claims the player Slusser identified as trans conspired with an opponent to help the team lose a match and injure Slusser. Batie-Smoose named the player in question in her complaint and on Sept. 23, joined the same lawsuit that Slusser is now a part of.
“Safety is being taken away from women,” Batie-Smoose told Fox News. “Fair play is taken away from women. We need more and more people to do this and fight this fight because women’s sports, as we know it right now will be forever changed.”
Media reporting on the suspension, including Fox News, continue to name the athlete in question, with some also reporting what they say is the athlete’s birth name.
San Jose State released a statement following the suspension of Batie-Smoose: “The associate head coach of the San Jose State University women’s volleyball team is not with the team at this time, and we will not provide further information on this matter,” the team said.
SJSU Coach Todd Kress told ESPN that reports saying that any member of the Spartans colluded with their opponent are “littered with lies.”
The Spartans are currently among the top six finishers in the Mountain West Conference that will qualify to compete in the conference tournament scheduled for Nov. 27-30.
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