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.
Iran and Egypt on Friday faced off during the World Cup’s “Pride Match” in Seattle.
Iran is among the handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death. Discrimination and persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity is commonplace in Egypt.
Friday’s match coincided with Pride weekend in Seattle. The Egyptian Football Association and the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran both objected to playing in the “Pride Match.”
Egypt and Iran tied 1-1.
FIFA, for its part, allowed Pride flags inside the stadium during the match.
“The FIFA World Cup 2026 is an inclusive event that welcomes people from all backgrounds,” a FIFA spokesperson told the Washington Blade in a statement. “Fans of all sexual orientations and gender identities are welcome at matches and events. General statements of human rights, including rainbow flags and other flags representing sexual orientation and gender identity, are permitted under the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Stadium Code of Conduct and may be displayed inside stadiums provided they are used in a manner consistent with the code.”
Human Rights Watch welcomed FIFA’s decision to allow Pride flags inside the stadium. Outright International, a global LGBTQ and intersex rights group, distributed Pride flags in Seattle on Friday, which was Pride Match Day.
“Visibility matters,” said Outright International Executive Director Maria Sjödin. “Pride is now being celebrated in more than 100 countries, including this weekend in Seattle. For many LGBTIQ people, seeing a Pride flag in public is a reminder that they are not alone, and that their rights and dignity are recognized.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino earlier this year told Die Weltwoche, a Swiss magazine, that “there will be no ‘Pride Match’ at the (FIFA) World Cup.”
“There will be a FIFA World Cup match in Seattle, and on the same day, events organized by external organizations will be taking place in the city,” said Infantino. “But that has nothing to do with the match itself.”
Peter Tatchell, a long-time LGBTQ activist from the U.K. who is director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, was among those who traveled to Seattle for Friday’s match. Tatchell accused FIFA of not vetting World Cup teams — specifically Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Senegal, Qatar, Tunisia, Morocco, Iraq, Uzbekistan, and Algeria — over whether they would allow gay players.
“FIFA is protecting LGBT+ visibility in the stands while failing to protect LGBT+ players on the pitch,” said Tatchell.
The Baltimore Orioles will take on the Washington Nationals on Friday, June 26 at 7 p.m. for Pride Night at Oriole Park.
The first 15,000 fans will receive an exclusive Pride Night Orioles jersey. The Washington Blade is a media sponsor of this event.
To purchase tickets, visit Orioles.com/Tickets.
Sports
Minor league team in York, Pa., forfeits Pride Night game after some players refuse to wear special jersey
City is roughly 20 miles north of Md. border
An independent minor league baseball team says it is forfeiting a game because some of its players refused to wear a special Pride Night jersey.
The Atlantic League Pro Baseball’s York Revolution were planning to hold their 11th annual Pride Night event Thursday for a game against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs.
But the Revolution announced the day of the game that it wouldn’t be played. York is about 20 miles north of the Maryland line. The Blue Crabs play in Waldorf.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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