Sports

‘Queens’ for a day

New documentary explores lives of out tennis players

Published

11 years ago

August 28, 2014

Kevin Majoros

Out filmmaker Shiv Paul. (Photo courtesy Paul)

One of the things that continues to fascinate about the LGBT sports community is the diverse athletes who come together to form families. Shiv Paul has captured just that in his tennis documentary, “Queens at Court.”

The film follows four players from the Gay and Lesbian Tennis Alliance (GLTA) over the course of eight months, both on and off the court. The four players represent the wide spectrum of athletes on the tour. Featured in the film is a military veteran, a transsexual, a cross-cultural player and an overweight player.

The GLTA sponsors about 65 tournaments throughout the world and its membership is in excess of 8,000 players. Here in D.C., the Capital Tennis Association hosts one of the tournaments, the Capital Classic and one of its players, Chip Hines, is spotlighted in the film.

Paul was born in India and grew up in the market town of Epsom in England. His father introduced him to tennis at age 7 and enrolled him in local tennis schools. He left the sport behind while attending the University of Glasgow and after arriving in New York in 2006, he discovered the GLTA.

“I didn’t have much social structure when I moved to the United States,” Paul says. “I joined the local LGBT rugby, volleyball and tennis teams, but it was the tennis community that pulled me in.”

Paul’s first GLTA tournament was in New Orleans and he was fascinated and taken by the fact that the GLTA even existed. Subsequently he attended his first Gay Games in Cologne in 2010 and it was there that he initially felt the need to document the environment.

“I was completely surprised by the competitive nature of the Gay Games in Cologne,” Paul says. “It was a bigger and more meaningful experience than I was expecting. I love that LGBT sports allows people to return to a sport where they may not have been competitive.”

He began making the documentary about the GLTA athletes but as filming progressed, he realized it was more about adversity and exploring how athletes find their “sense of self.”

He didn’t intend to be one of the subjects of the film but at several of the screenings, the audience members insisted he shed some light on himself.

“It only seemed fair that I tell my own story since I was asking others to share their journey,” he says.

“Queens at Court” premiered in New York City at the Sage Center and in attendance at the event was the head of the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Diversity & Inclusion Program, D.A. Abrams. He arranged a screening for the USTA staff in White Plains, N.Y., and they agreed to screen the film at three stops on the Emirates Airlines U.S. Open Series, a series of hard court tournaments leading up to the U.S. Open.

“Queens at Court” was seen at the Washington, Toronto and Winston-Salem tournaments in the Series this summer.

Bob Koch, president of the Capital Tennis Association, was at the screening in D.C. at the Citi Open and says, “‘Queens at Court’ provides a neat snapshot into the LGBT tennis community. We are a tight-knit, welcoming and supportive group and the film captures that sense of community. The fact that the USTA was streaming the film serves to show their willingness to be inclusive.”

Paul, a recent Gay Games bronze medalist in tennis, says going forward he would like to coach workshops on promoting self-awareness, diversity and inclusion. He’s part of a team that is working with the Trevor Project on educational issues involving the transgender community such as finding the financial means needed to pay for reassignment surgery.

“It is cool to be part of something that results in change,” he says.

Members of the GLTA tennis community will be playing at the Capital Classic XXII on Sept. 13-15 in Washington.

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Sports

Blade, Pride House LA announce 2028 Olympics partnership

Media sponsorship to amplify stories of LGBTQ athletes

Published

1 day ago

February 6, 2026

Staff reports

(Photo by Chaay Tee via Bigstock)

The Los Angeles Blade and Washington Blade on Friday announced a media partnership with the Out Athlete Fund, which will produce Pride House LA for the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Pride House is the home for LGBTQ fans and athletes that will become a destination during the L.A. Summer Games in West Hollywood in partnership with the City of WeHo. This 17-day celebration for LGBTQ athletes and fans will include medal ceremonies for out athletes, interactive installations, speakers, concerts, and more.

The Los Angeles Blade will serve as the exclusive L.A.-area queer media sponsor for Pride House LA and the Washington Blade will support the efforts and amplify coverage of the 2028 Games.

The Blade will provide exclusive coverage of Pride House plans, including interviews with queer athletes and more. The parties will share content and social media posts raising awareness of the Blade and Out Athlete Fund. The Blade will have media credentials and VIP access for related events.

“We are excited to partner with the Washington Blade, the oldest LGBTQ newspaper in the United States and the Los Angeles Blade, already a strong supporter of Out Athlete Fund and Pride House LA/West Hollywood,” said Michael Ferrera, CEO of Pride House LA. “Our mission is about increasing the visibility of LGBTQ+ athletes and fans to challenge the historical hostility toward our community in the sports world. Visibility is what publications like the Washington and Los Angeles publications are all about. We know they will play a key part in our success.”

“LGBTQ visibility has never been more important and we are thrilled to work with Out Athlete Fund and Pride House LA to tell the stories of queer athletes and ensure the 2028 Summer Games are inclusive and affirming for everyone,” said Blade Editor Kevin Naff.

Out Athlete Fund is a 501(c)3 designed to raise money to offset the training cost of out LGBTQ athletes in need of funding for training. The Washington Blade is the nation’s oldest LGBTQ news outlet; the Los Angeles Blade is its sister publication founded nine years ago.

Italy

44 openly LGBTQ athletes to compete in Milan Cortina Winter Olympics

Games to begin on Friday

Published

3 days ago

February 4, 2026

Michael K. Lavers

(Public domain photo)

More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are expected to compete in the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics that open on Friday.

Outsports.com notes eight Americans — including speedskater Conor McDermott-Mostowy and figure skater Amber Glenn — are among the 44 openly LGBTQ athletes who will compete in the games. The LGBTQ sports website also reports Ellis Lundholm, a mogul skier from Sweden, is the first openly transgender athlete to compete in any Winter Olympics.

“I’ve always been physically capable. That was never a question,” Glenn told Outsports.com. “It was always a mental and competence problem. It was internal battles for so long: when to lean into my strengths and when to work on my weaknesses, when to finally let myself portray the way I am off the ice on the ice. That really started when I came out publicly.”

McDermott-Mostowy is among the six athletes who have benefitted from the Out Athlete Fund, a group that has paid for their Olympics-related training and travel. The other beneficiaries are freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy, speed skater Brittany Bowe, snowboarder Maddy Schaffrick, alpine skier Breezy Johnson, and Paralympic Nordic skier Jake Adicoff.

Out Athlete Fund and Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood on Friday will host a free watch party for the opening ceremony.

“When athletes feel seen and accepted, they’re free to focus on their performance, not on hiding who they are,” Haley Caruso, vice president of the Out Athlete Fund’s board of directors, told the Los Angeles Blade.

Four Italian LGBTQ advocacy groups — Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano — have organized the games’ Pride House that will be located at the MEET Digital Culture Center in Milan.

Pride House on its website notes it will “host a diverse calendar of events and activities curated by associations, activists, and cultural organizations that share the values of Pride” during the games. These include an opening ceremony party at which Checcoro, Milan’s first LGBTQ chorus, will perform.

ILGA World, which is partnering with Pride House, is the co-sponsor of a Feb. 21 event that will focus on LGBTQ-inclusion in sports. Valentina Petrillo, a trans Paralympian, is among those will participate in a discussion that Simone Alliva, a journalist who writes for the Italian newspaper Domani, will moderate.

“The event explores inclusivity in sport — including amateur levels — with a focus on transgender people, highlighting the role of civil society, lived experiences, and the voices of athletes,” says Milano Pride on its website.

The games will take place against the backdrop of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s decision to ban trans women from competing in women’s sporting events.

President Donald Trump last February issued an executive order that bans trans women and girls from female sports teams in the U.S. A group of Republican lawmakers in response to the directive demanded the International Olympics Committee ban trans athletes from women’s athletic competitions.

The IOC in 2021 adopted its “Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations” that includes the following provisions:

• 3.1 Eligibility criteria should be established and implemented fairly and in a manner that does not systematically exclude athletes from competition based upon their gender identity, physical appearance and/or sex variations.

• 3.2 Provided they meet eligibility criteria that are consistent with principle 4 (“Fairness”, athletes should be allowed to compete in the category that best aligns with their self-determined gender identity.

• 3.3 Criteria to determine disproportionate competitive advantage may, at times, require testing of an athlete’s performance and physical capacity. However, no athlete should be subject to targeted testing because of, or aimed at determining, their sex, gender identity and/or sex variations.

The 2034 Winter Olympics are scheduled to take place in Salt Lake City. The 2028 Summer Olympics will occur in Los Angeles.

Sports

‘Heated Rivalry’ stars to participate in Olympic torch relay

Games to take place next month in Italy

Published

2 weeks ago

January 23, 2026

Staff reports

(Photo courtesy of Crave HBO Max)

“Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie will participate in the Olympic torch relay ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics that will take place next month in Italy.

HBO Max, which distributes “Heated Rivalry” in the U.S., made the announcement on Thursday in a press release.

The games will take place in Milan and Cortina from Feb. 6-22. The HBO Max announcement did not specifically say when Williams and Storrie will participate in the torch relay.