Sports
Milestones and medals
Gay sports leagues in full throes of competition
Members of the District of Columbia Aquatics Club in action. (Washington Blade photo by Kevin Majoros)
The LGBT sports community of D.C. continues to shine after their medal haul in August at the 2014 Cleveland/Akron Gay Games. Leagues and tournaments are being contested during the fall season by the competitive teams that have traveled as far away as Sydney, Australia.
Team D.C., Federal Triangles Soccer Club and D.C. United are hosting the annual United Night OUT on Sept. 27 at 3 p.m. as Eastern Conference leaders. D.C. United take on the Philadelphia Union at RFK Stadium.
Special guests will be the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington whose members will sing the National Anthem and the D.C. Different Drummers Pep Band in the Screaming Eagles Cheering Section.
The Triangles will host their traditional tailgate party starting at noon in Parking Lot 8 and will provide the grill and meats. Team D.C. will provide the beer and all are welcome to bring side dishes. Tickets are $25 in the lower level and can be purchased at unitednightout.com.
The Capital Tennis Association will be hosting Capital Classic XXII from Saturday through Monday with close to 300 players competing. This year’s tournament will be contested on hard courts and will be held at the Rock Creek Tennis Center and the East Potomac Tennis Center. The event will be broadcast live on the CCE Sports Network.
Capital Tennis Association runs an abbreviated outdoor fall season league from September to October.
The travel teams from the D.C. Gay Flag Football League will head to Gay Bowl XIV Oct. 9-12 in Philadelphia which is expected to draw 28 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams from across the country.
At last year’s Gay Bowl, the Washington Generals lost by one point in the Championship game and they are looking for another successful run this year. For the first time, they will be sending a female team, the Washington Senators, to the Championships. They will be joined by three men’s teams: the Washington Generals, the Washington Admirals and the Washington Commanders.
The League also recently kicked off season nine with 20 teams competing for the fall championship.
Members of the Washington Scandals Rugby Football Club traveled to Sydney, Australia at the end of August for Bingham Cup 2014. They competed as a combined club with members from other teams as the Muddy Armada Berzerkers and finished fourth in Pool D. You can watch some of their matches on their Facebook page.
The D.C. Strokes Rowing Club traveled to Grand Rapids, Mich., in August for the USRowing Masters National Championships where their team boats won one silver and three bronze medals. Two other local rowing clubs, Potomac Boat Club and Capital Rowing, also won multiple medals and finished first and sixth respectively in the team competition. The Strokes are currently in the middle of their head race season which are crew time-trials in longer distances that are contested into November.
Fall Ball started for the Chesapeake and Potomac Softball League on Sept. 6 and runs through Oct. 18. Three teams from the league, D.C. Blitz, D.C. Disturbance and D.C. Titans, are headed to the 2014 North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance Gay Softball World Series in Dallas Sept. 22-27. About 4,000 players from 44 leagues across North America are expected to compete.
The Federal Triangles Soccer Club wrapped up its 2014 Summer of Freedom League at the end of August with the Annie’s team winning the championship match and taking home the Cummings Cup.
Swimmers from the District of Columbia Aquatics Club will compete at the 2014 Patriot Masters Sprint Classic at George Mason University in Fairfax on Oct. 26. The meet offers sprint length races including 25 yard events in all four strokes.
The Washington Renegades Rugby Football Club began match play for the fall season in the Capital Rugby Union league. The season will run through Nov. 15 and the Renegades field one team in Division III and one team in Division IV.
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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