Sports
NFL inroad
Gay businesses offered opps for 2016 Super Bowl
Christopher Dydyk became the first LGBT business owner to secure a contract with the NFL’s Business Connect program. (Photo by Chloe Jackman)
Over the past few years, several professional, college and Olympic athletes have come out of the closet. And the sports communities from which they come have launched diversity training programs and guidelines to educate their athletes, coaches and staff.
It is safe to say that the sports world is paying attention to the LGBT community.
Earlier this summer, it was announced that the United States Tennis Association had become a corporate partner with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and would be opening their supply chain to LGBT-certified businesses.
And now, the National Football League has announced that the San Francisco Bay Area Super Bowl 50 Host Committee will include Bay Area LGBT-certified businesses in its Business Connect program for contracting opportunities related to the Super Bowl championship game to be held at Levi’s Stadium on Feb. 7, 2016.
The Business Connect program brings small businesses into the supplier mix and began accepting applications on Nov. 17 from businesses in the nine-county Bay Area that are certified as women-owned, minority-owned, disabled veteran-owned and now businesses that are certified as LGBT Business Enterprises (LGBTBE).
The Washington-based National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce is the exclusive third party LGBT-certification program for businesses wishing to gain that status.
The road to the agreement with the Super Bowl 50 Host Committee began with California Gov. Jerry Brown signing into law on Sept. 26, public mandate AB 1678 which added LGBT-certified businesses to the list of minority-owned businesses that would have contracting opportunities with the California Public Utilities Commission.
“It was an auspicious occasion for the city of San Francisco to be hosting Super Bowl 50,” says Sam McClure, vice president of Affiliate Relations & External Affairs for the Chamber. “Our local chapter, the Golden Gate Business Association, went to the San Francisco mayor, Ed Lee, and insisted that now is the time to be working with the NFL to make this change.”
To become a certified LGBT Business Enterprise, a business must meet certain criteria which includes being 51 percent owned and operated by an LGBT person or persons.
“During the application process, a series of documents are submitted, followed by a site visit and an interview with the owner. It then goes before a national review committee,” McClure says. “The whole process can take less than 30 days and the application fee of $400 is waived if the business joins a local chapter.”
According to McClure, the supply chain for contracting opportunities from the Department of Commerce is $40 billion and $14 billion is intended for small business enterprises.
The Chamber has been working hard to crack the code that will allow LGBT business enterprises to have an equal chance to bid on those contracts.
“We talk about equality in different lenses. Economic empowerment is one of the last pieces in the march to equality,” McClure says. “We are past trying to open doors; now we are kicking them in.”
The idea of an LGBT business enterprise partnering with the NFL’s Business Connect program went from concept to reality in a matter of weeks.
Christopher Dydyk Fine Art Photography, a member of the local LGBT chamber, Golden Gate Business Association, was invited to the 40th anniversary grand reception for the Association on Nov. 10 where he photographed Mayor Ed Lee being handed a football by Association board members.
He sent the photos to a member of the Business Connect program and a week later at the kick-off workshop, he was told they were looking for a photographer. He submitted a bid and won the contract becoming the first local LBGT business enterprise to secure a spot.
Dydyk, who works alone, will be photographing for the Official Super Bowl 50 Twitter Feed which will have guest celebrity tweeters.
“It is not a big contract but it is exciting and it is a first,” Dydyk says, “They are reaching out and we are reaching in.”
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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