Sports
D.C. Gay Flag Football League hosts Gay Bowl XVI this weekend
‘Come as you are and play your heart out’
The D.C. Gay Flag Football League well welcome players from all over the U.S. and Canada for Gay Bowl XVI this weekend. (Washington Blade file photo by Vladyslav Rekhovskyy)
It has been seven years since a group of pick-up players and their travel teams hosted Gay Bowl IX on the threadbare fields of Carter Barron in Rock Creek Park.
The championship in 2009 was the impetus for the formation of the D.C. Gay Flag Football League, so it’s fitting they’re hosting this year’s event because of the strength of their league.
Gay Bowl XVI will take place on 11 polo fields at West Potomac Park this weekend with the National Mall serving as an inspirational backdrop as the players vie for the three championship trophies. More than 750 athletes and referees on 40 teams from 21 cities across the United States and Canada will be welcomed to a world-class sporting event along with a full social calendar that will showcase the LGBT scene of Washington.
At this year’s Gay Bowl, D.C. will field five men’s teams and one women’s team. These five squads are the travel teams and they are separate from League teams. There is a tryout and selection process that follows strict protocols similar to the league’s draft system. There is currently a waiting list just to try out for the travel teams.
The first season of the D.C. Gay Flag Football League in 2010 consisted of seven teams and though interest was high for expansion, the League carefully created a structure of growth that kept the quality of play at a high level. The growth was limited partially by the grooming of quality quarterbacks, but also with a design on having the most balanced teams possible. Now in Season XIII, the League is at 20 teams with 300 players.
One thing that stands out in the League is its diversity. The League has a “come-as-you-are-and-play-your-heart-out” mentality that draws people from all walks of life.
“We bring people from diverse parts of D.C. and I think it is the best part of the league,” says Chris Comier, founding board member and co-chair of Gay Bowl XVI. “We have players that range from the military to Capitol Hill and we are all sexual identities, ethnicities and genders.”
The league has struggled over the years to maintain a high number of female players and is at close to 20 women this season. It does not utilize the special rules that are put in place for women players in some flag-football leagues.
Former NCAA Division I basketball player Nikki Kasparek says when she started in the League in 2012, the male players weren’t utilizing the female players to their capacity. That has since changed.
“They wouldn’t play defense on us and ultimately the quarterbacks starting throwing the ball to us. I was scoring one to two touchdowns per game,” Kasparek says. “I’m not getting that anymore. We are athletes, we are assets and we are rock stars. If you don’t guard us, we will score.”
Some straight players such as Peter Sima, who has played in the League since 2010, say sexual orientation is a non issue. He’s been on some of the League’s travel teams and played at Chicago’s Pride Bowl.
“There is no thought in this League as to what you are,” Sima says. “There is also no ‘in crowd’ and as a straight player, I immediately felt welcomed.”
The League is also supportive of the trans community and one player (who wishes to remain anonymous) has found support from the league during his transition. He has been a player since 2011.
“I have a really awesome core group of friends in the DCGFFL that I trust,” he says. “My friends have been supportive of my journey and that has made me really happy to be a part of this League.”
The closing party for Gay Bowl XVI will be held at Howard Theater and after a weekend of playing in the presence of America’s national monuments, the players will be sent off in D.C. style just a few blocks from the White House.
“We want everyone to say it was the most enjoyable and most memorable Gay Bowl yet,” Comier says. “And oh yea, we want all three trophies.”
Sports
Attitude! French ice dancers nail ‘Vogue’ routine
Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry strike a pose in memorable Olympics performance
Madonna’s presence is being felt at the Olympic Games in Italy.
Guillaume Cizeron and his rhythm ice dancing partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry of France performed a flawless skate to Madonna’s “Vogue” and “Rescue Me” on Monday.
The duo scored an impressive 90.18 for their effort, the best score of the night.
“We’ve been working hard the whole season to get over 90, so it was nice to see the score on the screen,” Fournier Beaudry told Olympics.com. “But first of all, just coming out off the ice, we were very happy about what we delivered and the pleasure we had out there. With the energy of the crowd, it was really amazing.”
Watch the routine on YouTube here.
Italy
Olympics Pride House ‘really important for the community’
Italy lags behind other European countries in terms of LGBTQ rights
The four Italian advocacy groups behind the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics’ Pride House hope to use the games to highlight the lack of LGBTQ rights in their country.
Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano organized the Pride House that is located in Milan’s MEET Digital Culture Center. The Washington Blade on Feb. 5 interviewed Pride House Project Manager Joseph Naklé.
Naklé in 2020 founded Peacox Basket Milano, Italy’s only LGBTQ basketball team. He also carried the Olympic torch through Milan shortly before he spoke with the Blade. (“Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie last month participated in the torch relay in Feltre, a town in Italy’s Veneto region.)
Naklé said the promotion of LGBTQ rights in Italy is “actually our main objective.”
ILGA-Europe in its Rainbow Map 2025 notes same-sex couples lack full marriage rights in Italy, and the country’s hate crimes law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. Italy does ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, but the country’s nondiscrimination laws do not include gender identity.
ILGA-Europe has made the following recommendations “in order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Italy.”
• Marriage equality for same-sex couples
• Depathologization of trans identities
• Automatic co-parent recognition available for all couples
“We are not really known to be the most openly LGBT-friendly country,” Naklé told the Blade. “That’s why it (Pride House) was really important for the community.”
“We want to use the Olympic games — because there is a big media attention — and we want to use this media attention to raise the voice,” he added.
Naklé noted Pride House will host “talks and roundtables every night” during the games that will focus on a variety of topics that include transgender and nonbinary people in sports and AI. Another will focus on what Naklé described to the Blade as “the importance of political movements now to fight for our rights, especially in places such as Italy or the U.S. where we are going backwards, and not forwards.”
Seven LGBTQ Olympians — Italian swimmer Alex Di Giorgio, Canadian ice dancers Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver, Canadian figure skater Eric Radford, Spanish figure skater Javier Raya, Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson, and Irish field hockey and cricket player Nikki Symmons — are scheduled to participate in Pride House’s Out and Proud event on Feb. 14.
Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood representatives are expected to speak at Pride House on Feb. 21.
The event will include a screening of Mariano Furlani’s documentary about Pride House and LGBTQ inclusion in sports. The MiX International LGBTQ+ Film and Queer Culture Festival will screen later this year in Milan. Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood is also planning to show the film during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Naklé also noted Pride House has launched an initiative that allows LGBTQ sports teams to partner with teams whose members are either migrants from African and Islamic countries or people with disabilities.
“The objective is to show that sports is the bridge between these communities,” he said.
Bisexual US skier wins gold
Naklé spoke with the Blade a day before the games opened. The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will close on Feb. 22.
More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are competing in the games.
Breezy Johnson, an American alpine skier who identifies as bisexual, on Sunday won a gold medal in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, on the same day helped the U.S. win a gold medal in team figure skating.
Glenn said she received threats on social media after she told reporters during a pre-Olympics press conference that LGBTQ Americans are having a “hard time” with the Trump-Vance administration in the White House. The Associated Press notes Glenn wore a Pride pin on her jacket during Sunday’s medal ceremony.
“I was disappointed because I’ve never had so many people wish me harm before, just for being me and speaking about being decent — human rights and decency,” said Glenn, according to the AP. “So that was really disappointing, and I do think it kind of lowered that excitement for this.”
Puerto Rico
Bad Bunny shares Super Bowl stage with Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga
Puerto Rican activist celebrates half time show
Bad Bunny on Sunday shared the stage with Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl halftime show in Santa Clara, Calif.
Martin came out as gay in 2010. Gaga, who headlined the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, is bisexual. Bad Bunny has championed LGBTQ rights in his native Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
“Not only was a sophisticated political statement, but it was a celebration of who we are as Puerto Ricans,” Pedro Julio Serrano, president of the LGBTQ+ Federation of Puerto Rico, told the Washington Blade on Monday. “That includes us as LGBTQ+ people by including a ground-breaking superstar and legend, Ricky Martin singing an anti-colonial anthem and showcasing Young Miko, an up-and-coming star at La Casita. And, of course, having queer icon Lady Gaga sing salsa was the cherry on the top.”
La Casita is a house that Bad Bunny included in his residency in San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, last year. He recreated it during the halftime show.
“His performance brought us together as Puerto Ricans, as Latin Americans, as Americans (from the Americas) and as human beings,” said Serrano. “He embraced his own words by showcasing, through his performance, that the ‘only thing more powerful than hate is love.’”
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