Sports
Trans swimmer Schuyler Bailar to speak at SMYAL brunch
Schuyler Bailar will receive a Community Advocate Award
Schuyler Bailar will receive an award at the SMYAL Fall Brunch this weekend. (Photo by Ray Yaeger)
Schuyler Bailar will receive the Community Advocate Award at the keynote speaker at the 19th annual SMYAL Fall Brunch on Sunday, Nov. 13 at Mandarin Oriental. He was featured this summer in the Washington Blade’s annual sports edition.
Bailar graduated from Georgetown Day School in Washington in 2014 as a top student and an award-winning swimmer. He was aggressively recruited by most of the Ivy League and eventually committed to swim for Harvard.
Bailar is the first transgender man to compete on a NCAA Division 1 college swim team and the first transgender man to compete in any sport on a NCAA Division 1 men’s team.
Throughout this journey, but particularly in high school, Bailar struggled with issues of body image and self-esteem, often battling with disordered eating and self-harm. In the spring of his senior year, Bailar decided to take a gap year before college to deal with these issues. In therapy it became clear that his real struggle was with gender identity and that he was transgender. This presented him with the most difficult decision ever: whether to continue as a possible NCAA champion on the women’s team or to transition and be authentic to himself, accepting the consequences and challenges it would entail.
Bailar’s difficult choice — to be true to himself — was not only historical but was also timely. His story hit Facebook’s top-trending news when it came out and has been recounted globally in hundreds of media outlets from the Washington Post, to Time Magazine, to “60 Minutes” and “The Ellen Show.” MTV cited his story in its list of “2015’s Best Moments for the Trans Community” and Buzzfeed named him one of the “11 Transgender people who are shifting our views.”
Bailar tells his journey personally through his Instagram which has almost 17,000 followers. He is an avid adventurer, scuba diver and skateboarder. He plays the piano and drums and loves poetry and Spanish language literature. He has travelled the world from the Caribbean to India, from Korea to Guatemala, and shares his story so that those seeking their own answers can explore his example.
Tickets for the SMYAL Fall Brunch can be purchased here.
Schuyler Bailar (Photo courtesy Bailar)
More than a dozen LGBTQ athletes won medals at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics that ended on Sunday.
Cayla Barnes, Hilary Knight, and Alex Carpenter are LGBTQ members of the U.S. women’s hockey team that won a gold medal after they defeated Canada in overtime. Knight the day before the Feb. 19 match proposed to her girlfriend, Brittany Bowe, an Olympic speed skater.
French ice dancer Guillaume Cizeron, who is gay, and his partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry won gold. American alpine skier Breezy Johnson, who is bisexual, won gold in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, was part of the American figure skating team that won gold in the team event.
Swiss freestyle skier Mathilde Gremaud, who is in a relationship with Vali Höll, an Austrian mountain biker, won gold in women’s freeski slopestyle.
Bruce Mouat, who is the captain of the British curling team that won a silver medal, is gay. Six members of the Canadian women’s hockey team — Emily Clark, Erin Ambrose, Emerance Maschmeyer, Brianne Jenner, Laura Stacey, and Marie-Philip Poulin — that won silver are LGBTQ.
Swedish freestyle skier Sandra Naeslund, who is a lesbian, won a bronze medal in ski cross.
Belgian speed skater Tineke den Dulk, who is bisexual, was part of her country’s mixed 2000-meter relay that won bronze. Canadian ice dancer Paul Poirier, who is gay, and his partner, Piper Gilles, won bronze.
Laura Zimmermann, who is queer, is a member of the Swiss women’s hockey team that won bronze when they defeated Sweden.
Outsports.com notes all of the LGBTQ Olympians who competed at the games and who medaled.
Sports
US wins Olympic gold medal in women’s hockey
Team captain Hilary Knight proposed to girlfriend on Wednesday
The U.S. women’s hockey team on Thursday won a gold medal at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Team USA defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime. The game took place a day after Team USA captain Hilary Knight proposed to her girlfriend, Brittany Bowe, an Olympic speed skater.
Cayla Barnes and Alex Carpenter — Knight’s teammates — are also LGBTQ. They are among the more than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes who are competing in the games.
The Olympics will end on Sunday.
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.
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