Sports
Athlete Ally responds to Columbia U. wrestling team controversy
Athlete Ally founder feels sting of anti-gay remarks from Columbia University wrestlers
Hudson Taylor (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Hudson Taylor witnessed firsthand the homophobia that is pervasive in the culture of college sports during his years as an All-American wrestler at the University of Maryland. It was what compelled him to co-found Athlete Ally, a campaign to end homophobia and transphobia in sports, at the end of 2010 with his now-wife, Lia.
From 2010-2014, Taylor was a volunteer wresting coach at Columbia University, so when news broke on Nov. 10 that the school’s class of 2017 wrestling team were found to have used homophobic and racist slurs, making jokes about rape and mocking women’s appearances, Taylor returned to speak with the wrestlers he’d once coached.
WASHINGTON BLADE: The news about the Columbia wrestling team had to hit you pretty hard. What are you feeling?
HUDSON TAYLOR: I know these guys and I have coached them. For five years I worked with them to change this behavior and to address the resulting impact from using that kind of language. It made me very sad.
BLADE: In an article you wrote for the Columbia Spectator, you accepted some of the responsibility for the actions of the wrestlers. Why?
TAYLOR: It was me wanting them to know that their actions are affecting people from the coaching staff to the school to the sport itself. My apology was an attempt to show them that and to apologize for not doing more to develop them into young men of better character.
BLADE: The Columbia wrestling team also wrote a letter of apology that stated that a culture change is needed and that it will take place. How will that happen?
TAYLOR: There will be a thoughtful punishment for the people in question followed by a period of reconciliation that will be taken as an opportunity to create something to be proud of. I spoke to the team this past Monday and will continue to work with them in regards to what happened and how to move forward.
BLADE: You have said that maybe in the past you had been talking too much to the wrestlers and not enough with them. Were you aware of their biases?
TAYLOR: No, the attitudes existed in unseen places. I think it speaks to the point that people are getting better at being mindful about what they reveal publicly.
BLADE: The lewd messages that were sent by the wrestlers not only targeted the LGBT community, but also women and people of color. Will Athlete Ally be addressing those communities more in the future?
TAYLOR: You can’t really hope to end forms of discrimination of one type without addressing all of it. Athlete Ally will continue to target homophobia and transphobia in sports by investing in education and policy change. That being said, we are currently involved with the push to end the hijab ban on female players within the International Basketball Federation. It is not core to our work, but we have a responsibility.
BLADE: Athlete Ally’s investment in policy change and education is directed at professional and college sports. The evidence is there that prejudice and discrimination is being taught at early ages. Why not K-12 schools?
TAYLOR: Ultimately yes, attitudes and behaviors are being taught early on. We have targeted professional and college sports because the impact on them is scalable. K-12 is more segmented and there are over 30,000 high schools in the United States. We don’t have enough feet on the ground to make an impact. We do have ideas though and one is to engage the over 200,000 people playing in LGBT sports leagues to go back to their high schools to interact with the students.
BLADE: What else needs to be done going forward to encourage inclusive sports communities?
TAYLOR: We need to use this experience to understand and promote social justice values across all communities. Every incident is an opportunity for reformation. I also think that taking a look at ending gender segregation in school sports is worthwhile. I don’t know what that would look like, but the current situation is breeding bad behavior.
Sports
Blade, Pride House LA announce 2028 Olympics partnership
Media sponsorship to amplify stories of LGBTQ athletes
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.
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
“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.
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