Sports
All star spotlight: D.C. Gay Flag Football
With 300 players on 22 teams, standing out is tough in local league
Lindsey Walton, left, and Jordan Anderson excel with the D.C. Gay Flag Football League. (Photos courtesy D.C. Gay Flag Football League)
Each LGBT-inclusive sports team or club in the D.C. area is loaded with athletes and leaders who make their respective organizations a success.
In the launch of the new D.C. All-Stars series in the Washington Blade, we shine a light on the two MVP award winners from Season 13 of the D.C. Gay Flag Football League.
With more than 300 players on 22 teams, standing out as an All-Star during a 10-week season requires a special mix of leadership and athletic excellence.
In her first season with the league, Lindsey Walton captured the female rookie of the year award. In her second season this past fall, she followed that up with the female MVP award.
Growing up in Pittsburgh, Walton excelled in soccer, basketball and softball. She took on another sport when a coach saw her throwing a football.
“I always had an interest in football, but my mom wouldn’t let me play because I was small,” says Walton. “The track and field coach saw me throwing a football and recruited me to throw the javelin.”
She would be recruited again for college, this time playing four years of soccer as the starting goalkeeper at Howard University. After graduating she remained in the sport playing club soccer with men as a goalkeeper.
After several years in D.C., Walton moved to Chicago and picked up flag football in an attempt to make new friends. She continued in the sport when she returned to D.C. and joined a women’s league and a co-ed league. The demands of the one league sent her on a different sports path.
“The league I joined was more physical than most and allowed downfield blocking with no body protection,” Walton says. “I decided I needed to put on pads and play full tackle.”
She joined the Washington Prodigy in 2014 and continues to play as a punter, kicker and receiver. Two years later she added on flag football with the league, which doesn’t utilize downfield blocking rules.
“I like competing against guys and I like giving them the work. It’s fun for me,” says Walton. “Some guys take it easy on me which just makes me have to embarrass them.”
Walton, who works as a communications director with the D.C. Council and met her girlfriend in the league, is also a member of two of the league’s travel teams, the Washington Senators and DC Delta Force.
The Delta Force won the title at the Pride Bowl in Chicago last June and this weekend, she will be traveling with her Senators teammates to compete in the Sunshine Bowl in Fort Lauderdale.
Jordan Anderson’s life growing up as a military brat included time spent in multiple states including California, Virginia, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Despite all the moving, he found success in football, basketball and track and field.
He spent three years as a running back on the football team at James Madison University and after redshirting a year, completed his fourth year of athletic eligibility as a running back at Virginia State while earning his master’s degree.
When his mother became stationed at Andrews Air Force Base in 2014, he decided to stay in the area to help care for his 8 year-old twin siblings. He went with a friend to watch a league game and joined in the spring of 2016.
“I was drafted onto a team full of rookies in my first season,” says Anderson. “We came together as a team as the season progressed and finished as runner-ups in the season-ending Super Bowl.”
Because of the way the league draft system works, Anderson found himself on a new team with only one person from his prior team in his second season last fall. It was on that team that Anderson found that balance of sportsmanship, leadership and community spirit that would propel him to the season’s male MVP award.
“I like to help people to believe in themselves,” Anderson says. “If someone wants to play cornerback, I want to help them achieve that goal. In the long run, it also helps to make my team better.”
Anderson, who is working as a medical assistant with an eye on moving towards physical therapy, is enjoying that the League fills his competitive needs as well as the social aspects of being around so many athletes.
“I love the competition and this is a great way for me to get exercise; jumping, running and cutting is just better than a gym workout,” says Anderson. “Also, as one of the younger players, it is a big plus for me to be around fellow athletes who are doctors, lawyers and community leaders.”
Registration for Season 14 of the DCGFFL will begin on January 24 for returning players and January 31 for new players.
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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