Sports
Players find acceptance, competition in Baltimore rugby team
‘This experience has been way more than I ever thought it would be’
Seamus Wons, left, and Val Pizzo off the rugby field. The friends and teammates say they’ve found friendship and acceptance in the Baltimore Flamingos. (Photo by Kevin Majoros)
The Baltimore Flamingos Rugby Football Club nominated two players with perfect attendance to be featured in this week’s All-Star spotlight series in the Washington Blade.
What they also gave us was two athletes who don’t necessarily fit the preconceived notion of a male rugby player. The sport has long been perceived as a hypermasculine environment filled with big burly players. In a beautiful nod to what can happen in an inclusive LGBT space, we meet two players who have found acceptance through sports.
The Flamingos launched in the summer of 2016 and played two seasons outside of a league with matches being held against other gay teams throughout the region. Last season they joined USA Rugby’s Mid-Atlantic Senior Men’s Division IV conference, a mix of gay and straight teams.
Val Pizzo spent his childhood in Frederick, Md.. avoiding sports and hating gym class. After years of encouragement from his athletic mother, he finally gave in and joined a women’s rugby team at age 15. He was on the cusp of transitioning and the sport filled a void that he needed to embrace his identity.
“I wanted to prove myself as tough,” Pizzo says. “Not long after that I had my identity transition.”
He began hormone replacement therapy just two weeks before showing up to play rugby as a freshman on the men’s club team at Rochester Institute of Technology.
“When I went to that first practice, I was told to go to the women’s team,” Pizzo says. “I kept showing up and no one questioned me again. They just thought I was gay and my past was not discussed.”
After five years of playing at college, he returned to Maryland and knew he was going to join a gay rugby team. He was especially interested in being on a developing team and he signed up for the Baltimore Flamingos in August, 2016. He plays as a scrum-half.
“This experience has been way more than I ever thought it would be,” Pizzo says. “The Flamingos have feminine, masculine, straight, gay and trans players and I relate so well to everyone. I had been in gay spaces before, but not gay sports.”
After being benched throughout his college rugby career, Pizzo came into the Flamingos with experience and he is serving as a captain and as the social chair. He has also received his coaching certification and next year he will be attending his first Bingham Cup in Amsterdam. The tournament draws roughly 1,000 players.
“I am so excited for Bingham Cup. It will be the most rugby players I have ever been around,” Pizzo says. “Playing with the Flamingos has been affirming and it’s great to be able to share my past. I am happy to be in a place where I can break down barriers and combat transphobia and homophobia.”
Earlier this year, Seamus Wons was honored with the Flamingos’ Gay & Inclusive Award. As a self-described effeminate gay man, Wons says that means he is the gayest man on the team.
Born in Bedford, N.H., he swam competitively through high school and for two-and-a-half years at Goucher College. After ending his swimming career, Wons turned to running as his main form of fitness and completed the Baltimore half marathon.
Looking for something new, he joined the Flamingos in January and began going to their conditioning classes and touch games.
“I immediately had a blast. It is such a positive experience because everyone is so great,” Wons says. “I was quiet at first because I have never really known how to perform as a broey dude. Once I warmed up, I had the comfort to be myself.”
That comfort level has led to him wanting to become a part of the decision-making process and he will be running for a board position in the coming year. As a rugby wing, he has set goals for himself both off and on the pitch.
“I have yet to score my first try. I was so close in our last game against the Charm City Knights,” Wons says. “When you go up against a 250-pound rugby center, you are still going to go after him no matter how fabulous you are off the pitch.”
Wons says he takes a lot of pride in being gay and that he expresses a lot of freedom as an effeminate gay man. He has a message for others who may not feel as confident.
“I feel like I have been able to be fully immersed in one of the toughest, most masculine sports. It is empowering, and I want that empowerment to be felt by everyone,” he says. “I am giving the finger to whatever is considered masculine or feminine.”
Sports
New IOC policy bans trans women from Olympics
New regulation to be in effect at 2028 summer games in Los Angeles
The International Olympic Committee on Thursday announced it will not allow transgender women from competing in female events at the Olympics.
“For all disciplines on the Sports Program of an IOC event, including individual and team sports, eligibility for any Female Category is limited to biological females,” reads the new policy.
The policy states “eligibility for the Female Category is to be determined in the first instance by SRY Gene screening to detect the absence or presence of the SRY Gene.”
“On the basis of the scientific evidence, the IOC considers that the SRY (sex-determining Region Y) Gene is fixed throughout life and represents highly accurate evidence that an athlete has experienced or will experience male sex development,” it reads. “Furthermore, the IOC considers that SRY Gene screening via saliva, cheek swab or blood sample is unintrusive compared to other possible methods. Athletes who screen negative for the SRY gene permanently satisfy this policy’s eligibility criteria for competition in the Female Category.”
The policy states the test “will be a once-in-a-lifetime test” unless “there is reason to believe a negative reading is in error.”
The new regulation will be in place for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
“I understand that this a very sensitive topic,” said IOC President Kirsty Coventry on Thursday in a video. “As a former athlete, I passionately believe in the rights of all Olympians to take part in fair competition.”
“The policy that we have announced is based on science and it has been led by medical experts with the best interests of athletes at its heart. The scientific evidence is very clear: male chromosomes give performance advances in sport that rely on strength, power, or endurance,” she added. “At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat. So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category. In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe.”
(Video courtesy of the IOC)
Laurel Hubbard, a weightlifter from New Zealand, in 2021 became the first trans woman to compete at the Olympics.
Imane Khelif, an Algerian boxer, won a gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Khelif later sued JK Rowling and Elon Musk for cyberstalking after they questioned her gender identity.
Ellis Lundholm, a mogul skier from Sweden, this year became the first openly trans athlete to compete in any Winter Olympics when he participated in Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy.
President Donald Trump in February 2025 issued an executive order that bans trans women and girls from female sports teams in the U.S.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee last July banned trans women from competing in female sporting events. Republican lawmakers have demanded the IOC ban trans athletes from women’s athletic competitions.
“I’m grateful the Olympics finally embraced the common sense policy that women’s sports are for women, not for men,” said U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on X.
An IOC spokesperson on Thursday referred the Washington Blade to the press release that announced the new policy.
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.
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