Sports
Trans coach boosting visibility for girls’ baseball
‘Everyone should be able to play the sport that they love’
Ava Benach and daughter Paloma share a love of baseball. (Photo courtesy Ava Benach)
Ava Benach signed up her daughter Paloma to play little league baseball when she was five years old. At the time, she made the erroneous assumption that eventually, Paloma would have to switch to softball.
Ava and her wife Mona did sign Paloma up for softball at age 9. Paloma was having none of it. The next year, Paloma participated in an all-girls baseball team sponsored by Baseball for All that won a national tournament in Chino Hills, Calif. It was a boy’s tournament and they were the only girls team.
In 2015, the Benach family started recruiting girls locally and DC Girls Baseball was formed. The organization is the only girls’ baseball program in the region and it draws girls 18 and under from across the D.C. metro area, giving them an opportunity to play baseball at the highest levels.
Ava is serving as president, board chair and head coach of DC Girls Baseball. Along with coaching her now 14-year-old daughter, she also coaches the teams of her two sons, Teddy and Alex, who play with Capitol City Little League.
“Society is telling these girls that baseball is not a sport for them. They experience extreme loneliness if they play on boys’ teams and any mistakes are blamed on their gender,” says Ava. “I have deep admiration and respect for these girls and I love watching them turn into leaders. It is tremendously beneficial for them and builds their confidence.”
Ava’s own path to baseball began in Long Island. She played soccer and little league before switching over to a club team at age 12. In high school, she swam competitively and walked onto the team at Boston College where she swam for four years.
She came to the area in 1994 to attend law school at George Washington University and work on Capitol Hill. She has been an immigration lawyer since 1998.
She began coaching little league teams as each of her three kids became eligible to play.
The Benach household experienced a change recently as Ava transitioned to female. Throughout the process, Ava maintained her visibility.
“When you transition in your 40s, you are already a known quantity. It went better than I thought, and I didn’t lose any friends or clients,” Ava says. “I have a public image in both sports and my profession. I depend upon my reputation.”
The success of DC Girls Baseball drew the attention of the Eastern Women’s Baseball Conference (EWBC), which has been providing opportunities for women to play baseball for more than 20 years. The league features four teams – Montgomery County BarnCats, Baltimore Blues, Virginia Flames and Virginia Fury. They also field a travel team, DC Thunder, for tournament play.
A relationship was formed, and the two organizations began having clinics together. A few of the adult players from EWBC began coaching for DC Girls Baseball. Several of the girls have been recruited to the adult league and the adult travel team.
Paloma Benach was recruited last year to play on the Virginia Fury team in EWBC and she also plays on their travel team, DC Thunder. Normally a pitcher when playing girls baseball, Paloma is a utility player with EWBC to rest her pitching arm. She was 13 at the time and found herself facing experienced adults.
“At first I thought it would be difficult because they know more than I know,” says Paloma. “I do well but there are games where I need assistance.”
Paloma was joined on the team this year by Ava who plays third base. Now that they have a coach and teammate relationship, it brings up a certain question. What does Paloma call Ava?
“She calls me dad which is awkward sometimes in certain parts of the country,” says Ava. “It’s an actual historical biological fact. I don’t want to compete with my wife for the title of mother after 19 years of marriage.”
Both players have something to add in regard to the dynamic of playing together.
“She ignores me,” Ava says. “I have watched her play a thousand times and am amazingly proud of her, even though I am ruining her mojo.”
“Honestly, I try not to look at her. It’s too emotional so I view her as a coach and teammate,” Paloma says. “I think it’s amazing that she has given up so much of her time for all of this.”
The remaining months of summer will be a busy time for both of them. Along with DC Girls Baseball and EWBC, Paloma is playing on the Moose Baseball travel team where she is the only girl. This fall she will try out for her school’s girls’ basketball team and the boys’ baseball team. There will also be baseball tournaments including two stops at Beyer Stadium, former home of the Rockford Peaches.
The gender barrier in baseball continues to improve and this year, Major League Baseball and USA Baseball launched the 2018 Girls Baseball Breakthrough Series to provide opportunities for girls who wish to continue playing or working in baseball.
“There are always going to be people who are not OK with girls playing baseball, but we have created a community where people can be who they are,” says Paloma. “I love this sport and am happy to be surrounded by people who support me and love me.”
“These girls are just asking for the chance to play baseball,” Ava says. “Everyone should be able to play the sport that they love.”
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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