Sports
OutRiders unite local LGBT cycling enthusiasts
NPR director rides year round; Army vet is life-long athlete
OutRiders teammates Marjorie Rudinsky and Billy Candela take a selfie. (Photo courtesy Rudinsky)
OutRiders is a metro D.C. cycling group for the LGBT community and its allies. Members organize about 60 rides per year from late spring to early fall. Weekend rides range from 20-60 miles with shorter weekday rides after work offered throughout their season.
This week in the Washington Blade All Star series, we meet two LGBT cyclists, both originally from Long Island, who are thriving on two wheels.
Billy Candela didn’t play team sports growing up but enjoyed mountain biking and riding the trails near his house. After graduating from Rochester Institute of Technology, he lived in Honolulu for three years before arriving in D.C. in 2009.
A dislike for the Metro led to Candela cycling to work every day, rain or shine, all year long. His job as a creative director at NPR affords him a locker and a shower after his rides. Looking for more social activities, he found the OutRiders on Meetup.
“I needed some balance in my life and joining the OutRiders has helped me to be more disciplined in pursuing things I enjoy,” Candela says. “It has given me a social connection and a better sense of community.”
Being in the group has ramped up his cycling and he recently stepped into the role of a ride leader for the OutRiders. The position has led to him seeking out new areas for riding.
“I led my first ride this season and mapped out the route in advance. D.C. is so great for cycling and the different routes open up the city in a different way,” Candela says. “Exploring on a bike makes the city seem smaller and more accessible. That’s exciting.”
Candela also does yoga with Stonewall Yoga and has found that his social circle has become more entwined. He has also been a part of the OutRiders contingent in the urban cycling adventure, the 50 States Ride.
“Biking is a community in itself,” Candela says. “Most people put their bikes away after October, but I will still be out on the trails, exploring on my own.”
After graduating from West Point, Marjorie Rudinsky served as a commissioned Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. She was stationed in both Germany and the United States and resigned her commission in 1999 because of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
“I couldn’t live under the policy with my integrity intact. It felt like I wasn’t being true to myself,” Rudinsky says. “The values and principles of West Point become a part of who you are and you live the honor code.”
She went on to graduate from the New Hampshire School of Law and came to D.C. in 2008 to work in the federal government. A lifelong athlete, Rudinsky grew up playing soccer, softball, tennis and basketball. She was on the varsity teams at West Point in soccer and softball.
After arriving in Washington, she stayed active on her own with running and CrossFit before finding the OutRiders on Meetup.
“It has been a fantastic experience with great people who are friendly, helpful and fun,” Rudinsky says. “The ride leaders are dedicated and offer details to help people understand if the ride is something they can complete.”
Rudinsky also points to the meal stops the riders share together as a great opportunity for fellowship, especially if it’s in rural areas of Maryland.
“The fact that this organization offers cycling to the LGBT community is incredible. Wearing our OutRiders gear at events like the Cider Ride or even in restaurants in outlying areas, raises our visibility,” Rudinsky says. “Having an LGBT niche is great and all of us riding together fosters the collegiality of the group.”
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.
The Washington Capitals will host Pride Night on Saturday, Jan. 17, when they host the Florida Panthers at Capital One Arena. A special ticket offer featuring a Pride-themed Capitals rainbow jersey is available at washcaps.com.
Fans are invited to a pre-game Block Party at District E beginning at 5 p.m. The event will feature a performance by the band NovaKane. Specialty happy hour food and beverages will be available, as well as giveaways. There will also be a presence by several local LGBTQ+ community organizations.
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