Sports
Glowing year for D.C. amateur LGBT sports leagues
D.C. Gay Flag Football League, Capital Tennis Association among high achievers
Amateur queer athletes made strides in many sports leagues this year. (Photos by Kevin Majoros)
What a year it was for the LGBT sports community in Washington. The noncompetitive sports clubs offered a full list of recreational activities and the competitive sports teams left their mark on the national and world stage.
Gay Games 10 was contested in Paris with about 10,000 athletes from 91 countries vying for medals in 36 sports. Athletes from Team D.C. hauled in 234 medals in the sports of rowing, volleyball, soccer, swimming, road running, fencing, triathlon, track & field, basketball, open water swimming, dancesport, tennis, golf and bowling.
Below are 2018 highlights from a select few of the LGBT sports teams:
D.C. Gay Flag Football League maintained its two-season league structure and sent multiple travel teams to tournaments around the country. In September, members sent four men’s teams and one women’s team to Denver where the Washington Generals were crowned Gay Bowl XVIII Division A champions.
Capital Tennis Association members traveled to tournaments, hosted league play throughout the year along with hosting their annual Capital Classic tennis tournament. In October they traveled to New York City where they won the Atlantic Cup for the fourth consecutive year defeating Philadelphia, New York City and Boston.
Chesapeake and Potomac Softball League players ran multiple leagues, traveled to tournaments and hosted their annual MAGIC tournament. In September one of their women’s travel teams, D.C. Swag, captured the championship title in the D Division at the 2018 ASANA Softball World Series in New Orleans.
Stonewall Sports leagues have expanded to 16 cities across the country with their latest addition being Salt Lake City. Members hosted their Stonewall National Tournament in New Orleans and also traveled to the Sin City Classic in Las Vegas. Locally, they host kickball, dodgeball, bocce, climbing, billiards and yoga.
D.C. Furies played in the USA Rugby Women’s Premier League and hosted Ruggerfest with 36 teams in attendance. Their sevens team qualified and played in New York City in June at the USA Rugby Club 7S National Championships where they placed ninth.
District of Columbia Aquatics Club led the way at the Paris Gay Games in August with 121 medals and shattered 15 IGLA world records. In July, members hosted the 27th Annual Maryland Swim for Life open water event on the Eastern Shore.
D.C. Sentinels basketball team traveled to tournaments nationally and their weekly pick-up games continued along with the Washington D.C. Gay Basketball League. This year they introduced the Washington D.C. Women’s Basketball League.
Washington Scandals, Washington Renegades and the Baltimore Flamingos, all played in USA Rugby’s Mid-Atlantic Senior Men’s Division IV conference. They also traveled to tournaments including the Bingham Cup in Amsterdam in June. The Renegades Blues team captured the Bingham Bowl.
D.C. Strokes Rowing Club continued with multiple rowing programs and hosted its annual Stonewall Regatta bringing about 400 rowers to D.C. The Strokes raced sprints and head races throughout the year including the U.S. Masters Rowing Championships and Head of the Charles.
Federal Triangles Soccer Club hosted another successful season of the Summer of Freedom Soccer League along with competing in other District leagues and tournament play. They continue to run three tournaments per year.
A big welcome in 2018 to the LGBT players and allies competing in Rogue Cornhole, Gay Polo League, Old Dominion Dinkers pickleball, Eastern Women’s Baseball Conference and Potomac Curling Club.
Also offered locally are golf, sailing, roller skating, adventuring, hiking, bowling, cheerleading, cycling, triathlon, dancesport, darts, hockey, orienteering, racquetball, road running, walking, scuba diving, ultimate frisbee, snowboarding, skiing, volleyball, women’s roller derby, water polo and music ensemble.
Information on the sports teams and sports clubs can be found at teamdc.org.
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.
Sports
Jason Collins dies at 47
First openly gay man to actively play for major sports team battled brain cancer
Jason Collins, the first openly gay man to actively play for a major professional sports team, died on Tuesday after a battle with brain cancer. He was 47.
The California native had briefly played for the Washington Wizards in 2013 before coming out in a Sports Illustrated op-ed.
Collins in 2014 became the first openly gay man to play in a game for a major American professional sports league when he played 11 minutes during a Brooklyn Nets game. He wore jersey number 98 in honor of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student murdered outside of Laramie, Wyo., in 1998.
Collins told the Washington Blade in 2014 that his life was “exponentially better” since he came out. Collins the same year retired from the National Basketball Association after 13 seasons.
Collins married his husband, Brunson Green, in May 2025.
The NBA last September announced Collins had begun treatment for a brain tumor. Collins on Dec. 11, 2025, announced he had Stage 4 glioblastoma.
“We are heartbroken to share that Jason Collins, our beloved husband, son, brother and uncle, has died after a valiant fight with glioblastoma,” said Collins’s family in a statement the NBA released. “Jason changed lives in unexpected ways and was an inspiration to all who knew him and to those who admired him from afar. We are grateful for the outpouring of love and prayers over the past eight months and for the exceptional medical care Jason received from his doctors and nurses. Our family will miss him dearly.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Collins’s “impact and influence extended far beyond basketball as he helped make the NBA, WNBA, and larger sports community more inclusive and welcoming for future generations.”
“He exemplified outstanding leadership and professionalism throughout his 13-year NBA career and in his dedicated work as an NBA Cares Ambassador,” said Silver. “Jason will be remembered not only for breaking barriers, but also for the kindness and humanity that defined his life and touched so many others.”
“To call Jason Collins a groundbreaking figure for our community is simply inadequate. We truly lost a giant today,” added Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson in a statement. “He came out as gay — while still playing — at a time when men’s athletes simply did not do that. But as he powerfully demonstrated in his final years in the league and his post-NBA career, stepping forward as he did boldly changed the conversation.”
“He was and will always be a legend for the LGBTQ+ community, and we are heartbroken to hear of his passing at the young age of 47,” she said. “Our hearts go out to his family and loved ones. We will keep fighting on in his honor until the day everyone can be who they are on their terms.”
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