Sports
West Hollywood Aquatics doc slated for D.C. screening
‘Light in the Water’ follows gay swimmers during AIDS tragedy
After the inaugural Gay Games in 1982, a group of gay athletes from West Hollywood formed a swim team and water polo team that would eventually be renamed West Hollywood Aquatics. It was the same year that AIDS surfaced in the gay community and it became part of the teams.
With their teammates dying around them, the athletes rose above the darkness using the power of sports and community to build a foundation that many of them are still leaning on today.
The film “Light in the Water” debuted with a shortened version on the Logo Network last June to critical acclaim. It chronicles the journey of the West Hollywood teams and offers a glimpse of what it was like to be gay and an athlete in the 1980s.
Not only is it a story about swimming, water polo and the HIV/AIDS crisis, it is a story about hope, perseverance and the battle for acceptance.
“Swimming helped because in a way, it was a distraction,” says West Hollywood swimmer Jim Ballard in the film. “If you could swim, you could live. Or at least you were alive for that moment. At one point in time, there was a funeral every week.”
After the Logo debut, “Light in the Water” began running a different, longer version at film festivals and screenings all over the world. Just two weeks ago, the film picked up a Daytime Emmy nomination from its screening on Logo.
It will be screened in Washington (but is sold out) on Thursday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m. at AMC Georgetown 14. The event is being co-hosted by LGBT-based District of Columbia Aquatics Club. A panel discussion will follow.
Appearing on the panel will be director Lis Bartlett, cast member Charlie Carson from Team New York Aquatics and Jack Markey, co-founder of District of Columbia Aquatics Club. Both Carson and Markey were also at the swim training camp last week which is hosted annually by LGBT-based Team New York Aquatics.
Bartlett moved to Los Angeles in 2011 to pursue filmmaking. A swimmer since middle school, she chose LGBT-based West Hollywood Aquatics over the many straight teams in the area to continue her swimming.
Over time, she began to realize the team was a microcosm for the city of Los Angeles. It made her think about what everyone has in common as athletes and what they share from the experience of exercising.
She pitched the idea of a documentary with Nathan Santell, a film producer and West Hollywood swimmer, and began the process of interviewing surviving long-time members.
“My first interview was with Jon Bauer and he really allowed himself to be vulnerable during our filming,” Bartlett says. “When I realized how powerful the team was for him during that time, I knew it was going to be a multi-layered project.”
Jon Bauer has been a member of the team since 1988 and was a pioneer as a dentist in Los Angeles for treating patients with AIDS. He reflects on that first interview with Bartlett.
“We were talking about swimming and then they shifted gears and asked about AIDS. I was ripe for the question,” Bauer says. “I was in the trenches as a dentist and it was overwhelming. I actually treated the very first person in Los Angeles that we are aware of that died from AIDS in 1978. We didn’t know why he died; he was very young and healthy and six months later he was gone. I have lost hundreds of patients, partners, my brother — there was a lot there and the question went deep.”
Both Bauer and Ballard are still swimming and reaping the benefits that result from being active and part of a greater community. Just last week they attended a seven day training camp in Palm Springs with 70 LGBT swimmers from around the country.
“The film is an exquisite opportunity to experience what we have been through and to bring up opportunities to heal. To relate that to healing from swimming and what exercise did for me, and to share that, was a gift,” Bauer says. “People want to be heard and to know that they have been seen. Lis and Nathan did an incredible job capturing stories and they reflect beautifully on every aspect of life.”
“These people who I swim with every day have been through so much, yet they are so joyful,” Bartlett says. “They have become my family and my community. I think the reason the film has resonated with different types of people is because it touches on the many things that we all have in common including loss, adversity, perseverance and hope.”
Tickets for Light in the Water can be purchased here.
The trailer for Light in the Water can be seen here.
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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