Sports
Busy rugby career keeps former Navy commander busy
Former Renegades coach is high-ranking International Gay Rugby official
When rugby players reach the end of their playing career, they either leave the sport, become coaches or referees.
Gus Ventura was about eight years into his life as a rugby player when he tore his ACL for a second time. Knee injuries can be repaired, but the end of his playing career came with a direct order from his superior officer, an Admiral in the Navy.
“He said I always looked like I had been in a bar fight and it wasn’t a good look for a senior officer,” Ventura says. “As a Naval Commander in charge of people, the role of coaching was a good fit for me to stay in the sport of rugby.”
Ventura grew up in Tulsa and played baseball as a youth along with soccer on his high school team. As part of the Navy ROTC program at University of South Carolina, sports were replaced by the program’s fitness regimen.
He began a 20-year stint in the Navy as a surface warfare officer that bounced him to locations all over the world. His first exposure to rugby happened when he was serving in Australia.
He was reassigned to Washington in 1992 and while he was playing soccer on the National Mall, he was approached by players from the Potomac Athletic Club rugby team. He was hooked after the first practice and stayed with the club for eight years.
“I loved my teammates and playing with the club, but there was a lot of homophobic banter,” Ventura says. “I don’t think they realized how hurtful it was and I stayed in the closet for fear of rejection.”
In the late 1990s, Ventura responded to a Washington Blade ad about a new rugby team that was forming for gay players. The ad was placed by Mark Hertzog and the Washington Renegades would become the first men’s rugby club in the United States to actively recruit gay men and men of color.
“A lot of people don’t know that Mark’s original intent was to start a rugby fetish club. The people who showed up actually wanted to play so we began organizing practices,” Ventura says. “A couple of my Potomac Athletic Club teammates, who I did not know were gay, also showed up.”
After the ACL tear, Ventura became the first coach of the Renegades for three years before moving on to coach Catholic University for the next three years.
He was transferred by the Navy to California where he continued coaching with the San Diego Armada and helped start the Los Angeles Rebellion, both LGBT-based rugby teams.
After retiring from the Navy in 2008, Ventura returned to D.C. because he was accepted into the Ph.D program at George Washington University School of Engineering with a focus on emergency management.
Ventura’s work in the international rugby community started a few years before that when he began coaching the IGR World Barbarians in the 2006 Bingham Cup which is hosted biennially by International Gay Rugby (IGR).
IGR, which is based in London, is the umbrella organization for gay and inclusive rugby clubs around the world. The Bingham Cup held in Amsterdam in 2018 drew 2,200 players including local gay players.
“The IGR World Barbarians is made up of players who don’t have a team in their country. They come together to play every two years in the Bingham Cup,” Ventura says.
The IGR has grown faster than expected over the last four years leading its organizers to establish regional representation contact points, electing Ventura as the North America East representative and then the first trustee for North America.
“The sport of rugby builds a resilience in people and in teams which leads to a sense of connection,” Ventura says. “If you are lucky enough to be a part of something people care about, that means they also care about you. We are advocating for a sense of belonging for LGBT athletes.”
Extending that thought process to USA Rugby and the United States Olympic Committee, Ventura presented before them a plan to develop programs in youth and high school rugby for LGBT players. It led to the first rugby national governing body to sign on with International Gay Rugby.
Coming up for Ventura will be coaching three IGR World Barbarians teams at the International Inclusive Cup on October 5 in Tokyo. The event takes place during the Rugby World Cup 2019 and it marks the first openly gay rugby ever to be held in Japan.
Still based in D.C., Ventura finds time to work on his research patent and is enjoying married life with his husband, Jordan. The pair have been together since 2009 and though Ventura had already proposed, they sped up their wedding over marriage equality concerns after the election of our current president.
For Ventura, the belonging, the sense of purpose, the rugby brotherhood — they point to a place where people can be supported as individuals regardless of their body type, gender or identity.
“In rugby, it doesn’t matter what you weigh or how tall you are, there is a role for everyone, and everyone can be a contributing member,” Ventura says. “Gay athleticism is coming of age and it is having a wonderful impact on our community.”
Sports
English soccer bans transgender women from women’s teams
British Supreme Court last month ruled legal definition of woman limited to ‘biological women’
The organization that governs English soccer on Thursday announced it will no longer allow transgender women to play on women’s teams.
The British Supreme Court on April 16 ruled the legal definition of a woman is limited to “biological women” and does not include trans women. The Football Association’s announcement, which cites the ruling, notes its new policy will take effect on June 1.
“As the governing body of the national sport, our role is to make football accessible to as many people as possible, operating within the law and international football policy defined by UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) and FIFA,” said the Football Association in a statement that announced the policy change. “Our current policy, which allows transgender women to participate in the women’s game, was based on this principle and supported by expert legal advice.”
“This is a complex subject, and our position has always been that if there was a material change in law, science, or the operation of the policy in grassroots football then we would review it and change it if necessary,” added the Football Association.
The Football Association also acknowledged the new policy “will be difficult for people who simply want to play the game they love in the gender by which they identify.”
“We are contacting the registered transgender women currently playing to explain the changes and how they can continue to stay involved in the game,” it said.
The Football Association told the BBC there were “fewer than 30 transgender women registered among millions of amateur players” and there are “no registered transgender women in the professional game” in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
The Scottish Football Association, which governs soccer in Scotland, is expected to also ban trans women from women’s teams.
FIFA has announced Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup, despite concerns over its human rights record that includes the death penalty for homosexuality.
The Associated Press reported FIFA confirmed the decision on Dec. 18. The AP noted Saudi Arabia is the only country that bid to host the 2034 World Cup.
“This is a historic moment for Saudi Arabia and a dream come true for all our 32 million people who simply love the game,” said Sport Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al- Faisal, who is also president of the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee, in a statement the Saudi Press Agency posted to its website.
Saudi Arabia is among the handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death.
A U.S. intelligence report concluded Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “likely approved” the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018. A federal judge in 2022 dismissed a lawsuit against Prince Mohammed after the Biden-Harris administration said he was immune to the lawsuit because he is the country’s prime minister.
Human rights activists have also criticized the Saudi government over the treatment of women, migrant workers, and other groups in the country.
“No one should be surprised by this,” Cyd Zeigler, Jr., co-founder of Outsports.com, an LGBTQ sports website, told the Washington Blade in an email after FIFA confirmed Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup. “FIFA, the International Olympic Committee, and many other world governing bodies routinely turn to authoritarian countries with terrible human-rights records to host major sporting events. There are simply few other countries willing to spend the billions of dollars it takes to build the needed infrastructure.”
Peter Tatchell, a long-time LGBTQ activist from the U.K. who is director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, in a statement described FIFA’s decision as “a betrayal of the values that football should stand for: Inclusivity, fairness, and respect for human rights.”
“This is not about football; it’s about sportswashing,” said Tatchell. “The Saudi regime is using the World Cup to launder its international image and distract from its brutal abuses. By granting them this platform, FIFA is complicit in whitewashing their crimes.”
Qatar, which borders Saudi Arabia, hosted the 2022 World Cup.
Consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in Qatar.
“Saudi Arabia was the only country to bid for the 2034 FIFA World Cup,” said Zeigler. “So, until FIFA, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and other governing bodies ban major human-rights violators from hosting, we’ll continue to see events like this in Saudi Arabia, China, Qatar, and other countries with terrible LGBTQ rights issues.”
The Blade has reached out to FIFA and the Saudi government for comment.
Sports
Controversy grows over member of Calif. university’s women’s volleyball team
Coach suspended, NCAA sued, more rivals forfeit
San Jose State University’s women volleyball team has collected yet another W by forfeit — its seventh so far this season — as controversy swirls around one player on its roster. She’s one of the seniors, and she has been dragged in the media by her own co-captain, who outed her as transgender.
The Washington Blade is not naming this student athlete since neither she nor the school have confirmed or even commented on her gender identity.
SJSU visited San Diego last weekend for a match before the Aztecs’ biggest home crowd of the season — including protesters waving “Save Women’s Sports” banners and booing one player on the Spartans team in particular: The woman who is reported to be trans.
Security was tight, with metal detectors and extra guards and police officers present. Video posted to YouTube by a right-wing sports media site — which names the player — shows an angry fan arguing with security about his First Amendment rights.
Video recorded during Nov. 9’s game shows a player for San Diego was injured following a spike by the player rumored to be trans, and had to be helped off the court. However, the video clearly shows that player was injured by landing poorly on one foot, not as a result of the spike.
The Aztecs defeated the Spartans 3-1, but San Jose has still punched its ticket to the conference finals, thanks to its record number of forfeits.
Wyoming was set to visit SJSU Thursday, but for the second time is joining other universities that have forfeited games against the Spartans, all without providing a reason. Boise State announced it will forfeit an upcoming match set for Nov. 21, its second forfeit against SJSU.
In September, the Spartans’ co-captain, senior Brooke Slusser, outed her own teammate, the player at the center of this controversy, in joining a federal lawsuit against the NCAA spearheaded by anti-trans inclusion activist and former college athlete Riley Gaines.
Slusser said in the lawsuit and in subsequent interviews that the player in question shouldn’t be on her team. The suit claims the NCAA’s policy on trans athletes violates Title IX by allowing “men” to compete in women’s sports and use women’s locker rooms where they display “full male genitalia.”
The NCAA policy for trans athletes participating in women’s volleyball aligns with that of USA Volleyball, which requires trans female athletes to suppress their testosterone below 10 nmol/L for a period of one year before competition. That is also how the NCAA determines eligibility. SJSU has stated repeatedly that all its players are eligible.
The lawsuit also asks the NCAA to revoke any titles or records won by trans female athletes in women’s competitions, which seems to be specifically aimed at stripping out trans NCAA champions Lia Thomas and CeCé Telfer of their titles in swimming and track and field, respectively.
Prior to this season, the player rumored to be trans did not attract any attention other than being a successful starter, like Slusser. But now that she is in the media spotlight, Slusser has come forward to tell right wing media, including Megyn Kelly, why she feels another woman two inches taller than she is poses a danger.
“I don’t feel safe,” Slusser said on “The Megyn Kelly Show” last month. “I’ve gone to my coaches and said I refuse to play against [her] … It’s not safe.”
In the video, both Kelly and Slusser refer to the player as “him” and a “man,” and name her.
Now comes another twist: San Jose State University suspended associate head coach Melissa Batie-Smoose with pay, indefinitely, after she filed a Title IX complaint against SJSU. She claims the player Slusser identified as trans conspired with an opponent to help the team lose a match and injure Slusser. Batie-Smoose named the player in question in her complaint and on Sept. 23, joined the same lawsuit that Slusser is now a part of.
“Safety is being taken away from women,” Batie-Smoose told Fox News. “Fair play is taken away from women. We need more and more people to do this and fight this fight because women’s sports, as we know it right now will be forever changed.”
Media reporting on the suspension, including Fox News, continue to name the athlete in question, with some also reporting what they say is the athlete’s birth name.
San Jose State released a statement following the suspension of Batie-Smoose: “The associate head coach of the San Jose State University women’s volleyball team is not with the team at this time, and we will not provide further information on this matter,” the team said.
SJSU Coach Todd Kress told ESPN that reports saying that any member of the Spartans colluded with their opponent are “littered with lies.”
The Spartans are currently among the top six finishers in the Mountain West Conference that will qualify to compete in the conference tournament scheduled for Nov. 27-30.
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