Sports
GAME CHANGERS: Stonewall Climbing founder Bryan Yamasaki embraces diversity
Sports, music lover plans national outreach survey in March
This week in the Blade’s Game Changers series, we meet a gay athlete who has been on a mission to create a more inclusive environment among local queer climbers.
Bryan Yamasaki launched Stonewall Climbing in 2017 along with Brinda Dass in a league format with two seasons per year. There were already climbing groups in existence, but he was looking to expand the definition of a safe space.
“Even though they were LGBTQ-based groups in existence, I didn’t consider them safe spaces. There was ageism, racism and sexism. In the LGBTQ climbing community, we weren’t exposed to people who weren’t gay men,” Yamasaki says. “The LGBTQ community is constantly changing and there are people who we haven’t seen or heard yet. It is an ongoing evolution.”
Yamasaki grew up in Gaithersburg and was more focused on music than sports. He played piano and was in the marching band in high school where he played trombone, baritone horn and tuba.
He ran cross country in high school and picked up fencing in college along with playing in the Ohio University Marching Band.
When he returned to the D.C. area after graduation, he grew tired of the bar scene and wanted to find a healthy lifestyle. A quick search of trust-building activities brought up climbing.
“In my first climb I got halfway up the wall and had a bridesmaid moment,” Yamasaki says. “It was like walking a plank and it felt symbolic that it was just me out there by myself.”
Within a year, he stepped into a leadership position and began recruiting people. The climbing touchstones are self-reliance, learning from failure and using physical activity to improve self-confidence.
Yamasaki says the model being built still needs work and he continues to look for pockets of queer climbers. In March he will launch a national survey with hopes of connecting with people from the deep South to the Pacific Northwest.
“I recently traveled to Tennessee and Oregon for climbing events and the first thing I do when I visit a new city is find the local LGBTQ community center,” Yamasaki says. “I am interested in communities that create safe spaces and learning how I can use that information to make climbing available to more people.”
Sport climbing is growing at a fast pace and will be included in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics this summer. There is no queer national governing body, but Yamasaki hopes that will happen eventually along with a national tournament.
“This journey started with feeling alone, being alone and wanting to raise my self-awareness. Embracing the queer climbing community has exposed me to other people who are like me,” Yamasaki says. “That self-awareness has led to me asking what is missing from this picture and how do I actively change it. I am willingly putting myself out there because I know there are more people who need to be seen.”
Iran and Egypt on Friday faced off during the World Cup’s “Pride Match” in Seattle.
Iran is among the handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death. Discrimination and persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity is commonplace in Egypt.
Friday’s match coincided with Pride weekend in Seattle. The Egyptian Football Association and the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran both objected to playing in the “Pride Match.”
Egypt and Iran tied 1-1.
FIFA, for its part, allowed Pride flags inside the stadium during the match.
“The FIFA World Cup 2026 is an inclusive event that welcomes people from all backgrounds,” a FIFA spokesperson told the Washington Blade in a statement. “Fans of all sexual orientations and gender identities are welcome at matches and events. General statements of human rights, including rainbow flags and other flags representing sexual orientation and gender identity, are permitted under the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Stadium Code of Conduct and may be displayed inside stadiums provided they are used in a manner consistent with the code.”
Human Rights Watch welcomed FIFA’s decision to allow Pride flags inside the stadium. Outright International, a global LGBTQ and intersex rights group, distributed Pride flags in Seattle on Friday, which was Pride Match Day.
“Visibility matters,” said Outright International Executive Director Maria Sjödin. “Pride is now being celebrated in more than 100 countries, including this weekend in Seattle. For many LGBTIQ people, seeing a Pride flag in public is a reminder that they are not alone, and that their rights and dignity are recognized.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino earlier this year told Die Weltwoche, a Swiss magazine, that “there will be no ‘Pride Match’ at the (FIFA) World Cup.”
“There will be a FIFA World Cup match in Seattle, and on the same day, events organized by external organizations will be taking place in the city,” said Infantino. “But that has nothing to do with the match itself.”
Peter Tatchell, a long-time LGBTQ activist from the U.K. who is director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, was among those who traveled to Seattle for Friday’s match. Tatchell accused FIFA of not vetting World Cup teams — specifically Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Senegal, Qatar, Tunisia, Morocco, Iraq, Uzbekistan, and Algeria — over whether they would allow gay players.
“FIFA is protecting LGBT+ visibility in the stands while failing to protect LGBT+ players on the pitch,” said Tatchell.
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.
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