Sports
Suffering with symptoms?
Washingtonians are especially susceptible to pollen and other allergies
Today I feel the way my computer has been acting — sluggish and congested.
Lots of people are feeling the same way. Yes, it’s allergy season. While some suffer more than others, we don’t have to suffer in silence. Maybe we don’t have to suffer at all.
One of my personal training clients, Scott Button, says he feels, “like I have been smacked upside the head by the pollen fairy.”
Are your allergies driving you crazy? Perhaps making you feel miserable, cranky and intolerant? Your allergies may be keeping you away from the gym and diminishing your productivity level. Allergies can affect your overall well being and be a nagging thorn in your side that won’t seem to go away. Allergies affect our quality of life.
Yesterday I was lethargic, congested and had a runny nose and cough — I felt worn down. Today after a night of restless sleep I don’t feel a whole lot better and since I just received a physical and clean bill of health, I’m fairly certain it’s spring allergies. But let’s not diminish the symptoms and side effects of allergy sufferers because just about everyone I know is experiencing any number of symptoms and in no small part these symptoms can be debilitating. In fact, “allergies and asthma are among the leading causes of missed work or school,” says allergist Dr. Howard Boltansky. “They could be the most prevalent chronic diseases.”
I was raised in Waltham, Mass., and was diagnosed with various “environmental” allergies when I was about 17 after cracking a rib from all the coughing I was doing. In fact I think I coughed up part of that rib. My allergies at least then, were quite standard — cat dander, mold, mildew, pollen and seemingly everything outside particularly during spring. I remember the process to diagnose my allergies was long and arduous and my doctor’s had tried several medications before the right one seemed to work best. I continued taking this medication for many years and then my allergies seemed to dissipate.
Fast forward to my move to what is arguably the allergy capital of the world, Washington D.C., in the spring of 1993. Soon after my arrival to D.C. my allergies came flushing back to me with a vengeance. I was told Washington was built on a swamp and you should try not to breathe swamps. D.C. has some of the highest allergy rates in the country because it’s a very green city filled with trees, grass and water which harbors mold, pollen and other allergens. Residents here check the pollen count along with the weather forecast.
Medications have come a long way in their efficacy and like most treatment protocols may require some trial and error. I take an over-the-counter allergy remedy and a prescription and while I often still suffer from my allergies wrath, I cannot imagine how I would feel without them.
There are other forms of help too — the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America — a non-profit devoted exclusively to allergies, is online at aafa.org. For the 50 million Americans who suffer from allergies, there are no cures but they can be managed with proper prevention and treatment. Also explore the allergy information at webmd.com, which reports that at least two out of every 10 Americans has allergy problems. The Center for Disease Control (cdc.gov) is another great resource.
Allergies may be difficult to diagnose and may entail many tests and perhaps involve several specialists, but it’s crucial to be under a doctor’s supervision because there are many treatment protocols for the millions of allergy sufferers. And if you choose not to take the conventional Western medicine route, there are alternatives with information available on most web sites containing allergy information — the bottom line is discovering what works best for you and taking action.
As always, I recommend consulting with a medical professional in regard to your health to properly diagnose and treat any symptoms you may be having.
Sports
Attitude! French ice dancers nail ‘Vogue’ routine
Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry strike a pose in memorable Olympics performance
Madonna’s presence is being felt at the Olympic Games in Italy.
Guillaume Cizeron and his rhythm ice dancing partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry of France performed a flawless skate to Madonna’s “Vogue” and “Rescue Me” on Monday.
The duo scored an impressive 90.18 for their effort, the best score of the night.
“We’ve been working hard the whole season to get over 90, so it was nice to see the score on the screen,” Fournier Beaudry told Olympics.com. “But first of all, just coming out off the ice, we were very happy about what we delivered and the pleasure we had out there. With the energy of the crowd, it was really amazing.”
Watch the routine on YouTube here.
Italy
Olympics Pride House ‘really important for the community’
Italy lags behind other European countries in terms of LGBTQ rights
The four Italian advocacy groups behind the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics’ Pride House hope to use the games to highlight the lack of LGBTQ rights in their country.
Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano organized the Pride House that is located in Milan’s MEET Digital Culture Center. The Washington Blade on Feb. 5 interviewed Pride House Project Manager Joseph Naklé.
Naklé in 2020 founded Peacox Basket Milano, Italy’s only LGBTQ basketball team. He also carried the Olympic torch through Milan shortly before he spoke with the Blade. (“Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie last month participated in the torch relay in Feltre, a town in Italy’s Veneto region.)
Naklé said the promotion of LGBTQ rights in Italy is “actually our main objective.”
ILGA-Europe in its Rainbow Map 2025 notes same-sex couples lack full marriage rights in Italy, and the country’s hate crimes law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. Italy does ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, but the country’s nondiscrimination laws do not include gender identity.
ILGA-Europe has made the following recommendations “in order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Italy.”
• Marriage equality for same-sex couples
• Depathologization of trans identities
• Automatic co-parent recognition available for all couples
“We are not really known to be the most openly LGBT-friendly country,” Naklé told the Blade. “That’s why it (Pride House) was really important for the community.”
“We want to use the Olympic games — because there is a big media attention — and we want to use this media attention to raise the voice,” he added.
Naklé noted Pride House will host “talks and roundtables every night” during the games that will focus on a variety of topics that include transgender and nonbinary people in sports and AI. Another will focus on what Naklé described to the Blade as “the importance of political movements now to fight for our rights, especially in places such as Italy or the U.S. where we are going backwards, and not forwards.”
Seven LGBTQ Olympians — Italian swimmer Alex Di Giorgio, Canadian ice dancers Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver, Canadian figure skater Eric Radford, Spanish figure skater Javier Raya, Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson, and Irish field hockey and cricket player Nikki Symmons — are scheduled to participate in Pride House’s Out and Proud event on Feb. 14.
Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood representatives are expected to speak at Pride House on Feb. 21.
The event will include a screening of Mariano Furlani’s documentary about Pride House and LGBTQ inclusion in sports. The MiX International LGBTQ+ Film and Queer Culture Festival will screen later this year in Milan. Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood is also planning to show the film during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Naklé also noted Pride House has launched an initiative that allows LGBTQ sports teams to partner with teams whose members are either migrants from African and Islamic countries or people with disabilities.
“The objective is to show that sports is the bridge between these communities,” he said.
Bisexual US skier wins gold
Naklé spoke with the Blade a day before the games opened. The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will close on Feb. 22.
More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are competing in the games.
Breezy Johnson, an American alpine skier who identifies as bisexual, on Sunday won a gold medal in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, on the same day helped the U.S. win a gold medal in team figure skating.
Glenn said she received threats on social media after she told reporters during a pre-Olympics press conference that LGBTQ Americans are having a “hard time” with the Trump-Vance administration in the White House. The Associated Press notes Glenn wore a Pride pin on her jacket during Sunday’s medal ceremony.
“I was disappointed because I’ve never had so many people wish me harm before, just for being me and speaking about being decent — human rights and decency,” said Glenn, according to the AP. “So that was really disappointing, and I do think it kind of lowered that excitement for this.”
Puerto Rico
Bad Bunny shares Super Bowl stage with Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga
Puerto Rican activist celebrates half time show
Bad Bunny on Sunday shared the stage with Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl halftime show in Santa Clara, Calif.
Martin came out as gay in 2010. Gaga, who headlined the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, is bisexual. Bad Bunny has championed LGBTQ rights in his native Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
“Not only was a sophisticated political statement, but it was a celebration of who we are as Puerto Ricans,” Pedro Julio Serrano, president of the LGBTQ+ Federation of Puerto Rico, told the Washington Blade on Monday. “That includes us as LGBTQ+ people by including a ground-breaking superstar and legend, Ricky Martin singing an anti-colonial anthem and showcasing Young Miko, an up-and-coming star at La Casita. And, of course, having queer icon Lady Gaga sing salsa was the cherry on the top.”
La Casita is a house that Bad Bunny included in his residency in San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, last year. He recreated it during the halftime show.
“His performance brought us together as Puerto Ricans, as Latin Americans, as Americans (from the Americas) and as human beings,” said Serrano. “He embraced his own words by showcasing, through his performance, that the ‘only thing more powerful than hate is love.’”
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