Sports
Local athletes: why I joined an LGBT sports team
Filling a void fostered by bullying, harassment in schools
Brandon Waggoner grew up in West Texas and Tennessee and never played sports growing up but excelled in various LGBT leagues in D.C. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Locker room fears, bullying and anti-LGBT bias have prevented many within the LGBT community, especially in high school and college, from even attempting to play sports. In some cases, they have also chosen not to be spectators because of feeling unsafe.
There are likely thousands of LGBT teenagers in America who are not playing sports because they fear the repercussions of joining a community that is historically unwelcoming.
FIND MORE OF THE WASHINGTON BLADE SPORTS ISSUE HERE.
Research studies by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) found that high school LGBT students avoid locker rooms (39 percent), physical education class (32.5 percent) and the school sports field (22.8 percent) because of feeling unsafe.
LGBT sports advocacy groups have been producing resource guides for everyone involved in the sports community in an attempt to educate. Diversity training is now pretty much inescapable from grade school sports to professional sports.
Most of the athletes competing in the LGBT sports community of Washington, D.C. are post-college age and are experiencing exactly what the national LGBT sports advocacy groups are trying to accomplish: They are competing in a safe space and they are flourishing.
Brandon Waggoner grew up in West Texas and Tennessee. He never played sports growing up but had the desire as he taught himself how to throw a ball when he was a teenager.
“I never joined a team because I was nervous about being in the locker room,” says Waggoner.
In college, through his dorm, he began playing intramural sports as a closeted gay man and was instantly hooked. After arriving in D.C. he was playing on a team with his employer when he heard about a local gay flag football team.
“I had just come out and was unfamiliar with the athletic capabilities of gay people,” says Waggoner. “I joined the team thinking I was going to be a dominant player. Instead, I was the one who was dominated.”
Besides quarterbacking in the DC Gay Flag Football League, Waggoner has also played on the Washington DC Gay Basketball League. Along with his teammates, he has made it to the playoffs in both leagues.
Alison Samuels went to a small private high school in California and played soccer and field hockey. She was the first openly gay person at her school and despite her efforts to fit in and create a comfortable environment, she was asked by her teammates not to use the locker room.
“That happened in my junior year,” says Samuels. “I continued to play but the perception became that any female friends I had were likely gay, so I stopped having close female friends and I refused to touch or hug my female friends.”
She tried the club soccer team at Mary Washington University in her freshman year but did not fit in and decided to stop playing sports. She eventually found a safe environment on a club rugby team in her junior year.
After moving to D.C. she saw a Craigslist posting for the Federal Triangles Soccer Club and joined the team. “It is a completely different environment,” says Samuels. “More fun, more relaxed and less stress.”
Samuels is now president of the Federal Triangles Soccer Club.
Brian Sparrow grew up on naval bases including some time spent at Guantanamo Bay. His father taught him the basics of sports but his assignments took him away on ships for up to nine months at a time.
“My mom would sign me up for sports leagues,” says Sparrow. “But I spent most of my time playing sports by myself.”
Sparrow was small for his age so after his family settled in Maryland he continued to play sports in his neighborhood instead of joining team sports. After coming out, he discovered the LGBT sports community in D.C.
“Playing sports has defined me as a gay man,” says Sparrow. “I really began to flourish when I started joining the LGBT sports leagues.”
Sparrow has played with the Capital Tennis Association, Chesapeake and Potomac Softball, DC Gay Flag Football League, Capital Punishment Volleyball and the Washington, D.C. Gay Basketball League.
These athletes and thousands like them in leagues across the country express a similar appreciation for LGBT-specific programs that allow all athletes to reap the many benefits of playing sports.
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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