(UK) - East London rugby club Kings Cross Steelers have won the right to host the 2009 European Gay rugby Union Cup. The Steelers are the current champions and will welcome more than 17 teams in May next year. Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, said: "The tournament will provide a platform to introduce Lesbian and Gay sport to new audiences." The first Union Cup was held in 2005 in Montpellier, France and then in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2007. The tournament will be held on 22 and 23 May 2009, at the club's West Ham ground.
Note: Read more on BBC
(New Zealand) - The inaugural Asia Pacific Outgames and Midsumma Festival in Melbourne begins next weekend, and organisers say they've signed up a large number New Zealanders to come and "play with their neighbours". Taking place between 19 January and 10 February, the Festival and Outgames aim to embrace the Asia Pacific gay and lesbian community and their friends, with a wide variety of sports, as well as a Human Rights Conference, and cultural festival including shows, parties, film screenings, and a Pride March in St. Kilda.
Note: Read more on Gay NZ
Imagine waking up every day and feeling like you were in the wrong body. Imagine the frustration and angst it would cause to know that although you felt like a human being, those around you didn't treat you that way. Imagine spending a lifetime trying to excel at a sport only to be told that physically you were unable to compete because an unprecedented gender policy forbids your inclusion. Imagine being the first person ever to challenge that rule and win. For former tennis player Renee Richards, those scenarios were reality. As one of the first recognized professional transgendered athletes, Richards made waves and broke down barriers, creating a legacy that would change the face of sports forever.
Note: Read more on PageOneQ
Imagine you’ve been a tennis player. You’re 18, you wear glasses, you stand 5ft 4in, you are at Wimbledon for the second time, the world has never heard of you and you are drawn against the No 1 seed Margaret Court. You win 7-5 in the third. You win the ladies doubles that same year and, charmed by your audacity, journalists call you “Little Miss Moffitt”. It would be the first of many labels. Three years later you marry Larry King and Miss Moffitt becomes Billie Jean King.
Note: Read more on Times Online
(Canada) - Vancouver will be quite Gay in the summer of 2011 if civic leaders stumping for the North America Continental Outgames and Human Rights Conference have their way. Some 3,500 Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered athletes and up to 2,500 delegates to the conference could attend, Vancouver Pride Society president John Boychuk said yesterday. The 10 days of events "would come to a conclusion the week before Pride Week," which is in August, said Boychuk. "It would put the city in a long, Gay spell. We did have the Gay Games here in the '90s. Since then, the Gay and Lesbian sporting world has made leaps and bounds."
Note: Read more on canada.com
At Changing Attitude Nigeria we are very disappointed at the outcome of the bidding process for hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Like most Nigerians we would have loved such an important international sporting occasion to come to our country. Some people may be tempted to accuse us of hypocrisy, as it was CAN that issued a damning report about Abuja’s bid, almost as if determined to undermine Nigeria’s chance of hosting the games. In fact, our disappointment is that the Nigerian government failed to respond to the issues we raised in time for the bidding process. Read more...
(New Zealand) - The co-president of Melbourne's inaugural Gay and Lesbian multi-sport games is holding meetings in Auckland and Wellington this week so New Zealanders can find out more about the event. The first Asia Pacific Outgames will take place between 30 January to 3 February 2008, staged during the Midsumma Festival, Melbourne's premier Gay and Lesbian cultural and arts event. A two-day Human Rights Conference is also planned - with New Zealand's own Georgina Beyer recently announced as one of the keynote speakers. Badminton, hockey, dancesport, lawn bowls, rowing, running, swimming, ten-pin bowling, tennis and water polo are among the many sport tournaments planned at the Games.
Note: Read more on GayNZ
(USA) - As early as the 1920’s tennis legend Bill Tilden had put his mark on Gay sports history. With three Wimbledon titles, seven US open Championships and leading the US Davis Cup team to 7 victories, Tilden was considered by some to be the greatest player to ever grace the court. It was his personal life and his penchant for underage boys, however, that made him a controversial character in the tennis world. Following his arrests, Tilden was all but shunned from the tennis community and was almost written out of the sport's history. However, his accomplishments and his outspokenness did make a profound difference in the game and to the Gay community by not making any apologies for being Gay.
Note: Read more on GayWired
(Argentine) - More than 500 footballers from 28 countries are getting ready to kick off at the Gay World Cup in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. The holders, London's Stonewall FC, are among the favourites, with the US and Argentina providing the closest rivals. It is the first time the cup has been held in Latin America. The annual event, in its 17th year, is about serious football and has a serious message, but players also seem keen to enjoy the city's nightlife. Twenty-eight teams representing cities from the US, Canada, Australia, Iceland, Germany, England, Argentina, Chile and Mexico, among others, are taking part in a week of games.
Note: Read more on BBC
Peter Tatchell can hardly be questioned when he points out how remarkable it is that Fashanu is the only leading footballer to announce his homosexuality. Tatchell admits that Fashanu was a troubled individual, and that he may well have made problems for himself as his days began to unravel. According to Tatchell, Fashanu reckoned that at the top level of English football there were probably a dozen or so gay or bisexual players, none of whom would dream of leaving the closet. His agony was deepened when he turned to born-again Christianity, only to find that he had replaced the sneering and the innuendos of football with threats of hell-fire damnation.
Note: Read more on Independent
(USA) - David Kopay, a University of Washington alum who was the first athlete on an American professional team to come out as gay, has pledged $1 million to the UW's Q Center, whose mission is to create an inclusive and celebratory environment for people of all sexual orientations. "The greatest gift we can give one another is the vision and beauty of life," Kopay said. "I continually hear from people all over the world that my act of coming out especially when I did in 1975 has empowered them in their search for self and to see their vision. Hopefully my million-dollar pledge will influence others to support the University and the Q Center continue to help others to do just that."
Note: Read more on Seattle Times
(Australia) - The organising entity for the inaugural 1st Asia Pacific Outgames, Melbourne Outgames Inc. (MOI), has announced that it is to stage a regional Gay and Lesbian multi-sport event in Melbourne, Australia that is set to take place between 30 January – 3 February, 2008. It will be staged during Melbourne’s premier Gay and Lesbian cultural and arts event, the Midsumma Festival. A license agreement between the Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association (GLISA), and MOI was signed in February this year and GLISA Asia Pacific has given the go ahead for the inaugural regional Outgames to be staged in Melbourne in 2008.
Note: Read full article on GenerationQ
(London, UK) - It would not be right for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, dubbed as “The Friendly Games”, to be held in Nigeria, given the country’s appalling human rights record, said Davis Mac-Iyalla, founder and leader of the gay Christian group, Changing Attitude Nigeria. “Nigeria’s homophobic oppression is a violation of the Commonwealth Games ethos of equality, humanity, peace, unity, cooperation and understanding,” he said in London at the weekend. “Unless Nigeria radically improves its human rights record, it should be ruled out of consideration as a host for the 2014 Games,” he added. Read more...
(USA) - Lucas Goodman, a junior rowing club member, felt so uneasy that he finally told the Green Lake Crew his secret: He is gay. The 18-year-old belongs to an emerging generation of openly gay and lesbian athletes on high school and college campuses across the country. These young men and women are quietly venturing where no pro football or baseball star has gone, challenging the conformist, if not downright homophobic, tradition of the playing fields. Their numbers are difficult to gauge because many confide only in peers.
Note: Read full article on LA Times
There have been so many trials and tribulations, so many injustices and tyrannies, so many radical life changes and personal reinventions, that it seems natural to regard Martina Navratilova’s life as one of permanent revolution. Each year a new philosophy, each month a new challenge, each day a potential watershed. “It took a while but I got there,” she says. “Now I can say almost anything and get away with it. It’s pretty nice. I feel like I earned it, but it took a long time. I’ve grown as a person and I am definitely more lovable now than 30 years ago - but I was never the ogre they made me out to be.”
Note: Read full article on Times online
(UK) - A charity fundraiser has set up Scotland's first gay football team. Kevin Rowe, 34, says he created Hotscots FC because gay players were not comfortable in "straight" teams and had suffered discrimination. He said: "It's for gay people who like football but who feel a little intimidated playing in straight teams. The social side is very important." Hotscots have a squad of 20 and compete in tournaments in their home city of Edinburgh. "We'd like to play against gay teams in England. There's a fair few down there." Kevin hopes the team can become established like Edinburgh's gay rugby club, the Caledonian Thebans.
Note: Read full article on Daily Record
(Dublin, Ireland) - News that Dublin is to host an international gay rugby tournament has already been met with “crouch, touch, hold and engage” euphoria. The International Gay Rugby Association (IGRAB) - don’t complain about the acronym it could have opted for GAA, the Gay Athletic Association — has chosen Dublin above Paris and Sydney for the 2008 Bingham Cup, one of the largest international rugby competitions of its kind. An expected 36 teams from around the world are expected to visit Dublin.
Note: Read full article on Irish Examiner
Tattooed on the inside of Ian Roberts' right arm is a question he ponders every day, 'what is it to be a man'? It's not his only tattoo - his arms are large enough to accommodate a mural - but it's perhaps the most appropriate because he challenged Australians on the very tenet of what it meant to be a man when he stepped out of the closet in 1994. Here was one of the most fearsome rugby league players in the game and one who, in 2005, was recognised among the top 25 New South Wales players of all time, admitting he was gay.
Note: Read full article on NZ Herald
(UK) - The only Welsh ref to be selected for the Rugby World Cup has revealed he considered suicide as he prepared to admit: "I'm gay." Pontyberem official Nigel Owens spoke yesterday of his anguish over coming out as a homosexual man in the macho sport. "It's such a big taboo to be gay in my line of work, I had to think very hard about it because I didn't want to jeopardise my career," said Nigel, 35, who is to become the 54th Welshman to officiate at the tournament in France this autumn.
Note: Read full article on icwales.icnetwork.co.uk
(USA) - While he's best known for his work with entertainment celebrities, publicist Howard Bragman has certainly made a name for himself in the world of sports. The openly gay publicist, called by some "the best publicist in the business," has worked with athletes and sports entities his entire career. In 2003, he repped Esera Tuaolo as he came out of the closet. Since then, he has also been the publicist for the coming out of golfer Rosie Jones, WNBA player Sheryl Swoopes and former NBA player John Amaechi.
Note: Read full article on Outsports.com
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