Coming on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, this year’s IGLA championships carried enormous significance

Reported by Jeff Commings on the U.S. Masters Swimming web site

Peter Kingan was one of the busiest athletes at this year’s International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics championships in New York City. On some days, he woke up early to race in the swimming competition, then return in the afternoon to play a water polo game.

But the 70-year-old was all smiles after five days of competing at the Flushing Meadows Corona Park Aquatic Center, showing no signs of fatigue. It certainly didn’t hurt that he set a meet record in his top race, the 50-meter breaststroke.

“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now,” Kingan says shortly after racing the 100 breaststroke to close out the meet. “I’m a little tired but having the time of my life.”

Kingan was one of 922 athletes who came to the Big Apple for six days of competition at the annual event that featured all four aquatic sports: swimming, diving, water polo, and synchronized swimming. It was no accident that this year’s meet took place in New York City. The city was marking the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn uprising in Manhattan, when gay men and women rioted against a police raid in June 1969. The riot blossomed into an annual demonstration that spread around the world, leading to Pride Month celebrations across the globe every June.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

E-Sports will be offered for the first time at Gay Games 11 in Hong Kong in November, 2022 (note: the particular video games to be used in the event are not known). We will share news of this growing sport with our LGBT+ readers here when it occurs.

As reported on Outsports.com, 2 July 2019

Dominique “SonicFox” McLean won the CEO 2019 Mortal Kombat 11 championship in an all-gay grand final and gifted his medal to a young black fan.

Dominique “SonicFox” McLean Francisco Suarez

Dominique “SonicFox” McLean ended Pride month in style Sunday by taking home the Mortal Kombat 11 championship at Community Effort Orlando 2019.

True to his character, SonicFox entered the arena to Sardonyx’s theme, a whimsical fusion character from the pro-LGBTQ cartoon Steven Universe, clad in his trademark fursuit. He dominated the CEO ring after stumbling early in the MK 11 top 8. His time in the winner’s bracket was short-lived after an opening loss to fellow gay fighting game pro Ryan “Dragon” Walker, but the loss seemingly stirred a slumbering beast within the gay esports icon.

SonicFox thrashed his way through the loser’s bracket following the loss, refusing to surrender a single set on his way to an all-gay grand finals rematch with Dragon. The pride of Echo Fox decidedly reset the bracket with a 3-1 victory, but lost the first set of the championship match. That first loss could be attributed to SonicFox switching away from his most used character, Cassie Cage, to Jacqui Briggs, a character he began learning in more detail since his second place finish at Combo Breaker last month.

To read the complete article, click HERE.

The sheer number of out, queer players in professional soccer sets an inspiring new bar for lesbian visibility.

Mal Pugh, Crystal Dunn, Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd and Megan Rapinoe. Photo courtesy of Nike

A great article appeared on them 29 June regarding the 5 openly queer players on the US National Women's Soccer Team now participating in the FIFA World Cup in France.

HERE is a link to the article.

A similar article on Outsports.com reports that there are 36 out gay, lesbian and bisexual women in the FIFA World Cup — 34 players, one coach and a trainer. Read that article HERE.

In a press release published on 9 June 2019, the Federation of Gay Games (FGG) together with the Gay Games 11 Hong Kong 2022’s management team announced today the 36 sports which will be offered at the event hosted in Hong Kong in November 2022. For the first time in the history of the Gay Games, E-Sports and Dodgeball are among the sports to be included in the final sports list.

The 36 sports featured at Gay Games 11 Hong Kong 2022 are:

Aquatic Sports

1. Diving

2. Open Water Swimming

3. Synchronised Swimming

4. Swimming / Pink Flamingo

5. Water Polo

Athletics Sports

6. Marathon: Full

7. Marathon: Half

8. Road Race: 10km

9. Road Race: 5km

10. Track & Field

11. Trail Running

19. Combined Events: Triathlon

Ballgames Sports

12. Basketball and Wheelchair Basketball

13. Dodgeball **

14. Football (Soccer)

15. Rugby Sevens

16. Softball

17. Volleyball

Cross-disciplinary Sports

18. Cheerleading *

20. Dance Sport

21. E-Sports **

22. Figure Skating *

23. Golf

24. Ten Pin Bowling

Racquet Sports

25. Badminton

26. Squash

27. Table Tennis

28. Tennis

Mat Sports

29. Fencing

30. Martial Arts

31. Physique Bodybuilding

32. Powerlifting

33. Wrestling

Water sports

34. Rowing

35. Dragon Boat Racing

36. Sailing

* Sports which were not featured in the initial proposal (bid book) but are now added to the final list due to the large support in the region.

** Sports which were not featured in the initial proposal (bid book) but are now added to the final list due to the large support in the region. These sports are also making a historical entry in the Gay Games.

To read the entire press release, click List of GGHK Sports FGG_GGHK_Press Release.pdf

During the month of June, 2019 (pride month in many places), Outsports.com is profiling 30 LGBTQ athletes who show "Stonewall Spirit" in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion in New York City.

Tom Waddell in the discus event at Gay Games I in 1982

On 2 June, Gay Games founder Dr. Tom Waddell was profiled as one of these athletes. You can find the article HERE.

In the description of this month-long series, Outsports.com said... "In commemoration of Pride Month and the 50th year since the Stonewall Inn riots in New York, Outsports is profiling one out athlete daily who embodies the 'Stonewall Spirit,' reflecting the courage of those who launched the modern LGBTQ rights movement."

Enjoy this excellent profile of Gay Games founder Tom Waddell.

As a follow-up to the Federation of Gay Games' statement regarding Caster Semenya, news stories are reporting that Caster Semenya has been cleared to compete without taking medication to lower her testosterone levels while her appeal is pending after a court in Switzerland ordered an immediate suspension of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) regulations.

Here are links to two articles regarding this development:

Inside The Games  

Outsports

The FGG's previous statement in support of Caster Semenya may be found HERE.

If you participated in Gay Games 10 in Paris, you already know how amazing the Closing Ceremony was. Even if you weren't there, you have the opportunity to experience this amazing event that wrapped up the week of activity in August, 2018.

Check out this wonderfully edited video from the Closing Ceremony in Paris. The link to the video is HERE.

Here are three still images from the video... enjoy!

After showing in more than 10 festivals around the world to a powerful response (including San Luis Obisbo, CA, BFI London, and the Cleveland Film Festival) the amazing film LIGHT IN THE WATER will be screened in New York City on 24 June.

The film will be screened at 7:30pm on Monday, 24 June at the Regal Battery Park Stadium 11 Theater, 102 North End Ave., New York, NY 10282 (between Tribeca and the World Trade Center).

Several founding members of West Hollywood Aquatics (the subject of hte film) and Producer Nathan Santell will be in attendance, conducting a Q&A session following the film.

To purchase tickets, click HERE.

Tickets are priced at $16.45.

This screening will take place coinciding with the 2019 IGLA Championships in New York City. Learn more about that event HERE.

More about this film: 

LIGHT IN THE WATER shares the empowering story of West Hollywood Aquatics, from their founding in 1982 for the first ever Gay Games in San Francisco, through the AIDS crisis, and up to the present day. A television version of the film premiered on Logo TV in June, 2018 and has now screened in over 10 film festivals around the world, including Paris, Glasgow, Sydney, Kansas and Palm Springs, where in January it was voted "Best of Fest" by audiences.

The film’s trailer can be viewed HERE.

If you are interested in organizing a screening of this film in your city, learn more at THIS LINK.

UPDATED INFORMATION ON THIS CONTROVERSY: Click HERE

The Federation of Gay Games is in full support of Caster Semenya, including if she decides to appeal the recent discriminatory and shortsighted ruling by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

With this ruling we are harkening back to outdated definitions of what it means to be male and female. The world and its people are changing and organizations, attitudes, and bodies that are designed to protect and support their constituents must adapt accordingly or we run the risk of encouraging segregation and hatred.

The specific and selective targeting of people because they are in some way “different,” whether female or genetically gifted or LGBTI+ has no place in our world nor in sport and the FGG will not be supporting the implementation of such a discriminatory policy in the Gay Games. #supportcastersemenya

To learn more, please read THIS ARTICLE.

Read the intensely personal story of a long-planned visit to Australia by Roger Brigham, journalist and Honorary Life Member of the Federation of Gay Games.

Wrestlers in Sydney, including Roger Brigham, fifth from left, gather at a clinic. Photo: Courtesy Andrew Farrell

Reprinted from the Bay Area Reporter

Every sports person should get a chance at least once in life to coach Australians.

Twenty years ago, I was a fragile remnant of a former athlete. My physicians' six-month deathwatch had stretched to two and a half years. In the worst of it, I summarized my experience by writing, "I have lain in bed staring at the face of Death, and worse, held the hands of his rotting minions."

This year, as spring took hold in the Bay Area after the wettest of winters, I found myself resurrected thousands of miles away in a place I thought I'd never see, enjoying the first days of autumn making new friends, cooking a feast for 20 fellow athletes, and coaching them in the sport that saved my life.

For a few years, Tony Galluzzo, then-president of Harbour City Wrestling Club in Sydney, had tried to get me to Australia to conduct a wrestling clinic. I'd met Galluzzo at the 2010 Gay Games in Cologne, Germany, when he was one of three Aussies there to wrestle. Over the years our friendship and respect grew. He let me coach his club at the 2014 Gay Games in Cleveland, Ohio, and the effort to bring me to Sydney began.

To read the rest of this story, click HERE.