Despite an unfavorable climate for gay visibility in Italy, LGBT sport keeps growing. Clubs continue to be founded, some with huge support, such as the Bologna basketball club, which has just celebrated it first anniversary.
It all began in 2009 when a few players from the local LGBT volleyball club (a very popular sport in the country) decided to turn to dribbles and baskets. The Boga (for Bologna Gay) Basketball club was born, and the team will soon take in new players, "most of whom were part of straight basketball teams in the past, some even played in the first Italian league," says Fabio, one of the first recruits of the Boga. "Volleyball is represented throughout the country: Milan, Florence, Rome, Turin and Catania, and football, swimming and tennis are found in Milan. If a gay basketball team was to be born, it had to be in Bologna, the Italian capital of the sport."
Last summer, Boga Basketball joined Polisportiva Boga, the first multisport club LGBT initiative in Italy (which includes volleyball, soccer, tennis, and now basketball), but has also partnered with Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna, one of the two elite clubs, alongside Kinder Bologna. A unique partnership of its kind in Europe.
"The head of Virtus, Claudio Sabatini, welcomed our initiative and our proposal with enthusiasm, completely sharing our values and the idea of integration through sport... it really helped us to complete this partnership, and today Virtus shoulder is giving us a lot, especially our jerseys, and support in logistics and communication that will help us make known the name of Boga Basket", says Fabio, who recognizes that Italy was capable of any number of contradictions. "On one hand are people like Sabatini which make possible such initiatives and the other there is still no LGBT political representative able to make our cause heard in Italy. That said, people are more open minded than what you may think from abroad."
As for court action, one year after its creation, the Boga Basketball has begun to prove itself. By winning the bronze at their first participation in a European tournament in Duesseldorf in March, and by participating in the Gay Games in Cologne this summer (pictured above). A determining and defining moment for the team. "It was a great and moving experience", remembers Fabio, "which allowed us to understand how what we were doing was important for ourselves and for our country. There were 140 of us at the Gay Games, which is not a significant number considering the size and proximity to Italy [in comparison, the Netherlands had 660 participants, and France 535] but we believe that things will improve."
The next steps for the Bolognese: to organize their own international tournament, and also open their ranks to a female audience. Next year there may be some women on hand to blow out the candles on the Boga Basket birthday cake.
Boga Bastket HERE
Polisportiva Bologna HERE
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