Featured events


7-9 September 2012
Brussels Games
Brussels

Brussels Gay Sports will offer a weekend of fun and fairplay in the capital of Europe, with volleyball, swimming, badminton, and tennis, as well as fitness and hiking.

Learn more HERE.
26-28 October 2012
QueergamesBern
Bern, Switzerland

The success of the first edition of the QueergamesBern proved the need for an LGBT multisport event in Switzerland. This year will be even bigger, with badminton, bowling, running, walking, floorball.

Learn more HERE.
17-20 January 2013
Sin City Shootout
Las Vegas
The 7th Sin City Shootout will feature softball, ice hockey, tennis, wrestling, basketball, dodgeball, bodybuilding and basketball.

Learn more HERE.

13-16 June 2013
IGLFA Euro Cup
Dublin
After this year's edition in Budapest at the EuroGames, the IGLFA Euro Cup heads to Dublin for 2013, hosted by the Dublin Devils and the Dublin Phoenix Tigers.

Learn more HERE.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

McMasters Univeristy athletics fights homophobia in sport

From the Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator:
Memories of being bullied in high school can deter queer students from joining a university sports team, but McMaster University’s athletics and recreation is setting its sights on changing that.

Athletes and department staff, decked out in maroon Marauder gear, are marching for the first time in the campus Pride Parade Monday afternoon to promote inclusivity and unity with a historically-marginalized group, said sports leagues and camps co-ordinator Andrew Pettit.

The department also partnered with the Queer Students Community Centre (QSCC) to organize “Positive Space” training for all their full-time recreation staff and several part-time employees last week, Pettit said, adding it was the first time they came forward as a group to participate in the program.

“The idea is not just to walk and support,” he said. “(It’s) actually to know the issues and challenges that face them, to take a more educated approach to supporting them. … It’s a really positive step forward.”

QSCC co-ordinator Tabatha Fernandez-Sardina Bradley, 21, said marching together is a sign of solidarity.

The two groups have been stereotypically polarized, she said.

“In high school, it’s always the jocks, the gays. And reaching out and showing that isn’t true goes such a long way to making McMaster an inclusive community.”

But they still have many myths to dispel on both sides, the political science student said. “We all survived middle school and high school. There’s always this knee-jerk reaction (that says) ‘Oh, it’s sports. I can’t do that. … They’re going to call me nasty names,’” she said. “It’s ignorance, not malice. You don’t know what you’re saying is hurting somebody.”

Pettit agreed. While improvements have been made to debunk homophobia in sports, athletics is still an area where it’s acceptable to make comments that are unintentionally insensitive, he said.

Keep reading HERE.

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