Welcome Cheer San Francisco!

We are pleased to welcome Cheer SF as a member of the Federation of Gay Games.

San Francisco cheerleaders have been part of every Gay Games. As we expand the cheer program for the Gay Games, after the successful experiment in Cologne, we are delighted to have a cheerleading group join us!

Male cheerleaders told to be less gay

From Slate.com:

On the afternoon of March 28, Kyle Gadke was busy with a private cheerleading lesson. When his student took a water break, the 26-year-old, Illinois-based coach looked at his phone and saw an email from the U.S. All Star Federation. The message was about a series of changes to the rules of competitive cheerleading that would take effect next season. Gadke scanned the note quickly, then kept working until late in the evening. By the time he got home, he’d received a torrent of voicemails, texts, and Facebook messages. The new USASF rules included an “image etiquette” guideline that Gadke, who is gay, hadn’t noticed on his first read-through. Under the header “minimize the negative,” the document said, “Males—minimize exaggerated or theatrical movements.”

This weekend, as teams from around the world convene at Orlando’s Walt Disney World for the world championships of competitive cheerleading, controversy will compete with choreography for the cheer world’s attention. Reaction to nearly every aspect of the March rule changes has been negative. Some think that restrictions on acrobatics—“Consecutive bounding, twisting skills are not allowed”—will limit competition. Others feel that restrictions on hair-bow size—“Bows should not be excessive in size (acceptable bows are generally no more than 3” in width) and shouldn’t be a distraction to the performance. Bows should be worn in a manner to minimize risk for the participants”—are needlessly draconian. A change.org petition has been circulating that asks for the rules to be revoked. It has close to 7,000 signatures. [Sign the petition HERE.]


That petition may not be necessary. On April 5, many of the rules were revised—standing double fulls are still banned in tumbling passes, but standing fulls are OK—and the original documents from March were removed from the USASF site. In addition to rewriting some of its guidelines, the USASF rules committee also issued a letter explaining that the image policy had been meant to address “the unflattering media stories that have focused on how our sport is presenting its athletes, particularly those in the younger age groups.” Still, there was no direct explanation for the guideline about male theatricality.

A bunch of cheerleaders who are upset about an image policy—a document devoted to such topics as skirt length and appropriate makeup usage—aren’t likely to be taken seriously outside the sport’s community. But one upset cheerleader is trying to change that. Kyle Gadke has taken the matter to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

At first, Gadke didn’t know how widespread the outrage was. “I thought it was discriminatory, but I thought maybe it was one of those things where I was just too close to the issue,” he says. On March 29 he went on Fierce Board, an online cheer forum where participants “shimmy” instead of liking a post. “I feel like this is a sugar-coated way to say ‘We don’t want the guys to look gay!’ ” Gadke wrote. “Am I being defensive and reading too much into this?”

The response on Fierce Board was pretty much unanimous: No, he wasn’t reading too much into it. One young, gay poster, who reminded readers of recent cases of young cheerleaders committing suicide, explained that the cheerleading mat was the only place he could be his real self. “No societal images to uphold, no fear of embarrassment because you shimmied really damn hard after landing your pass for the first time in competition, nothing, and yet the USASF dares to try and take that away?” he wrote.

It’s a sentiment Gadke can understand. The cheerleading coach grew up in a rural Iowa town where he didn’t feel comfortable coming out of the closet. “During the day, there’d be name-calling, the typical high-school drama that goes along with picking on a male cheerleader,” he says. “But there was a safe haven in all-star cheer. Cheer provides that environment where it’s OK to have different types of personalities.” Gadke knows coaches who’ve housed teenagers whose parents would not accept them, and teenagers who are out at their gyms but not to their families. For many young men who’ve found comfort in competitive cheer, the admonition that they “minimize exaggerated or theatrical movements” felt like an unprovoked attack from a world where they’d always found support.

Keep reading HERE.

21 April 2012 / Cheerleaders on the field and on the sidelines at Drag Queen World Series

With West Hollywood Cheerleaders playing and Cheer LA for moral support, this charity event is certain to be cheer-ful....

More info HERE.

Flashback: Cheer NY at New York City Marathon

On November 6th, 2011, Cheer NY participated in the premier event of New York Road Runners (NYRR), the ING New York City Marathon! The NYC Marathon is one of the world's great road races, drawing more than 100,000 applicants. The race attracts many world-class professional athletes, not only for the more than $600,000 in prize money, but also for the chance to excel in the media capital of the world before two million cheering spectators and 315 million worldwide television viewers. As any one of the more than 700,000 past participants will attest, crossing the finish line in Central Park is one of the great thrills of a lifetime. Cheer New York was there at the Finish Line to perform in the Pre-Finish Show and then lead spectators in cheering on the world's best wheelchair racers and elite runners!

Latest edition of Cheer SF's video magazine

View all of Cheer SF's videos, including past issues of Power Press, HERE.

Videos of Cheer San Francisco (and friends) at SF Pride

From our friends at Cheer SF:


Guest starring on the inaugural CHEER San Francisco Stage at the 2011 SF Pride festivities, Tap That All Stars introduces some superheroic drama and theatrics to showcase its heart-wrenching story of power struggles, conflict management, and enduring friendships.

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CHEER San Francisco concludes an incredible 2011 Pride Month by OWNING its hometown Pride Main Stage to deliver its high-flying Pride Routine. With over 200 parade contingents, 300 exhibitors, and 19 stages and venues, the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration and Parade is the largest LGBT gathering in the nation.

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CHEER San Francisco concludes the 2011 Pride Month by OWNING its hometown Pride Main Stage to showcase its "Technical Pom" routine.

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Cheer SF on Facebook: http://fb.me/CHEERSanFrancisco

Cheer SF launches new video newsletter

Our friends at Cheer SF have launched a new video newsletter:



Like us on Facebook! http://www.CHEERSF.org/facebook
Follow us on Twitter! @CHEERSF

In the pilot episode of "POWER PRESS with CHEER SF," the team launches the 2011 Pride Season by taking a jaunt to sunny Long Beach, CA to showcase some new high-flying stunts while raising money for the C.A.R.E. Program (Comprehensive AIDS Resource & Education).

CHEER SF's full performance "mini-routine" available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCWW-XlHCFs

For more information on CHEER San Francisco, visit our Facebook page (and "Like" us) at
http://fb.me/CHEERSanFrancisco

Check out our website at http://www.CHEERSF.org
Follow us on Twitter @CHEERSF

Director of Photography: DaveM
Creative Consultant: JCL
Asian Correspondent: Nguyen Louboutin

Cheer San Francisco on reality television competition

Our friends at Cheer SF have just been featured as instructors on a reality television competition.

Winning stunt cheerleaders at Gay Games VIII

10 years... 10 effervescent events for Cheer LA: Bronze at Gay Games VIII

"10 Years ... 10 Effervescent Events" - Although the first Gay Games were held 1982, it wasn't until 28 years later that Cheer Los Angeles – and our sister squads in the Pride Cheerleading Association – finally had a chance to prove our "medal" at this international athletic competition. In 2010, Cheer LA returned from Cologne having won the first-ever Gay Games medal awarded for cheerleading: A bronze in pom. And, although we won a total of two medals, the number we were most proud of was $4,000 – the amount we raised for HIV Cologne [AIDS Hilfe] and the Gay Games Scholarship Fund during our time in Germany.