24 June 2012 / San Francisco Track and Field Club at SF Pride

A message to visitors of San Francisco Pride this weekend:

Come by the San Francisco Track & Field Club beverage booth on Sunday and support out organization! This is one of our BIGGEST fundraisers of the year! Look for us on McAllister Street btwn Polk & Larkin and come thirsty!

25 May 2012 / United States Gay Open at Stanford University

The 2012 United States Gay Open
Memorial Weekend, May 25-28, 2012
Stanford University
Palo Alto, California

Info and registration HERE.

Memorial Day Weekend means many things to many people. For some, it is a time of reflection and appreciation of the sacrifices made by others. For others, it is a time to escape to a warm beach somewhere and unwind and relax. But for many gay and lesbian tennis players from far and wide, Memorial Day Weekend has come to mean tennis. A weekend of fabulous tennis. For thirty-two years San Francisco’s Gay & Lesbian Tennis Federation has, on Memorial Day Weekend, hosted the United States Gay Open. Known as the USGO, this tennis tournament is one of the oldest and most prestigious gay and lesbian sporting events in the world. The event attracts hundreds of tennis players from across the United States, and from countries around the world. These players come to play and watch great tennis, make new friends, and enjoy all that the San Francisco Bay Area has to offer.

In recent years the tournament has often been held at Stanford University’s Taube Tennis Stadium. It will once again take place at Taube Stadium this year. There is really only one word to describe Taube Stadium – breathtaking. It is the host of the professional women’s Bank of the West Tennis Tournament – where Serena, Kim, Venus, and Victoria have all shined. The stadium is a sea of beautiful blue courts surrounded by comfortable stadium seats and, of course, Palo Alto’s sunshine.

There may be plenty of reasons for the enduring popularity of the USGO, but the simplest explanation is usually the best explanation. And the simple explanation here is that the USGO is fun. It is epic, it is exciting, it is historic, it is all that – but most of all it is fun. So what are you doing on Memorial Day Weekend? Grab your racquet and come on out to Stanford. And let’s have fun.


The USGO is North America’s largest LGBT tennis tournament and is a GLTA-sanctioned event. If you would like to help with this year’s USGO, please join our tournament committee. Help is needed with fundraising, publicity, organizing, entertainment and much more. Contact Alex Lin at usgo@gltf.org.

22 July 2012 / Pride Meet Track and Field in San Francisco

Mark your calendar! San Francisco Track and Field Club is proud to announce the 5th Annual Pride Meet. The meet is set for Sunday, July 22, 2012 at Chabot College in Hayward. Please make an extra note about the Sunday meet and the new venue at Chabot College.

Info HERE.

13 March 2012 / San Francisco Track and Field athletes seek Cleveland qualification

A message from FGG member organization San Francisco Track and Field Club:

We are so proud to announce that a handful of our athletes will compete in the upcoming 2012 Bay Area Senior Games, on Sunday, March 11th on the campus of Stanford University. Our own Rick Thoman, Bob Callori, Chris Goodwin, Allen Eggman and Marcus Valera will be competing hard to qualify for the 2013 Summer National Senior Games in Cleveland, Ohio. Let's wish them the very best in the competition. If you are interested in going to the meet and see them compete, let us know!

Ross Hayduk hiking for the AIDS Memorial Grove

We are pleased to share some news from Ross Hayduk, former Team San Francisco delegate to the Federation of Gay Games.

Ross Hayduk, an inspiring friend to – and volunteer of – the National AIDS Memorial Grove, is embarking on an incredible journey. Inspired by the life of Dr. Tom Waddell (whose name was inscribed in the Grove in 2011), Ross became a Gay Games athlete in the 2002 and 2006 events, earning medals in Track & Field and Powerlifting. After participating in a 200-mile cycling event in 2010 and a 218-mile hiking event in 2011, Ross decided to combine his passions for endurance events and fundraising by planning to hike the 2,184-mile Appalachian Trail in 2012 to benefit the National AIDS Memorial Grove.

“I decided I could either traverse the Grove 7,688 times or hike 2,184 miles along the great American trail,” Ross jokes. “But as I hike, I will have a daily reminder of the beauty of this national memorial set in the heart of Golden Gate Park.” Inspired by the message of healing, hope and remembrance, Ross is investing his personal resources, as well as six months of his life, into a long-distance hike to draw attention to HIV-related health issues.

“I believe we can overcome challenges to our health like HIV, substance abuse, and bipolar depression, especially with the support of non-profit HIV/AIDS service organizations. But we must remember those who have gone before, who did not have the breadth of services available today. The only reason I am able to hike over two thousand miles is due to the sacrifices made by those whose names are inscribed within the Circle of Friends.”

Those interested in following his hike online [and donating] may visit www.HikeRossHike.org. Beginning in March in Georgia and ending in September in Maine, Ross looks forward to the adventure of a lifetime, trusting that his efforts will bring greater awareness to the National AIDS Memorial Grove in 2012.

San Francisco Track and Field Club presents awards

A message from FGG member San Francisco Track and Field Club:.

At the end of the year celebration, the Club acknowledged and presented awards to three exceptional members of the Club. Please join us in congratulating the fantastic three: Andrew Bundy, Chris Goodwin, and Allen Eggman (from left to right pictured below).

2011 Award of Excellence
Chris earned Award of Excellence for his superb performances on the track in 2011, as well as his contributions to the team as the Board Secretary and the unofficial coach. In 2011, Chris competed in Senior Games, World Masters Athletics Championships, and Pride Meet. Despite such a busy schedule, he remained healthy and injury-free, and produced great results in the competition. In addition, he showed very firm commitment to the team, coming to the practice practically every Sunday and led the team with dynamic stretching exercise and sprint training program. His service on the Board as Secretary allowed the Board to conduct its business smoothly and effectively.

Outstanding Contribution
For years, Allen was our sole source of fundraising, organizing garage sales, beer busts, a booth at (the now defunct) Harrison Bear Fair, food service at Lazy Bear, etc.. He also stepped forward to encourage, support and coach us in field events. We have a team full of decathletes because of Allen's dedication and skill at showing people how to pole vault, high jump, throw the discus, the shot and the javelin. On top of all that, he's an amazing athlete and a great inspiration to the team with his all-around track and field skills. He was our first ever Gay Games gold medal decathlete and because of him our team will have many more in Gay Games to come.

Outstanding Contribution
Andy's achievements on the track are also legendary and inspirational. But it was through his persistence and drive that we are the team we are today: He got us to become a non-profit organization, which led us to form a Board, and then to get money-making booths at SF Gay Pride and Folsom Street Fair. He organized and followed through with establishing and continuing to run the Pride Meet which now attracts athletes, gay and straight, from around the world. He's gotten us fundraisers at the Lookout and has lead the team as Board President several times. Through his leadership skills, we have become such a formidable track Club, both on the track and financially speaking.

Big congratulations to Chris, Allen and Andy. We look forward to seeing you on and off the track (and field) in the new season!

San Francisco Track and Field winter calendar

While less temperate places are on a winter hiatus, California remains a great place to run even in the winter. FGG member organization has published a jam-packed calendar of events for the coming months that you can view HERE.

10 December 2011 / Federation of Gay Games at Youth Empowerment Summit

The Youth Empowerment Summit is an annual Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) Leadership Conference that happens every December in San Francisco.

YES is an annual conference for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and intersex (LGBTQQI) youth activists and allies who are dedicated to defeating homophobia and transphobia and creating safe, supportive schools for everyone. YES is youth-planned and youth-led.

The Federation of Gay Games will be present with the Equality Coaching Alliance and member organization Team San Francisco.

In addition, a workshop on sport will be held with Roger Brigham (Wrestlers Without Borders, FGG board) and Helen Carroll (NCLR Sports Project), Martha Ehrenfeld (Team San Francisco), and Jaime, a former Mission High School wrestler, part of the Mission HS-Golden Gate Wrestling Club coaching program.

In his latest column Roger Brigham writes on the session:

The opportunity for strength and belonging are two of the concepts we hope to bring home at the Youth Empowerment Summit Saturday, December 10, at Horace Mann Community School. Equality Coaching Alliance will present a panel discussion on "Opening the Locker Room Closet." I will moderate a panel that will include Helen Carroll of the National Center for Lesbian Rights; San Francisco Gay Softball Commissioner Vincent Fuqua; Team San Francisco delegate Martha Ehrenfeld; and Jaime Loo, who came out at Mission High through wrestling. We hope to share our stories about what sports have meant to us, raise LGBT student awareness of sports opportunities, and answer fears students may have about entering sports.

WHEN: Saturday, December 10th, 2011, 9am-8pm
CONFERENCE: 9:00am to 5:00pm
YOUTH DANCE PARTY: 5:00pm to 8:00pm

WHERE: Buena Vista Horace Mann Community School
3351 23rd Street, San Francisco, CA 94110

Accessible by BART and bus lines. NO FREE PARKING. A list of nearby paid lots can be found at the bottom of this page.

COST: Sliding scale $0-$15. Pay what you can and no one is turned away for lack of funds.
Breakfast and lunch will be provided!

All details and registration: HERE

San Francisco Spikes say "It Gets Better"

The San Francisco Spikes softball team, a member of FGG member organizations IGLFA and Team San Francisco, has made a video for the "It Gets Better" project.

View it below, and visit our "It Gets Better" page HERE.

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View the Team San Francisco photo gallery

Find more photos like this on Team San Francisco

Team San Francisco has a great photo gallery on their site, featuring most recently their photos from Gay Games VIII.

San Francisco Tsunami celebrates 25th anniversary

Reprinted with permission from the Bay Area Reporter
10 November 2011

By Roger Brigham

It was 1986, four years after the first Gay Games in San Francisco, when Neil Hart answered an ad in the Bay Area Reporter to join a swim team that was being formed to compete in Gay Games II that year.

"I had never been successful at team sports as a kid – your typical marginalized story," Hart recalled. "I had never swum on a team or competitively before. I was swimming on my own at a North Beach pool for physical therapy. I realized I had stamina and could swim a mile, so I thought it was something I might like to try."

Despite some nervous trepidation, Hart was dropped off at the pool at Carroll and Third streets with a promise to be picked up 90 minutes later.

He's never really left.

"I met a wonderful man walking into practice, Tim Elliott," Hart said. "We both had served in the Peace Corps in different parts of the world and had never swum on a team before. We hit it off and became great friends. After the Gay Games ended Tim wanted the energy of the games to continue and pushed for the formation of a permanent swim team."

In the photo above, Neil Hart (far left) joined his fellow SF Tsunami members in front of the Walgreen window display on Castro Street. Photo: Courtesy SF Tsunami.

And thus, San Francisco Tsunami was born. The club celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, with festivities in Burlingame in September and having a team window display at the Walgreens on Castro Street in October.

The club has grown to more than 140 members, about one-sixth of them women.

"To accommodate the desire for more practices, our schedule has expanded into evening and morning swims at two public pools: Hamilton and King pools," Hart said. "We have a head coach [Matt Sorlien] and a coaching staff of nine. We also have a synchronized swim team, and Tsunami Water Polo spun off years ago and has its own board of directors."

As is the case with many LGBT sports organizations, the true legacy of Tsunami is the sports opportunity it has provided for those who otherwise would likely never have taken up sports at all.

"I really had no sports background before Tsunami," said Hart, who declined to give his age. "I learned to ski and that was a major individual achievement. Learning to swim was another major individual achievement. I was always marginalized growing up with respect to team sports – softball, touch football, stick ball were traumatic as a child. It was therefore exhilarating and life changing in 1986 to be receiving from SF Arts and Athletics letters addressed to, 'Dear Athlete' in response to my swimming in Gay Games II. I kept wondering, 'Who me, an athlete?'

"Tsunami is LGBT- and straight-friendly. I know for me I would not be swimming on a team if Tsunami did not exist, nor would I be participating in swim meets."

Some individuals come and go, but the poolside community remains the same.

"Sometimes the lane I swim in feels like Grand Hotel," Hart said. "I have watched the swimmers come and go over the years. Nevertheless, I believe the camaraderie of the team has had a lasting impact on everyone who has swum with us."

Like many of the Tsunami members, Hart plans to compete in Gay Games IX in Cleveland in 2014.

"I have swum in every Gay Games since 1986," he said. "After Tim died in 1990, I went to Vancouver with his memory. And after Vancouver when another close friend died, I kept on returning to the Gay Games every four years."

More immediately on the horizon is the next International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics championship. This year's was in Hawaii; the next championship is May 29-June 2 in Iceland.

For more information about SF Tsunami, visit http://www.sftsunami.org.

Same-sex dancers say "It Gets Better"

The same-sex dance community with FGG member organization NASSPDA have made a video for the "It Gets Better" project.

Note the Gay Games VIII medals on those Team San Francisco dancers!

View it below, and visit our "It Gets Better" page HERE.

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San Francisco Track and Field Club and other friends at Folsom Street Fair

The annual Folsom Street Fair is a San Francisco institution, and perhaps the leading special-interest event in the world. Team SF and Wrestlers Without Borders member Golden Gate Wrestling Club had a booth, and ran a beer tent, an important source of revenue for the club's activities throughout the year.

Other FGG-related organizations running beer tents this year were the San Francisco Spikes Soccer Club, the San Francisco Tsunami swim club, the Lesbian and Gay Chorus of San Francisco, and the San Francisco Track and Field club, seen above.

Wrestlers Without Borders "WWB III" and "Don Jung Memorial" tournaments

On 24 September, the Golden Gate Wrestling Club hosted the 26th annual Don Jung Memorial Tournament in San Francisco, which was also the WWB III international tournament.

Two dozen wrestlers from New York, Illinois, California, Ohio, and Australia competed in the freestyle event. The photo accompanying this posting shows the tournament officials for the Wrestlers Without Borders championships

Standing, left to right: Abraham "Alex" Ostrovskiy, the top-rated FILA official in the world; Golden Gate Wrestling Club President Gene Dermody; San Diego Wrestling Club Captain Greg Lines; San Diego WC founder Russ Connelly; WWB Chairman Roger Brigham. Kneeling: Greco-Roman wrestler Akil Patterson of College Park, Maryland; and WWB Sports Officer Josh Watkins of Chicago.

Roger Brigham looks at upcoming San Francisco wrestling tournament

Roger Brigham devotes his Bay Area Reporter column this week to the Wrestlers Without Borders tournament later this month. Here's an extract:

The attraction of the WWB Cup being combined with a major street fair has lured Australians to the event for the first time. It is believed that four Australians, buoyed by their success last year at the Gay Games in Germany, will compete, along with sizeable contingents from New York City, Philadelphia, San Diego, and Los Angeles. Two newcomers to WWB are also expected to make a showing: Carlin Yetts of Columbus, Ohio, who is starting his own wrestling club to compete in Gay Games IX in Cleveland; and Olympic hopeful Akil Patterson. Patterson, a heavyweight Greco-Roman specialist, is not expected to compete but will officiate and may participate in exhibitions.

Learn more about the tournament HERE.

San Francisco Giants LGBT night a success: funds will finance FGG actions

A message from Roger Brigham on the LGBT Night hosted by Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants:

We should offer a big thank you to Doug Litwin of the FGG and Ken Craig of Team San Francisco for their work to ensure the most successful LGBT Night to date. The 1,500 dedicated tickets sold out quickly. Proceeds will benefit Gay Games scholarship athletes as well as a sports component of a GSA (gay-straight alliance high school groups) summit this December in San Francisco, in which Equality Coaching Alliance will participate.

Event highlight's at Monday's game included:

• rainbow-themed commemorative Giants hats
• performances by the Gay/Lesbian Freedom Band (with Doug Litwin on drums!)
• a pre-game party that was packed
• dozens of fans waving rainbow flags
• two same-sex couples included on the evening's "Kiss Cam"
• repeated scoreboard recognition of LGBT Night
• gay mayoral candidate Bevan Dufty's daughter Sidney proclaiming "Play Ball!" over the PA system
• and a showing of the Giants' It Gets Better video, the first one made by any major league baseball team.

Photos from last weekend's Pride Meet

Federation of Gay Games member organization San Francisco Track and Field held its (hopefully) annual Pride Meet this weekend, and there area already some nice photos online (thanks to David S). You can view the full album HERE.

13 August 2011 / Pride Meet in San Francisco: register now!

Now in its 4th year, The Pride Track and Field Meet is designed to provide athletes of all sexual orientations with an opportunity to compete together in a welcoming environment. We proudly serve both the LGBT sport community and the general track & field community.

Event Name: 2011 Pride Track & Field Meet (Sanctioned by USA Track & Field)
Location: San Francisco, CA - SF State University, Cox Stadium
Date: August 13th, 2011
Time: 8AM - 4PM
Fees: $35 for an individual event and $5 for each subsequent event. Relays are free!
Website: www.pridemeet.org

Track Events:100M, 200M, 400M, 800M, Mile, 5000M, 100M/110M Hurdles [and all age-group equivalents], 400M Hurdles [and all age-group equivalents]
Relays: 4x100, 4x200, 4x400
Field Events: Long Jump, Triple Jump, Discus, Shot Put, Pole Vault, High Jump, Javelin, Hammer Throw

All athletes 18 years and over are eligible. Athletes in the 18-29 age group will compete in the Sub-Masters Division. Athletes 30 and over, will compete in 5-year increments (e.g. 30-34, 35-39, etc.). Relays over 30 are in 10-year increments.

Registration is open until August 7, 2011! See you in San Francisco this summer!

San Francisco Pride Parade seen from within

Heidi Beeler tells her story from the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Band i the San Francsico Bay Times:

I’ve been Out in Gay Mecca for 20 years. On the last Sunday of every June, I make a beeline from some point west of the Ferry Building down to City Hall, crammed between convertibles and motorcycles, dodging men on roller skates dressed in day-glo G-strings and bristling with balloons, and batting down pamphlets against gale-force winds. I have helped build giant glitter-encrusted plywood cakes and a 4-foot-tall Music Man hats that are screwed onto flatbed trucks and roped to booth supports. But in 20 years, I’ve never actually seen the Pride Parade. Never watched it live end to end from a Market Street sidewalk.

As long as I’ve been Out, I’ve only seen the half block of the parade occupied by the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band at any given moment.

That and whatever contingent rides ahead of our banner, whatever contingent cruises behind our sousaphones, and the faces and photographers on either side. I joined the Band in 1991 specifically to have someone to go to the parade with, and she’s been my date every year since.

The first year I marched, the parade was amazing. I’d gone through my “I’m The Only One” phase in San Francisco (proving you really can do anything if you set your mind to it). My boss had told me that she fired a man for being gay and then noted my blushing as a smoking gun. When my clenched teeth turned into a rapid-fire eyelid tic, I quit the job and joined the Band. That year seeing Market Street festooned with rainbow flags, I secretly felt Pride was a party thrown for me. And when my band and I turned onto Market Street playing “California, Here I Come,” the roar of a million people cheering bounced around the skyscrapers over our heads and I felt like Dorothy entering the Rainbow City. Ding dong the witch was dead indeed!
Twenty years later, coming up on Pride 2011, the magic of the rainbow had worn thin before my middle-aging eyes. The Pride Committee had chalked up more abdications than Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign. After last year’s fund juggling, the theme “In Pride We Trust”

Keep reading HERE (it's worth it!)

Profile of San Francisco Track and Field runner

From Roger Brigham's Bay Area Reporter sports column today, a reminder of the upcoming Pride Meet, and a look at Aaron Castillo, membership and communications director of San Francisco Track and Field, the host of the event. Here's an extract from the column:


Castillo moved to the Bay Area in 2008 and found SF Track and Field the next year. "They train and have meets from January until about October," he said. "I decided it was a great thing to do with what I do at the gym."

Castillo is a sprinter and plans to enter the 800-meter run in this year's championship, but last year at the Gay Games in Cologne he entered the decathlon. That's the same event in which Gay Games founder Dr. Tom Waddell competed in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Castillo earned a silver medal in the grueling event in Cologne.

"There were 17 decathletes at the Gay Games, which is a lot," he said. "They're all very supportive because you're all feeling the same pain over a few days."

Castillo said that same kind of support is one of the reasons he enjoys SF Track and Field.

"I love the camaraderie," he said. "The team is amazing. The guys and gals are super-supportive. We're very supportive. We train people regardless of what their fitness or experience level is. The more you train, the better you become."

Read in full HERE.