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.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Patrick Burke tells closeted athletes to trust their teammates

On the Our Group blog, Patrick Burke shares his insights after two years of advocacy as an ally:


In the two years that I have been doing outreach to the athletic community regarding LGBT athletes, fans, and coaches, I have been lucky enough to share the stage with fantastic representatives of the LGBT community: Openly gay coaches, administrators, team captains, record setters, leading scorers, All-Americans, and Olympians. They share their stories to our audience, usually college sports teams, with tremendous openness and honesty. I provide the straight ally’s perspective, which generally consists of me listing all the ways I screwed up before I knew how to treat the LGBT community with respect.

After the second or third “Invisible Athlete Forum”, I began to notice a pattern. At some point during our talks, while I was listing all the mistakes I had made, all of the LGBT athletes would list one universal mistake: “I wish I had given my straight teammates more credit for being accepting.”

We all know that locker rooms can be intimidating for LGBT athletes. The constant use of casual homophobia can intimidate anyone into staying in the closet for fear of being ostracized. This is the principle focus of the You Can Play Project- encouraging athletes to end casual homophobia and make the sports world safe for the gay community. But every single one of the athletes I have presented with has expressed their regret for not trusting their teammates to support them when they came out.

Keep reading HERE.

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