Olympic footballer Megan Rapinoe comes out

From Out Magazine:


Megan Rapinoe is learning to be comfortable in the spotlight. She’s got to be; it’s enthusiasts who keep soccer alive.

“We need fans; we need people to watch our games,” she says. “I don’t think it happens like it does in male sports, just because we’re playing. We do a good job of opening up and having our fans know us. But there’s a line we don’t cross, because then they will dive in.”

Some fans already have. Who can blame them? Rapinoe -- also a member of the U.S. women’s national team and a midfielder for the Seattle Sounders Women -- is one of the most well-known women’s soccer players in the world. So it’s no wonder she’s inspired some enthusiastic fans—like the German guy who tattooed her likeness on the back of his calf.

“That was strange—really strange,” she says. “I’m cute, but I’m not that cute.”

With her unmistakable shock of bleached-blond hair and upbeat personality, Rapinoe inspired legions of devotees last year after making her first World Cup appearance as a midfielder on the U.S. women’s team. She had a key role in the team’s heart-pounding wins and instigated an unforgettable moment when she grabbed a microphone and sang “Born in the U.S.A.” to the crowd.

Keep reading HERE.

En français / 22 June 2012 / FSGL supports project to bring South African lesbian football team to Paris tournament

We are delighted to learn that FGG member organization FSGL has made a substantial financial contribution to Foot for Love, a project to bring a team of South African women football players to this week's "b.yourself" tournament. 

Beyond the tournament this Saturday, each day until the following weekend's Pride Parade will feature a special activity: workshops, exhibitions, film night.

We are confident that the initiative will be repeated so that the organizers, Les Dégommeuses, will be able to bring these women to Cleveland for Gay Games 9.


Via Yagg.com:

La Fédération sportive gaie et lesbienne (FSGL) vient d'annoncer qu'elle soutenait le projet Foot For Love, lancé par Les Dégommeuses avec les LOCs et en partenariat avec Paris Foot Gay et Yagg.


Le soutien de la FSGL est principalement financier – c'est le nerf de la guerre –, puisqu'elle apporte 1500 euros à Foot For Love, qui fait venir à Paris dès le 22 juin et pour une semaine une délégation de footballeuses lesbiennes sud-africaines pour, à travers le sport, mobiliser contre les discriminations et les viols correctifs dont les lesbiennes sont victimes en Afrique du Sud.

Contactée par Yagg, Cécile Chartrain, des Dégommeuses, est ravie: «Autour de ce projet, nous avons réussi à obtenir le soutien de très nombreux partenaires et le soutien de la FSGL s'ajoute à une multitude d'autres, qui vont nous permettre d'accueillir la délégation sud-africaine dans de bonnes conditions.» Pour tout savoir sur ce projet, suivez le blog Foot For Love sur Yagg.

Temps fort de la semaine de mobilisation contre les discriminations lesbophobes, le match des Princesses entre Les Dégommeuses et le club sud-africain Thokozani FC, a lieu dimanche 24 juin, vers 16 heures (entrée libre), dans le cadre du Tournoi b. yourself coordonné par Paris Foot Gay.

Retrouvez tout le programme de la semaine Foot For Love (expo, concert, film, débats) sur le dossier de presse en PDF à télécharger.

Where at the Ls in LGBT sport?

Gareth Johnson writes in GayStarNews on the lack of lesbians in LGBT sports clubs:


If you look at the website of any LGBT community-based sports club, the goals, objectives and sentiment are generally pretty similar and very inclusive.

For example, Frontrunners proclaims that it’s mission is to ‘promote the sports of running, walking and related athletic activities for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders and their supporters’. But if you talk to most Frontrunners clubs around the world and their membership is dominated by middle-aged gay men.

This situation is consistent in LGBT sports clubs around the world:

• 
  
• The Capital Splats racquetball club in Washington was only established in 2010, but already its membership is skewed towards gay men - with lesbians making up only 15% of the club’s membership.
• The Toronto Triggerfish , established in 2001 are Canada’s largest water polo club (and the world’s largest LGBT water polo club), but only 19% of their 80 members are women.
• For Rainbow Squash in Amsterdam , established in 1997, lesbians make up only 20% of its membership.
• And yet it’s undeniable that lesbians love sport and are actively participating in sport at all levels. So what is it about LGBT sports clubs that is a turn-off for women?

Keep reading HERE.

Pro soccer player shares her story as an out gay athlete

Via Anna Aagenes/Our Group: 
Joanna Lohman is a Professional Soccer Player for DC United Women and Co-founder of JoLi Academy LLC, a global soccer initiative starting in India. She decided to share her story with Our Group not only to promote LGBT inclusion in sports, but most importantly, to “stand out” and stand up for all human rights.

I am an American. I am a woman and I just happen to be a gay. To end the story there would be an unforgivable slight to my overall personal journey.

My journey as an American woman started from day one, my journey as a gay woman, however, started at the age of 22. While there were small hints prior to this, it was not until I ended my engagement with a wonderful man, that I truly realized who I was.

We all have choices in life and some are much more difficult than others. And while it may seem easier to take the path of least resistance, it’s absolutely not the path that leads to liberated happiness.

Keep reading HERE.

Foot for Love seeks donations to bring a South African women's football team to Paris tournament

The Federation of Gay Games supports this initiative, and hopes it will lead to the participation of the Thokozani Football Club in Gay Games 9 in Cleveland+Akron in August 2014:

Join the team “Foot For Love” by making a donation on the fundraising site Kisskissbankbank ! Help us to welcome in Paris a south-African female football team, so that they can participate to an exhibition match against discriminations on 24 June. This event will be followed by a whole week of actions against discriminations, including sport, culture, activism and festive moments.

Info HERE

Foot for Love

"Foot For Love" is an initiative to promote the fight against violence and discrimination targeting lesbians, particularly through sport. To do so, we invite to Paris a delegation of the Thokozani Football Club during a week punctuated by sport, cultural and activist events. The name of this club, located in a township in Durban celebrates Thokozani Qwabe, a lesbian soccer player murdered in 2007 because of her sexual orientation. Since then, many hate crimes (murders, “corrective rapes” ...) have been committed against lesbians or transgenders, in South Africa.

The Thokozani Football Club (TFC) was created in response to these violences by Zanele Muholi , photographer and activist working for the rights of women and homosexuals s in South Africa. On their website, they describe their aims as follows: “ As an all black lesbian-women soccer team, we at Thokozani believe that through sport and soccer, we can make a difference in the lives of other young and queer women struggling against homophobia and violence. We play for peace. We want to educate each other and our families, friends and communities that we exist, that we contribute to building a physically, socially, and emotionally healthy and democratic South African society, and that we deserve a life free of discrimination and violence due to homophobia. We have the right as athletes to play and compete in a safe and supportive environment no matter what our gender, race, class, or sexual orientation.”

The Thokozani Football Club

The club is affiliated to the South African Football Association (SAFA women's section) and plays in a league official (ABSA League). It currently has twenty lesbians players, aged from 18 to 41 years. The province of Kwa-Zulu Natal (Durban) is generally characterized by high levels of poverty, a very high HIV prevalence (which does not spare lesbians) and very high exposure of women and homosexuals to violence.

Les Dégommeuses at the Paris Football Arc en ciel football tournament at the TIP Paris International Tournament.

En francais / Out Brazilian handballer patron of TIP before heading to London Olympics

In an interview with Tetue.com, Brazilian handball player Mayssa Pessoa talks about how she came to be a patron of the TIP Paris International Tournament (alongside repeat patron Romain Mesnil), coming out to her teaammates, and its impact on her game:

TÊTUE: Comment t’es-tu retrouvée marraine du TIP cette année?
Mayssa Pessoa: Christelle Foucault (la présidente de la FSGL) est d’abord entré en contact avec Amélie Goudjo, qui est la capitaine de l’équipe de France et avec qui je joue en club. C’est Amélie qui m’a parlé du tournoi international, qui m’a demandé si je voulais en être la marraine. Je suis lesbienne, et je suis la seule dans mon équipe!

Tu avais déjà entendu parler de ce tournoi avant ça?
Non, et j’ai trouvé ça super intéressant! Un tournoi qui rassemble autour des homos, pour leurs droits et leur respect, je n’avais jamais vu ça et c’est trop bien! Et je suis déçue de ne pas pouvoir être là pour assister au tournoi, j’aurais aimé rencontrer des gens comme moi, gays et lesbiennes. Je ne peux pas car je suis en ce moment en Turquie, en préparation avec l’équipe du Brésil pour les JO.

Il y a aujourd’hui très peu de handballeuses professionnelles ouvertement lesbiennes…
Oui, il y en a beaucoup qui se cachent. Avant j’étais comme ça aussi…

Pourquoi?
Je ne voulais pas l’accepter. Et puis les années ont passé, jusqu’à ce que je me dise «J’aime les filles, c’est comme ça!» Aujourd’hui je suis en couple avec une femme, tout mon club le sait et je n’ai plus peur de rien.

La première fois que tu as fait part de ton homosexualité à une équipe de hand, c’était où? Ça s’était passé comment?
C’était en 2009, quand je suis arrivée en France pour jouer à Brest (après être passé par l’Espagne et le Portugal, ndlr). J’ai commencé à faire mal à la personne avec qui j’étais, qui habitait avec moi et que je cachais. Une fois j’ai passé une nuit entière sans dormir, à ne penser qu’à ça, et je me suis dit que je n’étais plus une gamine, qu’il ne fallait plus que j’aie peur. Le lendemain j’ai parlé à mes coéquipières et elles m’ont répondu: «Mais pourquoi tu cachais ça?! C’est pas grave!» Après l’avoir dit, je me suis senti bien, j’ai ressenti de la liberté.

Lire l'integralite ICI.

MMA fighter says being open about her bisexuality is part of the sport

An extract from a Sports Illustrated profile of mixed martial arts fighter Jessica Aguilar:

 In six years, Aguilar has found her identity in fighting, earning a reputation as a fierce competitor with a slick ground game, buoyant striking technique and a room-warming toothy grin.
She's also reached some comfort in sharing her bisexual orientation, which she kept hidden in high school to avoid being singled out. Jessica came out to her ATT teammates with little fanfare ("When they found out, they treated me just the same," she said) and for the last year, has lived with her girlfriend, who wholeheartedly supports her fight career.

"I don't put it in any titles," said Aguilar, "but I'd say when I've found the right person -- whether it's a man or a woman -- I'd be happy."

Like fighting, Jessica's bisexuality is something her mother doesn't quite grasp. Mother and daughter haven't talked about it since Jessica first told her a few years ago.
"She asked me where I learned it or saw it," Jessica said. "I told her you didn't see or learn it; you felt it. She told me it would pass."

In the past, Jessica has been cautious not to reveal details like this one about her private life. She wasn't sure how it would affect her ability to get sponsorships or how the fans might react to it.
However, she's realizing that her chosen occupation comes with some expectation of openness if she wants fans to connect with her journey.

"It's always been something I had to be very conservative about and it's something I've had to get more comfortable talking about," she said. "If somebody doesn't agree with my choices, with all due respect, I just don't feed into it because that's negative energy. I'm sorry -- this is who I am."

Read in full HERE.

Out lesbian boxer sets sights on the Olympics

We received a link to a story about Patricia Manuel in the Los Angeles Times, but couldn't do a post because the article was behind a paywall. So we were pleased to see a post on the Wide Rights blog that links to this article in Long Beach GazettesSports.com:

You should have heard the story of Patricia Manuel back in 2009. That was the year that the bruising boxer, then 24 years old, impressed in a quality showing at the Continental Championships, defeated the British lightweight champion in London and won the U.S. Nationals title. For the fourth time. It was a landmark year for a rising star, and heads began to turn.

Manuel started training with the best in the business, and undefeated pro fighter Javier Molina dubbed the slugger "Peanut" because of her shaved head. But even with impressive accolades and an amateur record that now stands at 47-12, few outside the tight-knit boxing world took notice. "It's annoying when you succeed and the only ones noticing are the people you already see every day," she says. "If no one knows who you are, then what do promoters want you for?"

So Peanut kept her amateur status, putting her professional dreams on hold. These days she works two jobs to pay her way through training and rehab, but Manuel says that remaining amateur was "a no-brainer." Just a few weeks after that decision, women's boxing became an official event for the 2012 London Olympics, for the first time since 1904.

"This time they're going to see a whole different beast," she says. Manuel will have her chance at the spotlight, and could very well become the first woman ever to represent the United States as an Olympic boxer.

The opportunity also strikes a personal chord. Manuel describes herself as an out butch lesbian, and proud of it. She decries recent hate crimes, regularly works with the non-profit Brown Boi Project and hopes to one day start her own organization to assist the LGBTQ community. A boost in exposure could create a new platform for the Golden Gloves winner to serve as a role model outside the ring.

Keep reading HERE.

Flashmob - Give Homophobia the Red Card !

Anti-​homophobia activists were calling on FIFA to publicly condemn homophobia. A group led by international gay rights organization AllOut​.org and the FGG member Club FVV had organized a “flashmob” demonstration in Frankfurt to take place before the opening whistle of the semi-​final game of the Women’s World Cup, on July 13, the dayFIFA, the International Federation of Association Football — which is the international governing body of association football, futsal and beach football — has set aside as their official “Day Against Discrimination.”

Although homophobia in football is a long-​standing issue, remarks made earlier this year by Nigerian coach Eucharia Uche — that she’d kicked players off ther team “not because they were bad players, but because they were lesbians” — is at the heart of this protest.

FIFA’s response to the allegations against Uche had been very tepid. FIFA’s head of women’s competitions Tatjana Haenni said that FIFA had been “talking to” Uche, and pointing out to her that “it would be best to express oneself neutrally.” In addition, FIFA committed to a “Day Against Discrimination,” and directed the public to their “position on discriminating statements” in the meantime.

For AllOut​.org and the IGLFA, the response was not enough. Neither was it sufficient for the 45,000 people who signed a petition calling on FIFA to publicly condemn homophobia in sport, or for the European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF), the International Gay and Lesbian Football Association (IGLFA), or the Federation of Gay Games (FGG), all of whom endorsed the campaign.

Now, activists dressed as referees had gathered in front of the Frankfurt Football stadium on July 13 to urge FIFA to back up their discrimination policy, beginning with a full investigation into coach Uche.

“Anyone who has played or watched football knows that there are consequences for breaking the rules of the game,’ said Andre Banks, co-​founder of AllOut​.org in a press release. “It is time for FIFA to finally cry foul and give Coach Uche the red card, sending a strong message that discrimination against lesbian and gay players will not be tolerated on or off the field.”

The Flashmob has been covered by the mass media, among others we have spotted
- Bild : the best-selling tabloid in Europe and has the sixth-largest circulation worldwide. (www.bild.de)
- Sueddeutsche Zeitung : the largest German national subscription daily newspaper (http://www.sueddeutsche.de)
- the local LGBT media : GAB magazin (http://www.inqueery.de/)

Live from Cologne - L-MAG TV video portrait of three lesbian athletes

This is a nice short video segment from L-MAG TV with three portraits of lesbian athletes at the Gay Games 2010. Interviewed were Pinky Zulu, South African soccer player who wants to bring the Gay Games to South Africa; Lies, a tennis player from the Netherlands, who came to the Gay Games without a doubles partner and had one assigned to her; and Shannon from the U.S. who met her partner Julia while sport climbing. Video by: Ruth Wolter

Help the Chosen Few help themselves

SOUTH AFRICA -- 23 March 2010: In a bid to raise funds for the Gay Games World Tournament in Cologne, Germany, The Chosen Few, a lesbian soccer team, owned by the Forum for Empowerment of Women (FEW) will be hosting a car wash and picnic at Zoolake on Saturday 27 March and are appealing to the community at large for support.

Having received a scholarship* from the Gay Games committee which covers travel expenses and accommodation the team is still in need of a proper gear, assistance with local travelling expenses to and from training and funding for a pre tournament camp.

"Without donations there is no Chosen Few, we need support from the LGBTI community which will further motivate us to perform at our best", said Matshidiso Mofokeng, player of the Chosen Few Team.

Continue reading HERE.

*Generously financed by Dick Uyvari and the late Joe LaPat