Gaytlsports.com

A potion of my Memorial Day Weekend included stops at the three gay sporting events taking place in Atlanta. Well four, really, if you count the home opener of the Atlanta Dream season. As well stocked with lesbians as Philips Arena was for the game, it’s safe to call that WNBA game a gay event.

Back to the others last weekend – Hotlanta Soccer Classic, Hotlanta Softball Challenge and the annual convention of the International Gay Bowling Organization. In addition to the photos from the events you can see here and here, I also talked with participants for my Southern Voice sports column this week. Read the full story.

Whether it’s a backpack, a bike or a paddle, chances are you’ll need some extras when you spend time with the Wilderness Network of Georgia or the Women’s Outdoor Network.

The two groups – aimed at gay men (WNOG) and lesbians (WON) – take full advantage of the rich outdoor offerings of metro Atlanta and North Georgia, whether it’s a moonlight hike up Stone Mountain or a bike ride around the city. They even head indoors for potluck dinners and an IMAX movie with drinks or organize longer trips to places including the Grand Canyon (photo).

The two groups are among the largest gay sports groups in the city, with their members spread throughout the region. WON counts some 450 members in 39 counties, including the expected – nearly half of their members live in DeKalb and Fulton counties – and the surprising, such as Cherokee County about 45 miles north of Atlanta. The Wilderness Network has about 250 members with a handful living in far-flung locales including South Georgia and Charlotte, N.C.

“The activities are geared for a wide range of fitness levels. We say go on one trip and see what it’s like. If you like it, join us,” said Tim Blackmore, president of the Wilderness Network.

I talked with leaders of both groups for my Southern Voice sports column. Read the full story.

(Photo courtesy River Byrd)

Marketing the Atlanta Dream, the WNBA’s newest franchise, is taking a shotgun approach. Not wanting to leave any potential market untapped, the club is reaching out to anyone who will listen and might plunk down money for tickets.

The Dream’s sales team, as I’ve written about here and in my Southern Voice sports column, wants gay and lesbian fans, too, part of a strategy to reach a large coalition of consumer groups, as the Atlanta Business Chronicle reports.

Karla Kreitner, the owner of Kardon Events, said the Dream needs to actively pursue the lesbian community, something she said the WNBA has been reluctant to do.

“The lesbian community is going to be a big following,” said Kreitner, who is a meeting planner. “At the Final Four, the number of lesbians that are there is incredible. I have some friends who have gone to every Final Four the last seven or eight years.”

That’s something Beth Schapiro, a lesbian political strategist, echoed last year when the Dream was still being pursued by civic boosters. And when team owner Ron Terwilliger was awarded a franchise last October, he said the club will reach out to the “obvious lesbian component” in its fan base.

It’s refreshing that a professional sports franchise in Atlanta understands the importance of reaching out to its gay and lesbian fans.

When 15,000 runners and walkers gather downtown next month, scores of gay and lesbian athletes will be among them for the start of the Georgia Marathon & Half Marathon. Their reasons for taking part are varied, from enjoying the picturesque route the race takes through Atlanta neighborhoods to using it as a training step for an upcoming triathlon or feeding their competitive nature.

“I went from not running really ever to running a bunch of marathons,” Mary Romestant (photo) says. “Once you’ve gotten past a certain distance in your training, there is just no turning back. Running is very generous.”

I talked with four gay athletes taking part in the ING for my Southern Voice sports column this week. Read the full story. In the coming weeks, check back here for updates on the progress of those runners – Romestant, Michelle Martin, Mike Spencer and Andy Wilson – and others as they prepare for the March 30 race.

There’s a little bit of everything going on for gay sports fans this weekend.

On tap tonight is the start of the new spring season for the Hotlanta Volleyball Association. Teams in HVA’s intermediate and advanced leagues open play tonight; recreation teams opened play on Tuesday. The season for both leagues stretches into April. Check out the preview of the new HVA season in this week’s Southern Voice sports column. Read the full story.

On Saturday, the Atlanta Bucks Rugby Football Club (0-2) takes on the Birmingham Vulcans during its home opener. The Bucks are hoping for the return of a few injured players to their roster for the match, according to Bullet Manale, the club’s president. Match time is 1 p.m.

“We are trying to add and build on our fitness and the level of time we are competitive,” Manale says. “That has a lot to do with fitness and fixing tackling and a couple of things we need to work on.”

If you’re looking for a different sort of dance event – sans thumping mixes and smoky clubs – check out the Quicksilver Country Dancers event on Saturday. The group promotes gender-free Contra dancing that features moves similar to square dancing but performed to traditional American and Celtic music. Dance time is 7:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta.

On Sunday, the Hotlanta Softball League continues its recruitment events to fill the rosters of the nearly four-dozen teams that will open the season in late March. To find out more about the league, stop by the sign up event from noon to 3 p.m. at Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse.

For even more sporty things to do this weekend, read the full calendar of events.

One of the rewarding aspects of writing and blogging about the gay sports scene in Atlanta is meeting the people behind the incredible number of organizations spread all across the metro area. That was the case recently in talking with Michelle Martin, who seems to spend all of her free time running through the streets of her Decatur neighborhood and swimming with friends at practices of the Atlanta Rainbow Trout.

But Martin is more than just another gay jock looking to stay in shape and meet new people, the most common refrains heard from members of gay sports organizations. It’s turned into a passion for her, undertaking a new sport at age 50 and quickly becoming a dominant force in her age group. She also gives back, serving as swim director for the Trout.

“I just had so much fun,” Martin says of competing in her first International Gay & Lesbian Aquatics championships in 2002. “It was great going to a gay meet and meeting other lesbian swimmers. I just loved it.”

After she was recently named Sportsperson of the Year by the Atlanta Gay Sports Alliance, I had the chance to profile Martin in my Southern Voice sports column. Read the full story.

If you’re clueless about football and the Super Bowl, you’ve got commercials to watch, a halftime show to enjoy and two hunky quarterbacks to gawk at throughout the evening. But if you know the difference between a fumble and a first down, there’s a compelling storyline to keep your attention as the Patriots pursue history. They want to become the first NFL team to go 19-0 and join the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the league’s only unbeaten teams.

Keeping that divergence in mind, check out two guides to get you through Super Bowl XLII. There’s “Super Bowl for the Clueless,” the annual guide to the Big Game from Outsports.com. Though it goes through the X’s and O’s in a non-jock friendly sort of way, even football veterans will pick up something new in the informative breakdown of the game. Jim Buzinski, one of the co-founders of the site and author of the article, takes the Patriots over the Giants, 37-20. Jim’s take on the commercials:

“Lesbian fans will be thrilled to know that Victoria’s Secret will advertise this year. For the guys, Under Armour, the skintight, body-hugging apparel, is making its debut. We can only hope they have recruited some NFL hotties for the ads.”

For the gay in you, there’s “Bringing Sexy (Quarter) Back” from Southern Voice, a side-by-side comparison of the quarterbacks Tom Brady and Eli Manning. The paper’s take includes prognosticating on which Atlanta gay bar you’d find each – Brady at WETBar and Manning at Three-Legged Cowboy. If only. SoVo also takes the Pats over the Giants:

“Sorry, Eli. Enjoy the moment. We would pull for you and the Giants, but we’re gay, not stupid.”

The Outsports preview also includes Dylan Edwards’ cartoon take on what to expect from a gay Super Bowl party. Speaking of that, two local gay sports teams are hosting events on Sunday, along with gay sports bar Woofs Atlanta and a host of other gay bars. Find out more.

The WNBA’s full court press in Atlanta continues. The league’s newest team unveiled its name (Atlanta Dream), logo (the A in Dream has a basketball shooting out of it) and team colors (red and sky blue) late last month.

Additionally, a league executive spoke to the Atlanta Executive Network in what she billed as her first public discussion of being a lesbian in professional sports. A snippet from Kristin Bernert’s talk to the gay business group:

“I know the WNBA has a lesbian stigma. That’s great, but I’m like, who cares? The truth is the league couldn’t care less if I was gay or straight. They really don’t care.”

Get up to speed on the latest developments with my sports column for Southern Voice. Read the full story. For past coverage of the Dream on my blog, go here.

Though the hype over antibiotic-resistant staph infections has led to gay men being wrongly blamed for its spread, it’s still worth noting that we do face the threat of what can turn into a deadly infection. Gay gym-goers and athletes face an elevated risk of becoming infected.

Southern Voice recently broke through the chatter from conservatives and some media outlets who misinterpreted the results of a study of staph infections in San Francisco’s Castro District. The piece, published Jan. 25, also takes an in-depth look at the skin infection and how it’s transmitted. Read the full story.

A strain of Methicclin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, or MRSA, is resistant to three antibiotics used to treat it. And gay men, especially physically active ones, should take note: Though the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention doesn’t track the infection, anecdotal evidence from medical practices with large numbers of gay patients suggests a high concentration of MRSA, SoVo reports. Scientists also suggest that the resistant strain developed in HIV infected men.

MRSA is spread through skin-to-skin contact, sex or a contaminated surface. Think gyms, locker rooms and going shirtless on the dance floor. Atlanta physician T. Douglas Gurley made the connection for the newspaper:

“It‘s spread through skin to skin contact, or sex, or a contaminated surface, so it really gets transmitted at gyms, sauna or sex clubs. Interestingly it was found 30 percent in the groin area, and gay men shave that area, and shaving creates micro-abrasions which can make you more susceptible.”

Outsports.com recently highlighted a New York Times piece about gay swimmer Jack Mackenroth, who developed an MRSA infection. You might know him better as one of the designers on Bravo’s “Project Runway” who left the show after the skin infection surfaced. Outsports also profiled Mackenroth.

Atlanta Pride is on the move, both in location and time, thanks to new restrictions from the city concerning the use of its drought-weary parks. Organizers confirmed this week that the event is moving to the Civic Center during July 4th weekend, according to Southern Voice.

The impact of the move, and the new restrictions on the city’s parks, is explored in my weekly sports column for the paper. A golf tournament that benefits the Atlanta Feminist Women’s Chorus may be held earlier in June, while organizers of the annual 5K run and walk, traditionally held on Pride Saturday, are taking a wait and see approach. A change in the timing of Pride might also impact the decision to hold the second rendition of a rugby tournament put on hiatus this year. Read the full story.

Gay sports groups that use the park – the National Flag Football League of Atlanta (NFFLA), Hotlanta Soccer Association (HSA) and Hotlanta Softball League (HSL) – could face problems if organized sports are banned from athletic fields in the parks. That’s a possibility, according to Dianne Harnell Cohen, the city’s parks commissioner. The city has already banned cleats from the parks and further restrictions could mean teams are forced to rotate fields and parks.

“We are watching that very carefully,” Harnell Cohen said at a Jan. 11 press conference announcing the new park restrictions. “We are not at that point yet because we are not in season now.”

Gene Murphy, president of HSA, says the gay soccer club is working with parks officials on plans for its annual Hotlanta Soccer Classic held Memorial Day Weekend. The event played in Piedmont Park last year, but could return to athletic fields at Georgia Tech where the tournament has been held in the past.

“Our first choice is Piedmont Park,” Murphy says. “We really like the Midtown location and the support from nearby bars, restaurants and hotels. We are trying to host everything in Midtown so when people come into the city, they enjoy their experience in Midtown.”

The football league, which opens its season in March, faces the biggest hit if the city puts in place additional restrictions on athletic events in its parks. The league enjoys the high-profile location of hosting its games at Piedmont and has enjoyed a boost in interest since moving from Central Park, according to Thurman Williams, NFFLA’s president.

“I’m not sure what we’ll do,” Williams says. “We’re optimistic. I am believing things will work and we will be able to play. We are counting on it because we’re looking to have a bigger and better season.”

HSL moved its Fall Ball, a brief co-ed season, to Piedmont last year and a handful of teams practice at the park during the spring season, which opens in April. Emerson Ross, the league’s commissioner, says additional restrictions on Piedmont would have a measured impact on HSL, but that its upcoming season would go on as usual at a softball complex in south Fulton County.

“Fall Ball brought the spirit of the league to Piedmont Park and the Midtown area,” Ross says.