Gay curler out publicly the middle of natnal champnship n - Outsports

Contents:

• CANADA’S GAY CURLG LEAGU TAKE PRI ON ICE
• HALIFAX'S GAY CURLG LEAGUE MARKS A ON THE ICE
• OUT AT THE BRIER: GAY CURLER FULFILS CHILDHOOD DREAM
• WE SWEPT WH YOUR BOYIEND: GAY CURLG TEAMS HAVE THE OLT NAM
• MATCHUP OF TWO OPENLY GAY SKIPS AT BRIER A W FOR CLIVY SPORTS
• GAY CURLER OUT PUBLICLY THE MIDDLE OF NATNAL CHAMPNSHIP N
• SASK. TEAMS MONTREAL FOR CANADIAN GAY CURLG CHAMPNSHIP
• ST. JOHN'S CURLG LEAGUE OFFERS GAY SPACE AWAY OM DOWNTOWN BARS
• CANADIAN GAY CURLG CHAMPNSHIPS BEG WNIPEG
• CANADA TODAY: GAY CURLERS, FRACKG STUDI AND A PAYROLL NIGHTMARE
• HALIFAX'S GAY CURLG LEAGUE MARKS A ON THE ICE
• OPENLY GAY CURLER JOHN EPPG WS BRONZE MEDAL AT CANADIAN CHAMPNSHIPS

CANADA’S GAY CURLG LEAGU TAKE PRI ON ICE

He publicly me out as gay 2012, and says he was embraced around the sport. “The sense of muny amongst the gay curlers here is where you really feel , durg the natnal champnships.

LGBT curlers vie for Canadian Gay Curlg Champnships Wnipeg. 13, 2016VANCOUVER, Brish Columbia — It happens all the time: Young gay people leave their small towns and head to the big cy, where they n fd love, acceptance and, Canada at least, a curlg league to ll their own.

HALIFAX'S GAY CURLG LEAGUE MARKS A ON THE ICE

“When I walked down the street, I was the entire gay pri para, ” said Mr.

OUT AT THE BRIER: GAY CURLER FULFILS CHILDHOOD DREAM

Enan, a movg to Vanuver, he joed the gay Pacific Rim Curlg League, which this year marched the Vanuver gay pri para, rryg brooms and wearg shirts that proclaimed, “I swept wh your hband.

”Canada has for s been at the foreont of gay rights, legalizg homosexual activy, openly gay ary service and same-sex marriage long before the Uned Stat and other Wtern mocraci did. This summer, Jt T beme the first stg Canadian prime mister to march a gay pri Tta for The New York TimGay curlg leagu have blossomed recent s, highlightg a distctly Canadian aspect of morn gay life.

The untry’s olst gay curlg league, Rotators, was started Toronto 1962 and went publicly gay six years later. “They were the flight attendants of the railway, ” said Murray Leang, the print of Rotators and Riverdale, the natn’s largt gay curlg league, prisg 56 has 12 gay curlg leagu wh hundreds of four-member teams. ) Tta for The New York TimMark Trowell, 51, a human rourc manager, who was on the wng team at this year’s Canadian Gay Curlg Champnships, said the sport’s civily had sometim creased as the petn had bee fiercer.

WE SWEPT WH YOUR BOYIEND: GAY CURLG TEAMS HAVE THE OLT NAM

Until a few years ago, the leagu relied on sponsors that provid nsirably ls lucrative priz, like flashlights, hand blenrs or ’s gay curlg leagu wele players of any sexualy or genr. Heather Kisbee, 57, an executive assistant, joed the Pacific Rim league five years ago wh a few female iends, though she failed to tell them that most of the participants were gay until one of the women remarked excedly on the large number of good-lookg men. ”Inclivens go both ways, said Jack Holm, 53, a theater facili manager whose team of gay players has twice won mastream league tournaments.

“The men get really ser, particularly if they’re playg , bee we’re openly gay, ” he said. Holm add, rellg a rogatory ment ma a locker room eight years many enthiasts, gay curlg tly h the mastream 2010 when Mr.

MATCHUP OF TWO OPENLY GAY SKIPS AT BRIER A W FOR CLIVY SPORTS

T attend the first bonspiel held by the gay curlg league Halifax, Nova Stia. A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 1 of the New York edn wh the headle: Canada’s Gay Curlg Teams Take Pri on Ice.

But as the only openly gay star male athlete major North Amerin sports, he feels a rponsibily to talk about his sexualy — and hop his example will empower others. In major North Amerin sports — and certaly Canada, curlg is among them — Eppg stands alone as an openly gay, star male athlete. No player NHL history has ever e out; Jason Colls did jt before he played his fal NBA season 2013–14; a uple MLB players have e out after their reers end; and NFL draft pick Michael Sam announced he was gay after his llege football reer was over.

Coll Mart played three MLS gam last season after g out 2018, five years after fellow pro soccer player Robbie Rogers beme the first openly gay man to pete a top North Amerin sports league.

GAY CURLER OUT PUBLICLY THE MIDDLE OF NATNAL CHAMPNSHIP N

Few have followed Rogers’s footsteps: Openly gay male role mols major sports are fewer than few-and-far-between. Bee then why are we aaid to be gay? “I was never told, ‘You nnot be gay’ — nobody’s ever said that.

But ’s jt not somethg we brought up, that you n be gay. Eppg kept his feelgs to himself — he scrib the realizatn as “a very slow procs” — and a uple years later he told a close iend that he was gay.

Only one of his high-school iends was upset at the news, and not bee he was gay. His mom’s was that he’d cut ti wh his fay — she’d had a iend growg up who was gay, and he’d moved to Toronto, and she never heard om him aga. Eppg’s grandmother, Irene, who died earlier this year at age 92, didn’t need to be told her grandson was gay.

SASK. TEAMS MONTREAL FOR CANADIAN GAY CURLG CHAMPNSHIP

“Bee he’d been openly gay the curlg muny for a few years, he’d been a great mentor to a lot of athlet already, ” March says. I don’t need to tell people I’m gay — I don’t.

The day he revealed publicly that he was gay, Eppg’s Instagram and Facebook msag piled up. Recently, through a curlg fundraisg lendar, he helped raise $11, 000 for the Lbian Gay Bi Trans Youth Le, a Toronto-based anizatn that mak available same-aged kids to chat wh their peers about any stggl they may be havg as relat to their sexualy.

ST. JOHN'S CURLG LEAGUE OFFERS GAY SPACE AWAY OM DOWNTOWN BARS

Eppg is hopeful the sportg world will see more gay athlet open up and be role mols the near future. A league of their ownThe Loose Ends Curlg League is one of the new kids on the block when to gay curlg has 11 LGBT curlg leagu. He had been curlg a gay league on the Wt Coast and when he uldn't fd one here, he cid to change that.

Halifax sends teams to the Canada Gay Curlg Champnships. "Pri the league, 10 years laterGammon believ Halifax's gay curlg league draws people to the sport who may not have otherwise taken up curlg. "There is a b of a stigma between sport and gay people, " he said.

And now, his own low-key way, he's helpg rve out a path to greater cln by speakg publicly about beg an openly gay curler at this year's Brier. "Beg gay has nothg to do wh this. Kidby hadn't known his teammat for very long and wonred if his beg gay would be an issue.

CANADIAN GAY CURLG CHAMPNSHIPS BEG WNIPEG

"Personally, I don't re if you're gay or straight. J., who as a send won the Canadian and world junr tl three brothers are close, and Taylor remembers very distctly the moment when Dt told him he was gay. "I'm always jt gog to go out there and do my bt, and I'm always gog to be gay, " Dt says.

For years, gay. rabow jersey projects have ma an impact, the fact remas that openly gay.

CANADA TODAY: GAY CURLERS, FRACKG STUDI AND A PAYROLL NIGHTMARE

of curlg, where gay athlet n be found at nearly every level of. there are two openly gay athlet petg among the more than 60 men.

more reprentative of the LGBTQ populatn, havg openly gay athlet. muny is a very welg place for gay Team Ontar skip John Eppg publicly. Eppg’s ma reason for dog so was to hopefully open doors for future gay.

young gay curlers n fd the experienc of Kidby and Eppg is jt how. hopefully create more opportuni for gay curlers at the sport’s hight level,.

HALIFAX'S GAY CURLG LEAGUE MARKS A ON THE ICE

gay curlg leagu have been set up across the untry to create an clive. In Vanuver, the early 1990s, the Pacific Rim Curlg League — a 16-team league of gay and lbian curlers — met weekly at the Universy of Brish Columbia rk. Found 10 years earlier as an rmal drop- league, the PRCL was the first league for gay curlers wtern Canada, and was growg populary — until UBC cid to shut the terratg curlg facily.

OPENLY GAY CURLER JOHN EPPG WS BRONZE MEDAL AT CANADIAN CHAMPNSHIPS

The enthiasm wh which the gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr (GLBT) muny has lnched self to curlg — and the benefs of that relatnship — n be seen right across Canada.

Boudre says the Vanuver gay curlg league is one of the largt recreatnal curlg leagu Brish Columbia, wh about 212 members and 48 registered teams.

It offers several bonspiels durg s season, om September to May, and will host the 2012 Canadian Gay Curlg Champnship Febary 2012, as well as s annual Pac Rim Cup Bonspiel, at s new home Vanuver’s former Olympic Wter Gam curlg venue. Across the untry on Canada’s East Coast, Halifax’s Mayflower Curlg Club is the hub of an equally active gay curlg scene. What started as a group of gay curlers the Mayflower’s Friday-night recreatnal league has transformed to Loose Ends, a small, thrivg league.