San Francis Gay Softball League rgs s 50th anniversary season - Outsports

Contents:

• SF GAY SOFTBALL LEAGUE CELEBRAT 50 YEARS OF G SPORTS TO CREATE A SENSE OF MUNY
• SF GAY SOFTBALL LEAGUE CELEBRAT 50 YEARS OF GIVG PLAYERS A HOME BASE
• SF GAY AMATR SOFTBALL TEAM NTU WNG STREAK, FOSTERS MUNY
• SF GAY SOFTBALL LEAGUE CELEBRAT 50 YEARS OF COMPETN, CAMARARIE, AND INCLN
• SAN FRANCIS GAY SOFTBALL LEAGUE 50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATN & GAME
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
• IN SAN FRANCIS SOFTBALL LEAGUE, GAY AND STRAIGHT ATHLET MIXG ON AND OFF FIELD

SF GAY SOFTBALL LEAGUE CELEBRAT 50 YEARS OF G SPORTS TO CREATE A SENSE OF MUNY

March 2023 – The San Francis Gay Softball League has released the 2023 softball schle which ns om late March to June. In 2023, Openg Day is pecially signifint for the Bay Area LGBTQ muny as kicks off the 50th anniversary of the San Francis Gay Softball League.

“I thk a lot people who eher didn’t play bee they felt they wouldn’t be accepted beg gay or people who were gay that played now had kd of a safe haven to go out and hang out wh people like themselv, ” he remarked, “So was very much a safe haven but also very petive. After beg n out of Major League Baseball by homophob like Tommy Lasorda and Billy Mart, Glenn Burke rtarted his reer on the diamond and beme a lol folk hero wh tape-measure home ns and jaw-droppg fense for the SFGSL’s Pendulum Pirat. Meanwhile, Gay Gam -founr Rikki Streicher also showed off her athletic prows on the fields of the Gay Softball League.

Years later as the AIDS crisis explod, the toll on San Francis’s gay populatn uld be seen on the SFGSL’s rosters and playg fields. Chief among them occurred durg the 1977 season when SFGSL hosted the gural Gay Softball World Seri and San Francis Badland took home the champnship. SF Gay Softball League celebrat 50 years of givg players a home base On Sundays San Francis, head to the baseball diamonds at Kimbell fields or Mosne Fields, and youll likely fd yourself the middle of a tradn thats lasted five s.

SF GAY SOFTBALL LEAGUE CELEBRAT 50 YEARS OF GIVG PLAYERS A HOME BASE

A gay anizatn to be around that long is a remarkable thg, " said Vcent Fuqua, Commissner of the San Francis Gay Softball League. "I have been the gay softball league for 37 years.

And beg a young, sred, gay, kid, whout any iends and seeg people dyg, I felt isolated, " Diaz said. Now we have over 50 ci that have gay softball leagu, " said Diaz. "Beg trans is different om intifyg as gay or lbian.

On Saturday, at Oracle Park on Pri night, the San Francis Giants and the muny were the on cheerg for the San Francis Gay Softball League, honorg them on the field for 50 years and untg.

SF GAY AMATR SOFTBALL TEAM NTU WNG STREAK, FOSTERS MUNY

As the San Francis Gay Softball League celebrat s past, the lears are also lookg to the future. The league was selected to be the host for the 2027 Gay Softball World Seri San Francis as the Gay Softball World Seri celebrat s 50th anniversary.

This is ed good news, and pecially for the San Francis Gay Softball League (SFGSL) and the Alameda Women’s Softball League (AWSL). We were gog to go to the Gay World Seri. On Friday and Saturday nights the late 1980s, wh $5 for b fare and drks, and a agrance to spray away the sticky scent of cigarette smoke, Orlando Diaz would head to Breadsticks, the lol gay bar Flhg, Queens.

As an 18-year-old gay man longg for a sense of muny, Diaz cid to follow through. Soon enough he beme a member of their team, the Bands, which played agast other gay teams New York. He is now the ach and pcher for the San Francis Sluggers, one of the 40 teams the San Francis Gay Softball League.

SF GAY SOFTBALL LEAGUE CELEBRAT 50 YEARS OF COMPETN, CAMARARIE, AND INCLN

“Part of was not feelg fortable jt knowg I was gay, ” Whe said. The more he played the gay leagu, the more Whe felt fortable and the better he played. At a team dner after the 2021 Gay Softball World Seri Columb, Oh, Siefert was givg a ctomary speech, thankg the players for their mment and celebratg their acplishments.

Diaz displays the rg hband and teammate Bob Siefert ed to propose at the 2021 Gay Softball World Seri after practice at Mosne Fields San Francis on Feb. San Francis Gay Softball League learship enurag team managers to be clive of bodi of all abili and players om all backgrounds and inti.

—Dom Brassey, San Francis Gay Softball League Player, Team Knockouts, Women’s+ Divisn.

SAN FRANCIS GAY SOFTBALL LEAGUE 50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATN & GAME

Yet, we were able to play softball together the San Francis Gay Softball League (SFGSL).

“From my knowledge—and I don’t have all the tails—our league started some 50 years ago when a group of gay men and women brought a bat and a ball to a piic where they played softball and had so much fun that they entertaed the ia of formg teams. The San Francis Gay Softball League is holdg a fundraisg game to celebrate s 50th Anniversary! -based profsnal league to e out as gay.

Michael Sam beme the first openly gay player to be drafted when the then-St. I've been thkg of this cint bee of the recent buzz over the possibily of an active profsnal gay athlete immently clarg his sexualy (see here, here and here).

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

The speculatn started a uple of weeks ago, wh an announcement by former Baltimore Ravens lebacker Brendon Ayanbajo, an outspoken supporter of gay rights, that up to four gay NFL players might e out. Though Ayanbajo later backed away a b om his assertn, the troductn of the very ia of actual current top athlet who are gay, as opposed to the extremely logil speculatn that y, of urse some are, has created a certa excement, and perhaps even wash away some of the ignorance that ntu to ooze out even this "It Gets Better" age. You'll rell 49ers rnerback Chris Culliver's pre-Super Bowl ments January, when asked if he'd ever been approached by gay teammat: "No, we don't got no gay people on the team, " he said.

That ment was more about out-and-out disda than an asssment of gay athlet' abili (Culliver later apologized), but I myself have had a number of otherwise open-md straight iends over the years make directly for the jok when rmed that I play a gay league. Sce I had played baseball high school, a iend's vatn to jo his team the San Francis Gay Softball League immediately prompted the notn that I was gog to domate, sce surely everyone threw like a girl. The league, which former gay major leaguer Glenn Burke once played, has been a haven for gay athlet for 41 years.

IN SAN FRANCIS SOFTBALL LEAGUE, GAY AND STRAIGHT ATHLET MIXG ON AND OFF FIELD

A few years back, I terviewed one teammate, a five-tool outfielr wh tremendo oppose field power, about what gay softball meant to him.

“For a long time I didn’t know anyone who was gay and who played sports, ” he said.

“I had my gay iends I’d go out wh and my straight iends I’d play sports wh.