PFLAG Santa Cruz County is proud to announce that our Tuesday, August 14th meeting will focus on “Out In Sports”!
Tuesday, August 14th, 2012
7:00 – 9:00 pm
First Congregational Church of Santa Cruz
900 High Street, Santa Cruz, 95060
Please join families from around Santa Cruz County as they come together to hear from a local parent of a LGBT Athlete as well as a LGBT athlete to share their experiences in being out in sports.
The first hour of the PFLAG Santa Cruz County (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians & Gays) meeting is dedicated to discussion groups followed by a brief break. The second hour will be dedicated to our August panel “Out In Sports: Family Members and LGBTIQ Athletes share their experiences with various degrees of acceptance and inclusiveness within team and individual sports.”
Guest panelist includes Mary Spadaro, the mother of Benjamin Landauer, a 2011 QYLA Awardee. Benjamin graduated from San Lorenzo Valley High School in 2012, where he was named Valedictorian, Most Outstanding Senior, and Scholar-Athlete of the Year. He was also recognized by The Santa Cruz Sentinel as one of the county’s top Scholar-Athletes of the Year. At SLV, he was active in GSA, journalism, drama and band, played football for 4 years and wrestled for 3 years. As a senior wrestler, he was ranked #22 statewide in the 220-lb weight class, placed 1st at SCCAL Finals and 2nd at CCS Finals, which earned him a berth at the highly competitive California State Wrestling Finals in Bakersfield. At State Finals, he was one of just 10 wrestlers statewide to receive a CIF Sportsmanship Award for “pursuing victory with honor.”
“Out In Sports” Resources
“Fearless” Project
Portraits Of High School And Collegiate LGBT Athletes
During the London Olympic Games, Pride House 2012 hosts artist Jeff Sheng’s “Fearless” Project. Nearing its tenth year, the project features more than 150 athletes from the United States and Canada and has been exhibited in schools and galleries across the country and abroad, as well as in the Nike Headquarters in Oregon. It is currently on display in the Pride House at the 2012 London Olympics. As a former closeted junior athlete, as well as a person of color, the project is very personal to Sheng. His hope is that other artists and photographers will undertake future projects that will do justice to other underrepresented groups and that one day all athletes, regardless of skill level, may feel as comfortable as these young scholastic athletes and proudly share their sexuality and who they are with the public. For more information on “Fearless” or to have an exhibition at a campus or center, visitwww.FearlessProject.org. To support the project, visit www.FearlessPhotobook.com. Read more at Pride House 2012, The Huffington Post and TowleRoad.
Watch the 10-minute “Fearless” video exhibited at Pride House 2012 during the London Olympic games!
Hudson Taylor founded Athlete Ally in January of 2011. An athlete all his life, Hudson experienced demeaning humor in high school and college athletics, but befriended LGBT people when studying theater and Interactive Performance Art at the University of Maryland. Seeing the juxtaposition between the theatre department and the locker room, Hudson felt it was imperative that he confront a side of sports that no athlete should be proud of: sports marginalize LGBT athletes, coaches and others through systemic homophobia and transphobia. Hudson decided that he could no longer watch from the sidelines as his athletic culture isolated and segregated LGBT athletes and betrayed the integrity and diversity at the heart of athletics.
Gay athletes. Straight allies. Teaming up for respect. I’m taking a stand!
“Locker rooms should be safe and sports venues should be free from homophobia. Athletes should be judged on talent, heart and work ethic, not sexual orientation.”
“Winning because athletes are allowed to be all the things our parents taught us to be growing up. Honest. Dedicated to achieving goals. Hard working and full of competitive spirit. It’s tough to be those things when a player is keeping a secret. Teams get better results, and athletes are better, when they can be honest and open about who they are. That includes athletes who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual.”
To bring gay surfers together by maintaining an informative and interactive site where gay men and women can gather and improve public awareness.
Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) of Santa Cruz County meets the second Tuesday of every month from 7-9 pm at First Congregational Church of Santa Cruz at 900 High Street in Santa Cruz.
Contact us at pflagscc@gmail.com, www.pflagscc.org, or call (831) 427-4016