CONTACT:PO Box 425034Cambridge, MA 02142Tel/fax: (617) 588-0600info@gayconference.orgwww.gayconference.org |
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CAMBRIDGE, MA – Something ‘queer’ is happening to an MIT bathroom this month. From March 28 –30, a 2nd floor bathroom in the MIT Stratton Student Center will become gender neutral for the National Gay & Lesbian Athletics Conference.
The Conference is being hosted by the Gay & Lesbian Athletics Foundation (GLAF), which according to the mission statement “promotes recognition, understanding and respect among ALL members of the athletics community regardless of sexual orientation, through support and education for a fair and inclusive environment.”
The founder and Executive Director, Mac Chinsomboon stated, “Our conference exists to serve all members of the community, and we will strive to make the venue and our mission inclusive – transgender, straight, questioning, bisexual, lesbian, gay, or queer.”
Rodney Byrd, Operations Director for the conference, said, “One action we’ve taken to better accommodate the transgender community is that we’ve designated a restroom that is ‘gender neutral.’ The conference welcomes transpeople to use this restroom or the restroom of the gender they self-identify as.”
This action by GLAF follows Boston’s newly passed gender identity nondiscrimination ordinance. The ordinance, which covers housing, employment, and public accommodations now includes “gender identity or expression,” and specifically states that people are allowed to use the bathrooms of the gender with which they self-identify. This makes it one of the most progressively worded ordinances in the country.
Justin Cascio has been writing about the issues that transsexuals face in sport since 2001. He writes for and founded Trans-Health, an online fitness and health journal for transgender athletes. The idea for Trans-Health came to him while attending a support group for female-to-male transsexuals. "Two guys there were talking about having to give up their dreams of competing in sports: one was a boxer and the other a weight lifter," Cascio recalled. "I thought, it just isn't fair that these guys have to choose between going forward with their transitions and competing in sports."
Shane Landrum, a transgender conference attendee wrote, “I wasn’t an athlete until I started cycling as a way to fight the depression that comes with being transgender in this culture; I know I’m not the only person in this position.”
Regardless of who’s interested, the Gay & Lesbian Athletics Foundation wants to make sure that the resources; such as the conference, its panels, networking opportunities, and discussions, are available to everyone. Chinsomboon added, “The conference itself is on the sociology of sport in society and LGBT is just a ‘lens’ on the greater focus of diversity and inclusion with sports.”
For more information about the Gay & Lesbian Athletics Foundation go to www.gayconference.org
For more information about Trans-Health go to www.Trans-Health.com
