Outsports.com has a great blog series called "100 most important moments in gay sports history." Moment #92 is the publishing of the book Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homophobia In Sport, by Pat Griffin. This book by one of sports best educators against homophobia is still deeply relevant today.
On Saturday July 9 at the Portland Men's Roller Derby bout vs. Lane County Concussion, Portland skater Silent Mob suffered a tib/ fib break. Silent Mob is home safe and scheduled for surgery, but has recently lost his job. Those who love him have created this ChipIn to help him maintain his COBRA insurance while he recovers from the break.
Hong Kong's LGBT community is strong, but still struggles against the ideas of "religious groups, academics, members of the government and the general public who hold deeply conservative views rooted in the city's colonial years" for what it insists are civil rights. Read more.
Michelle Lyon, better known to her sister skaters as Pirate Killings of the River City Toller Girls, is in need of your help. The 25 year old skater was first diagnosed with a large cerebral arteriovenous malformation (AVM) after having a seizure during a roller derby bout. According to her fundraising campaign, "An AVM is an abnormal connection between the arteries and veins in the brain that usually forms before birth. It bears the risks of hemorrhage, stroke, even death."
According to his obituary, recently deceased Rat City Rollergirls Superfan Ken Cluckey, "was a giant-hearted man who fully lived his belief that life is about service. He served his country in WWII, the Korean conflict, and as a Customs Inspector until retirement. In his community, he was a Boy Scout Leader and Little League Baseball Coach. He participated in the Breast Cancer 3-day Walk twice. He also volunteered as an advocate for residents of Fircrest, at the Fremont Soup Kitchen and Food Bank, and was a beloved fixture at Ballard Food Bank for nearly 20 years.
“So I heard that you only mascot as a banana if you’ve taken LSD. Is that true?” the derby fan asked.
Well, no. Oddly, that question has been posed to me more than once. I do not know where the rumor started, but my guess is that it began because of my day job as a historical researcher—and, hey, we all know how badass historians are!
