About the Gay & Lesbian Athletics Foundation, Inc.

The Gay & Lesbian Athletics Foundation is a 100% volunteer staffed nonprofit organization with 501(c)3 based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is the first nonprofit organization to focus on the acceptance and visibility of LGBT athletes in the professional, amateur, and recreational athletics communities. The Foundation is a politically neutral organization free from party affiliation or bias.

Mission Statement

The Gay & Lesbian Athletics Foundation is dedicated to the acceptance and visibility of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender men and women in the professional, amateur, and recreational athletics communities. The Foundation 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. Adjunctly, the Foundation promotes positive role models for the greater society at-large.

• The purpose: promote acceptance and visibility of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender men and women in the professional, amateur, and recreational athletics communities.
  
  
• The business: support and education.
  
  
• The values: recognition, understanding and respect among ALL members of the athletics community regardless of sexual orientation.
  

Our Goals

• Promote recognition, understating and respect among ALL members of the athletics community (recreational, high school, collegiate, professional/Olympic), including athletes, coaches, managers, owners, sponsors, media, and fans
• Promote fair and inclusive environments
• Eliminate homophobia in all areas of sports
• Create a network for support, education, and mentorship for LGBT athletes
• Promote and protect endorsement opportunities for LGBT athletes
• Assist LGBT athletes to be the best they can be without fear of retribution
• Promote athleticism in the greater LGBT and straight communities
• Provide access to the tools to develop local sports communities
• Provide a meeting forum of exchange and learning for national, umbrella, and local sports groups
• Develop all athletes as positive role models for greater society

About the National Gay & Lesbian Athletics Conference

The National Gay & Lesbian Athletics Conference (NGLAC) is the name of the flagship annual conference organized by the Gay & Lesbian Athletics Foundation. NGLAC will be the first of annual conferences that focus on the acceptance and visibility of LGBT athletes in the professional, amateur, and recreational athletics communities. The annual conference will provide a forum for LGBT professional, amateur, and recreational athletes from around the world to share their stories and experiences; learn from one another; build networks; and to promote cooperation – in essence, creating “community”. Conference goals include to champion the acceptance and visibility of LGBT athletes; to foster the development of inclusive and supportive athletics environments; to dispel myths concerning LGBT athletes; and to provide LGBT athletes with a forum to build networks and to foster mentoring relationships.

Preliminary Conference Format & Content

The first annual National Gay & Lesbian Athletics Conference will be on March 28-30, 2003 in Boston/Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The conference will include at least three Keynote speakers who are recognized for their knowledge and/or involvement in the athletics communities. In addition, speakers will be selected based on their ability to contribute to the role of the conference as a forum for intellectual discussion, debate, investigation and/or expression of issues concerning LGBT athletes. Panel discussions and workshops will be sponsored by an organization that has wide-reach within the LGBT and/or athletics community (these organizations are named Content Sponsors, a non-financial commitment). A wide variety of Content Sponsors allows NGLAC to both affect the most people possible, as well as get the most people involved in shaping the direction of the conference.

See the detailed preliminary schedule

Metcalf’s Law

We live by Metcalf's Law which states: "The power of the network grows exponentially with the number of connected users" - Help us spread the word!. In doing so, we hope to spread the "network" into all realms of the universe (and we need your help) in the hopes that those with the contacts that can help us all will surface and email us. The "network" by definition is a multi-way street where we can all leverage the contacts and community that we build -- building the community in numbers. This is a win-win for everyone.

The Genesis of the Idea

The idea came to me one day during the Spring of 2001, whilst rowing in my regular workout in an 8-man crew on the Charles River. As my mind usually does when I play any repetitious-action sport (e.g. rowing, running, biking, etc.), it was wandering. I recall having a month prior, just attended the 3rd annual Gay and Lesbian Business School Conference (I was on the organizing committee for the MIT Sloan panel at the first such conference that has since grown), and I was thinking about the fortuitous nature of networking and community and how I have valued all the people and friends that I have met throughout all of my various endeavors, that conference, and all my other business and personal relationships. I started to think about my own fanaticism with engaging in the challenge and relaxation of playing sports and wondered "wouldn't it be nice if there was such a conference for the gay and lesbian athletics/athletic community?". - Mac Chinsomboon, GLAF Executive Director

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Gay & Lesbian Athletics Foundation, Inc.
PO Box 425034
Cambridge, MA 02142
Tel/Fax: 617-588-0600
www.gayconference.org
info@gayconference.org