Layne Meltzer, WoosSox, Group Event Manager for Pride at the Park game has reached out to our group.   Quote Pride at the Park is scheduled for Friday, September 18th at 6:05pm. I would love for the Boston Gay Rowers to join us at the game!   We have a bunch of exciting and new things happening this year to represent the pride community. Below is a discounted ticket link for you to share with your group/anyone else who wants to support. If you'd be interested in 15+ tickets, I can offer an additional discount, so let me know! https://www.gofevo.com/event/Pridepark26   Please let me know if you have any questions.   We'd love to have the Boston Gay Rowers join us for Pride at the Park this year! Layne Meltzer | Group Events Manager Worcester Red Sox Baseball Club | Triple-A Affiliate of the Boston Red Sox (508) 204-5387 | Polar Park | 100 Madison St. | Worcester, MA | 01608  

Dear Friend of HRCR,   This is a reminder to RSVP for Harlem River Community Rowing's celebration of our 20-year anniversary!   Based in upper Manhattan, HRCR provides no-cost access to the sport of rowing for all New Yorkers. Meet past and present club members, local community and business leaders, friends, family, and neighbors.   When: Saturday, August 8, 2026 Where: Muscota Marsh, Inwood, 575 W 218th St, New York, NY 10034   Program: * 11:00 a.m. | Event Starts * 12:00 p.m. | Speeches * 12:15 p.m. | Coaching Launch Christening - celebrate the naming of the motor boats our coaches use to travel alongside our rowing shells! * 12:30 p.m. | Formal Photo Opp  * 1:00 p.m.   | Muscota Marsh Scavenger Hunt, Food, and Music * 2:00 p.m.   | Official End Time   Please RSVP by Friday July 31. If you have any questions about this event please email [email protected].   We look forward to celebrating with you!   Harlem River Community Rowing "Rowing for all" harlemrivercr.org

Hi everyone, This summer, Amsterdam belongs to two things close to the heart of everyone on this forum: Pride and rowing. From 25 July to 8 August the city hosts WorldPride Amsterdam, with the world-famous Canal Parade sailing through the canals on Saturday 1 August. And from 24 to 30 August, the World Rowing Championships come to the Bosbaan. If you're travelling here for either one — or both — we'd love to put you on the water yourself. We're TopRow, a rowing centre right on the Amstel, about fifteen minutes from the centre of town. Inclusion isn't a slogan for us — it's part of the sport here. TopRow has sailed in the Canal Parade several times, and the Royal Dutch Rowing Federation was the first sports federation in the country to sail in Pride under its own flag — a public statement that rowing is a sport for everyone. This community is exactly who we had in mind when we built Experience Amsterdam. Because it's such a special summer, we're offering Experience Amsterdam the whole month of August. You don't have to worry about a thing: your instructor steers the boat and tells you the story of the city while you row, and every trip finishes with a drink on our terrace on the Amstel. Three ways to do it: * City Tour by Oar — for experienced rowers. A long, beautiful row through the canal ring, under the Magere Brug (the Skinny Bridge), past the Rijksmuseum, the Anne Frank House and more of the city's landmarks. * Discover Amsterdam — for anyone who has never held an oar. Thirty minutes of instruction on shore, then a guided row on the Amstel past the Rijksmuseum and the Heineken building. No experience needed at all. * A bit of both — travelling with a partner who doesn't row? We'll mix it, so the two of you get out on the water together and still see Amsterdam in a way a canal cruise can never match — because you're the one in the boat. Sessions run Monday to Friday at 13:00 and 15:00, in English, age 15 and up, from €62.25 per person. There's no better way to remember a Pride or a World Championships than from the seat of a boat, on the same water the city grew up around. All the details and booking are on our site: amsterdam.toprow.com. Come row with us — we'd love to see you out here.

Both guests and members can submit new entries. All new entries must be approved by a member of the staff before they become visible to everyone. The Rainbow Logo Challenge is a month long opportunity for rowing clubs and programmes, governing bodies, and related businesses to openly show support for the LGBTQ rowing community by incorporating rainbow colours in as many of their social media and website logos as possible. The Challenge runs in conjuction with a country's recognized Pride month. Listed below are the current and past participants. 2025 Rainbow Logo Challenge

The Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation is proud to announce the 2026 Rainbow logo Challenge.  June is recognized worldwide as Pride month, when the gay community celebrates their diversity, promotes inclusion, and allows individuals a moment to affirm and express pride in who they are.    We challenge the broader rowing community to show its support for the gay rowing community by incorporating rainbow colors in their website and social media logos.  Social media has such a huge role in rower’s everyday lives. To see a rainbow-infused logo sends a strong message of support and demonstrates a rowing club’s, rowing programme’s, and rowing organization’s commitment to inclusion.   The challenge runs for the entire month of June but for those countries that celebrate Pride at a different time of year, they can still participate by selecting the month in the Rainbow Logo Challenge form.  In recognition of the global rowing community, we encourage entries to feature the local language spelling of the pride month. Every entry must feature at least one website or social media site with a rainbow logo.  To showcase the presence of the rainbow logos, we kindly ask you to only add those sites that feature the rainbow-infused logo.   Anyone can submit an entry for the challenge by completing the form.  We encourage everyone to use their rainbow logos in as many of your social media sites as you can.    All entries will be featured on the Rainbow Logo Challenge page.  Although the Challenge extends only during a country’s Pride month, the displayed entries serve as a year-long testament to the gay rowing community that they are welcome and accepted.   We welcome everyone to nominate a club, programme, or organization by adding their image and social media sites, if you spot one that isn't displayed in the Challenge.

If you haven’t heard, rowing at the Valencia Gay Games was cancelled. A screen capture from a phone was relayed to our desk in December, answering an inquiry from a participant.  We never were told.  This, in spite of three separate emails sent over the summer of 2025 asking about the event.    This sudden silence is in sharp contrast to the original Valencia Gay Games bid in which the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation was specifically highlighted as the main liaison body that Valencia would work with for the sport.  When we saw this mention, we submitted an online message on their website but as often happens, those online messaging systems are ignored or don’t work.  We followed up every year at the Sin City Classic in 2023, 2024, and 2025 where the Valencia Gay Games had a desk, asking about our email and providing our business card, and yet no replies.   Although there was some significant enthusiasm among a core group of Valencia rowers, the event never got off the ground due to rising costs to host the event, and a tepid interest from the gay rowing community (as of November 2025, there were only two registrations).  We knew something was amiss in April when rowing registration was not open but all the rest of the sports had opened for registration.  Rowing registration finally opened in late June 2025.    The competition was slated to use the traditional Falucho/Llaüt  open water fixed seat rowing boat.  This type of racing traces its roots to a competition among fishing boats to be the first to reach port and thus obtain a better price for their catch.  Falucho open water competitive rowing is most common in Spain although it is found in other parts of the Mediterranean.   The boat has a coxie and 8 rowers with one bow seat and one stroke seat and three double seats in the engineroom.     The sports desk at the Valencia Gay Games has encouraged rowers interested in participating to switch to dragon boat racing.  Apparently, no one told them that rowing and paddling are different sport styles and muscles.  Rowers face backwards and mainly push with their legs to power the oars. Paddlers face forwards and mainly pull with their arms, shoulders, and backs. Oops!

Everyone is invited to attend the 32nd Stonewall Regatta, hosted by DC Strokes Rowing Club, the oldest LGBTQ+-centered rowing club in the U.S., and likely worldwide. This sprint (1000m) regatta is held on the Anacostia River in Washington, DC and generally helps kick off the season for Masters rowers in the mid-Atlantic region. Details can be found on our home website as well as Regatta Central, where event registration is managed.

Pride Sprints is an inclusive, open lineup 500m dash regatta for athletes of all ages, ability levels, and gender identifications. Run in conjunction with National Learn to Row Day, Pride Sprints offers rowers a way to celebrate newcomers to the sport in a fun, community-driven regatta format.

More info at www.frognrow.com Registration at www.paris-tournament.com

More info at www.frognrow.com Registration at www.paris-tournament.com

  More information at : www.frognrow.com Follow us @frognrow Register for the regatta at : www.paris-tournament.com

Happy Holidays! Get on those ergs and stay vigilant in your training! The 2026 Sin City Erg is less than a month away. Registration Update Regular registration for the 2026 Sin City Ergatta is open and the closing date has been extended to midnight on Tuesday, December 23rd. After that, fees increase once late registration begins. Register today! The Sin City Erg is as much a team competition as an individual competition. Reach out to your rowing club and invite them to participate – with our one-price-all-you-can-compete format, some folks can just compete on a team, if they prefer. Encourage your juniors at your clubs to participate. Even if your club’s junior program isn’t sending a team, juniors can compete on their own or with a few others. We have a special registration fee in place for Juniors and University rowers. Sin City Classic Event Update The big update is that the Sunday closing party now has two parts: Concert Closing Party Because of the huge crowds, the organizers have made the concert, featuring LeAnn Rimes, a separate ticketed event. To attend the concert, you need to buy a ticket at this link: https://www.sincityclassic.org/events If you prefer to just attend the Closing Party that follows the Concert, you can do that with your wristband that you get with your Sin City Erg registration packet. Here are the full list of events scheduled for the 2026 Sin City Classic: Thursday 2025 Compete Sports Diversity Awards (ticketed event at Flamingo) Drag Queen Bingo (ticketed event) at Flamingo Athlete Welcome Party at Gipsy with Karaoke! Cornhole for Charity and Charity Darts Tournament in the Sunset Ballroom Kicking Out Transphobia Soccer Match Sin City Classic Registration Party in Sunset Ballroom RuPaul Drag Race Viewing Party (we'll have special perks for VIPs this year too!) After parties with shuttles at Piranha and Gipsy Sapphic Soiree returns for our Womxn+ participants and will be at a new venue Late night parties at Piranha and Gipsy with shuttles Announcement coming soon about a Comedy Show as well Sin City Classic Concert featuring LeAnn Rimes! Closing Party starting at 10pm at Brooklyn Bowl Coming soon - a singlet gear party in partnership with our friends from Wrestling and Grappling! There are sober space meetings and resources as well, and there will be some additional Drag Brunch events to be announced for Saturday and Sunday. Spread The Word! Please post on your social media accounts about the extension of regular registration and share the information about our two registration links:, Over23 and Under23!

Organizers of the annual Sin City Classic are gearing up for the event’s next gathering, which runs January 15-19, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada. One of the world’s largest LGBTQ+ sporting festival, t routinely attracts around 10,000 participants — and you could be one of them! The Sin City Classic started in 2008 as an LGBTQ+ softball tournament. However, it’s grown since then to include over a dozen other sports and games. Pack your bags, we’re going on an adventure Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the best LGBTQ+ travel guides, stories, and more. For 2026, this includes: Basketball Billiards Bowling Bridge Cheerleading Cornhole Curling Darts – soft tip and steel tip Dodgeball, Flag football Golf Indoor rowing Kickball Martial arts Pickleball Rodeo university Soccer Softball Swimming Tennis Ultimate frisbee Volleyball (Indoor) and Volleyball (Sand) Wrestling & grappling. Much of the action takes place in and around the host hotel: Flamingo Las Vegas. Solo competitors welcome The softball aspect remains the biggest part of the festival, with organizers expecting between 200-260 teams to enter. However, registration is now open for all events, and you’d be wise to snap up a place early rather than leaving it too late. The same goes for the host hotel, which is offering special deals for Sin City Classic attendees if booked before December 31. The deal is also available at the neighboring LINQ Hotel as well as Horseshoe Las Vegas. We asked the organizers for more details about how to participate, especially if you’re not part of a team. Dr. Jason Peplinski, Co-Executive Director of the Sin City Classic, said the festival is structured in a way that “explicitly encourages ‘everyone’ to compete ‘in whichever way they like,’ which implies that individuals who are not part of a pre-formed team are welcome.” Solo participants are welcome in most events, including tennis, darts, swimming, and bowling. Some sports, like bridge, will pair you with a partner, while team sports may place you in a free-agent pool. Peplinski advises registering early: “The festival is very popular—slots for high-demand sports like tennis and rowing fill rapidly.” “The event pages don’t always list a concrete maximum number of total spots per sport (especially for singles vs doubles). That means there’s some uncertainty about how quickly they fill or whether there will be a wait-list,” he adds. Evening parties Although the majority of visitors come from across the US, the games are open to international entrants. And even if you don’t get a slot or don’t wish to compete, spectators are welcome. You can also join some of the evening partying. “Everyone is welcome to attend the hosted events associated with the festival,” says Peplinski. “Please note that certain events, such as the Closing Party, require a festival wristband. Wristbands may be purchased at the official website.” “You do not need to be an athlete to attend the Opening Registration Party or the events held on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at Piranha or Gypsy. However, festival wristbands may provide access to discounted entry or benefits at some venues, and these wristbands are available for purchase by all attendees, regardless of athletic participation.” January can be a depressing month. But trading post-holiday blues for Vegas sunshine, athletic competition, and a community of 10,000 LGBTQ+ athletes? That’s one New Year’s resolution worth keeping. Check the official Sin City Classic website for full details. Related: Join the GayCities newsletter for weekly updates on the best LGBTQ+ destinations and events—nearby and around the world. Don't forget to share:

Home page for the Sin City ERg

Cambridge University has voted to ban trans women from competing in women’s college-level boat races, aligning its policies with British Rowing’s gender eligibility guidelines. The decision, made by the Cambridge University Combined Boat Club (CUCBC), saw college boat club captains narrowly vote to adopt British Rowing’s gender

Kurts Adams Rozentals is an elite rower who has competed internationally in canoe for the UK. But no more, or at least not for the next two years. Rozentals has been banned from competition for two years because he posted what, by all indications, was a pretty explicit and racy video on Instagram. “This ban would have never happened if athletes were funded properly,” he told the BBC. Certainly many elite athletes in “Olympic” sports like canoe struggle to pay the bills, no question about that. “And while I understand the video could be described as crazy, it was not illegal and certainly shouldn’t be the reason for banning an athlete.” Get off the sidelines and into the game Our weekly newsletter is packed with everything from locker room chatter to pressing LGBTQ sports issues. Paddle UK, which issued the suspension, said the discipline came not just because of the post, which was on Instagram, but because Rozentals told the press it was because of a post on one of his accounts on another site. We’re not sure exactly what the photo was that Kurts Adams Rozentals posted. Though it’s safe to assume it was pretty explicit. Paddle UK said the posting of the photo brought the organization into “serious disrepute.” Rozentals himself said the “the video could be described as crazy.” It was, according to the BBC, something on a plane. Rozentals told the BBC that, in hindsight, he probably wouldn’t post something like that video again. Soooooo… it was clearly explicit. Still, it’s understandable why someone might post something like that. Elite athletes often struggle to make ends meet. Finding sources of income while you’re training for elite national and international competition can be tough. Rozentals seems to have found that revenue source posting hot pics and videos. He now has over 100k followers on Instagram, and he said he’s made over $130k from posting. That’s a lot more than virtually anyone is going to making canoeing. “It was the first time in my life I saw real progress in my financial situation,” he told the BBC. “It was the first time I was able to fund the training myself. … And it came from crazy videos like the one that got me banned. Either way, Kurts Adams Rozentals, who has won five national or international medals, according to Paddle UK, won’t be paddling competitively for a couple years. And now without Paddle UK looking over his shoulder, there’s no telling what he’ll post next. Or how much that $130k is going to grow. Subscribe to the Outsports newsletter to keep up with your favorite out athletes, inspiring LGBTQ sports stories, and more.

It’s been nearly a month since Teal Cohen stood alongside her U.S. coxless four teammates on the banks of Shanghai’s Dianshan Lake, hands on hearts and gold medals around their necks as “The Star-Spangled Banner” played. However, even though Cohen is now a world rowing champion, she is not basking in the glory. “Honestly, I feel like it’s the opposite!” laughs the 26-year-old Texan, as she speaks to Outsports, fresh from a training session in Princeton. “I feel like other people are reveling in it, while I came back down to earth after a week or so!” Get off the sidelines and into the game Our weekly newsletter is packed with everything from locker room chatter to pressing LGBTQ sports issues. Yet Cohen’s modesty is just her way of compartmentalizing an outstanding achievement that has come early on in this Olympic cycle. This time last year, she was picking up the pieces after Paris 2024, where she was representing Team USA and also Team LGBTQ. The U.S. quad sculls team she was part of finished last in all three of their races. Even at such a low point, she was eager to leap forward again. “I definitely came away with a sense of disappointment, but also knowing what the speed is to win. “You get a sense of how fast that is, and it gave me something to work towards. “So hitting top speeds was the goal of the year, and it was really cool to see it all come together in Shanghai.” In late September, a super-strong second 500m laid the foundations for Cohen, Camille Vandermeer, Azja Czajkowski and Kate Knifton to hold off the challenge of Romania and New Zealand and take the World Rowing Championships title. All four were determined to deliver, with the Paris 2024 regatta having failed to produce any medals for Team USA’s women rowers. “We all had different experiences in the Olympic year, but we knew there was a lot of room to grow and to improve,” she adds. “Around six months ago, we came together as a boat to start building towards the World Championships, and that was exciting because we felt like we had something to prove.” In July last year, Outsports reported that Cohen was among six publicly out LGBTQ rowers in the American women’s team for the Paris Olympics. She spoke of wanting to be “a role model for the next generation of athletes and use my platform to promote inclusiveness and diversity in sports.” Growing up gay in Dallas, attending an independent all-girls school where she started rowing at the age of 13, and coming from a family with a strong pedigree in what is a more conservative sport, there was no metaphorical compass with which to navigate queerness. “Back then, the area I grew up in, and the school I went to, it wasn’t the most welcoming space,” says Cohen. “But from there, I went to study in Seattle, at University of Washington. And among so many reasons why I picked that school, it seemed like I could go there and be the best version of myself, and live my truest life. “It felt like you didn’t even need to come out, which was such a crazy concept to me, coming from Texas.” By this time, she had already competed in the World Rowing Junior Championships, and an NCAA win was soon being claimed on the water, with success in the varsity eight at the 2019 Championships. Two years later, she took away gold and silver medals from the U23 Worlds, and made her senior World Championships debut in 2022 as a CRCA First-Team All-American, training full-time at Princeton. She credits her friends from Seattle for helping her find comfort in her own skin. “That was super important for me at 18, 19. “On the rowing team in college, one person came out, then a couple more people… it was always a very welcoming space. “Being on that team is a huge part of why I feel I now have this platform.” Though she quickly plays down her wider influence — “I’m not Katie Ledecky out here!” — Cohen knows that it’s all relative when it comes to LGBTQ representation within a sport such as hers. She commends U.S. Rowing for putting in the work on inclusion, particularly around Pride Month and LGBTQ History Month, but acknowledges that there are barely any such signals sent out at a global federation level. “I know the people who are following me and looking up to me are younger rowers. “Showing them that you can be whoever you are, be your truest self and still be able to row and be successful has been really important to me. “I’ve been doing my best to show that there is that representation in rowing.” In recent years, she has been back to her old school north of Dallas, where current pupils have told her they appreciate her visibility. “Hearing that I was such a role model to them feels really good because I didn’t have that growing up.” Hard work starts again in long road towards L.A. 2028 There was never any doubt about wanting to be named on Outsports’ Team LGBTQ for Paris. “The stories you guys were running last summer were great, and having almost 200 athletes who were out was super cool!” she says. The ultimate ambition for Cohen in this cycle is not only to be on the rosters again for L.A. 2028 but to be standing on top of the podium. But she’s not the sort of person to get ahead of herself. “We have a couple of domestic races in the fall and into the winter, which will set us up to make the team for next year, so first we’re looking ahead to those. “I know I need to perform at my best to be in the top women’s boat again. That’s definitely goal one, so I’m working on building strength, a lot of low-end intensity. “Then we’ll go into World Cup racing from May, followed by the World Championships again in Amsterdam in August.” Defending a title will bring extra pressure, but working with a sports psychologist has helped Cohen to better manage both her emotions and the external expectations. You can be sure this world champion will not rest on her laurels. “To have a really good performance in year one was great. But then after a week or so, the four of us were saying, ‘all right, that was awesome — now let’s start over and do it again next year.’” Subscribe to the Outsports newsletter to keep up with your favorite out athletes, inspiring LGBTQ sports stories, and more.

Images from GLRF booths hosted at worldwide regattas, events, and pride festivals.