The Outfield

By Danielle Ennis

Ultimate Frisbee

Lesbians normally throw footballs around the park during Pride, but lately, we’re seeing folks with frisbees getting sweaty during the festivities. So what’s the scoop on Ultimate Frisbee and does it have rules?

Absolutely. Five years ago, Ultimate Frisbee was the sport of barefooted hippies throwing a disc past our heads at concerts, booze and joints abounding. Now, ESPN broadcasters show clips of these athletes on its flagship program, “SportsCenter.” College championships are sponsored and covered on sports networks, high schools are including it in their varsity programs, and there are more and more professional teams forming (only male so far). The game sports uniforms, cleats, and regulation-sized fields. Sporting fans and networks worldwide are recognizing Ultimate Frisbee’s legitimacy.

So how do you play?

Combining tactics of most mainstream sports, Ultimate, much like lacrosse and basketball, is about cutting away from your opponents and getting open. Players score by catching the frisbee in end-zones, but unlike football, there is no tackling. When the frisbee hits the ground, no matter which team was last to touch or throw it, there’s a turnover and the game resumes from the landing spot. The most unfamiliar aspect is that the game ends when one team has reached fifteen points, rather than ending with a time limit. Of course, the games can’t continue into moonlit fields, and in that event, a cap is put on the game to end play.

Perhaps the biggest dissimilarity from football is the size of the athletes. Lanky replaces bulky on the Ultimate field. It’s a quick game, where long wingspans and ground-covering hops are advantages. The term ‘layout’ that has popularized the sport and brought it to national light on Top 10 sports replays, is where players dive for the frisbee seconds before it hits the ground, landing on chests and stomachs to save a play. Players are often called and known across the community by nicknames that highlight their top skills. Chances are you’ve met a few. And you would know if you did — Ultimate players love to talk about Ultimate players. They’re weird, they’re cult-like,  they’re lovable. 

The liveliness and welcoming can be found at most parks in the city, where pick-up games start any day of the week. For more competitive play, club teams are found around the Denver and Boulder area in coed, men’s, and women’s squads. Tryouts and intensive practices are part of these teams, as is traveling and working toward the club nationals, annually held in Florida.

Supporters and participants have been vying for the sports entry into the Summer Olympics over the past couple of years. As of now, Ultimate holds its own global contest called ‘Worlds.’

USA Ultimate is headquartered in Boulder. The organization runs youth camps, hires referees and coaches, and runs nationwide tournaments. Colorado teams have repeatedly been standouts.This past spring, the University of Colorado men’s team (called Mamabird) won the collegiate championships.

Activists use World Cup spotlight to call attention to anti-LGBT violence

RIO DE JANEIRO —Gay rights activists in Brazil are using the spotlight of the World Cup to draw attention to the harsh penalties gay people face in many of the countries represented at soccer’s premier event.

This week’s first round featured a match between Iran, whose former president claimed gays don’t exist, and Nigeria, where the penalty for gay sex ranges from imprisonment to death by stoning.

At a city square near the match in Curitaba, a protest led by the gay rights organization Grupo Dignidade attracted about 400 people, many brandishing signs reading “Show homophobia the red card,” and “In this World Cup, homophobia is out of bounds.”

Activists are also pointing out that Brazil is not entirely gay-friendly. Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo have long-hosted some of the biggest and best-known gay pride parades in South America, and the country was the second on the continent to legalize gay marriage, but outside of major cities, being gay continues to be a fraught existence.

Last year in Brazil, there were 313 anti-gay killings, according to the watchdog organization Grupo Gay da Bahia. In 2012, nearly 10,000 anti-gay human rights violations were reported.

“We have made great strides here in Brazil,” said Grupo Dignidade leader Toni Reis. “But we still have a long way to go.”

Reis said gay activists who attended Monday’s Iran-Nigeria match were well-received by fans of those two countries and that several Iran supporters who saw the nearby protest expressed their support for its message.

“We’re not against the Cup and we’re not against the players or the fans,” Reis said in a telephone interview. “Our objective was to make a strong statement against homophobia around the world.”

Other World Cup nations have come under criticism for their policies on homosexuality. Russia, which is hosting the 2018 World Cup, touched off an international furor last year over legislation prohibiting “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations among minors.” Next week, Russia will face Algeria, where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by imprisonment.

“Homosexuality was considered a mortal crime in Brazil and then a sickness,” Reis said. “Traces of that remain, but Brazilian society has come a long way. “We could be a model for countries like Iran and Nigeria.”