About GLORY

GLORY exists to provide a voice for gays and lesbians in the sport of sailing and to encourage and assist individual sailors, clubs and teams.

Hello Sailor!
Temporary Executive Board members

You may have already heard of the success of sailing at the Sydney Gay Games

  • Sailing was the first sport to be fully subscribed in Sydney with over 50 3-crew keelboat teams entered and there could have been double that number if there had been more boats available.
  • More than 50% of participants were women and the non-spinnaker division was won by an all female team
  • Many mixed male and female teams including the Gold and Bronze medallists in the Open (spinnaker) division
  • Age range of participants between 20s-60s
  • Both sight-impaired and HIV+ competitors competed
  • Competitors came equally from Australasia, Americas and Europe.
  • Highly competitive sailing in all divisions
  • All Gay and Lesbian sailing organisations represented had an increase in membership and awareness because of the inclusion of sailing in the Gay Games

Why no more sailing?
The Federation of Gay Games has a list of 22 core sports that every host city must provide. Each city can then nominate up to 8 additional sports as "demonstration sports" for that event. Sailing was an additional sport nominated by Sydney.

Time to get organised

  • We need to organise an International body to represent sailing to the Federation of Gay Games
  • We need to have a representative on the Board of Directors of the Games to lobby for sailing
  • We need to get sailing on the list of additional sports for future games as one of the core sports.
  • We need to present the organisers of the future games with a proposal for the inclusion of sailing that provides a complete solution to the logistical and political issues that might be raised - venue, boats, organisation, inclusion, cost etc

Why sailing should be in the games:

  • It enables men and women to compete in the same team event on equal terms
  • You can compete regardless of age or physical ability, including those with disabilities
  • It is healthy and drug free
  • It involves skill, tactics, teamwork and physical effort
  • It's an established worldwide sport that all nations can participate in.
  • It provides great branding opportunities for sponsors

How can you help?

  1. Register your support by filling in the GLORY application form for free introductory membership.

The Gay and Lesbian Organisation for Racing and Yachting (GLORY) is a global organisation dedicated to promoting, co-ordinating, and supporting gay and lesbian sailing and racing around the world. GLORY represents teams and organisations world-wide with over 2000 members. We exist to assist individual sailors, clubs and teams in promoting the sport of sailing among lesbians and gays.

We do this through learn to sail programs, regatta co-ordination and coaching resources. The governing principals of GLORY are participation, inclusion and personal best.

We support a wide variety of sailing goals, from the highly competitive to the recreational.GLORY provides a sense of community for gay and lesbian sailors, no matter where they live or with whom they sail. Among our members are those with gay team-mates, straight team-mates and no team-mates (single-handed) and racing everything from ocean-going yachts to small dinghies and we also support Paralympic sailing as part of our Outreach program.

We maintain a global network of sailors and clubs, and can help to provide contacts for away regattas, training camps and friendly sailing when away from home. After the rejection of Montreal, GLORY successfully lobbied for the inclusion of sailing in the bids for the 2006 Gay Games from both Los Angeles and Chicago (the bid winner), and will continue to do so for future Gay Games.

Key activities include

  • Representing sailing at the Federation of Gay Games - we serve on a numbe of sports and organisational committees and will apply for full directorship in 2004.
  • Lobbying the Gay Games organisers to include sailing
  • Assisting in regatta operations
  • Sanctioning and promoting regional regattas
  • Providing a forum for community and information exchange
  • Assisting individual sailors, crews and clubs
  • Developing sailing for gay disabled and HIV+ sailors
  • Encouraging regions where few clubs exists such as Africa, South America and Asia
  • Representing gay sailing to the public and to international sailing bodies such as the International Sailing Federation and International Foundation for Disabled Sailing

Temporary Executive Board:

Name Region Email
Emy Ritt Europe eu@glorysailing.org
Paul White Asia/Pacific apac@glorysailing.org
TBA USA TBA

General enquiries should be directed to info@glorysailing.org

 
  Make this page a favoriteSend this page to a friend
  All words and pictures © GLORY 2002-2006 unless otherwise specified. No text or images from this site may be reproduced in whole or part without the written permission of the publishers. The inclusion of links does not constitute endorsement by GLORY.