Gays Love Volleyball

I can see people’s smiles when it turns out that I play volleyball in a gay sports club. People probably think that we simply play around under the shower, but the fact is we cannot live without volleyball. They play in one of the amateur leagues in Warsaw and are ranked second in their group. They have already beaten a dozen heterosexual teams, and now are fighting for the championship. Their opponents do not know that they are playing against a homosexual team. Kamil started to come to training sessions because he did not have to make up stories about his girlfriends here. “It’s cool,” he says, “I finally stopped being stressed out that someone would tell a joke about gay people and I would not know what to do.” At first, he wans not sure whether to join the team. He took a heterosexual friend to the first match and asked him after the game what he thought of it. His friend said, “I’m in,” and ever since he has been regularly training with the other guys. Bartek, the team’s coach, played volleyball all his life before he realized that he was gay. Some time ago, he played in an official gay team in London. Once they even played against Polonia and won the match. “When I returned to Poland in 2006,” Bartek says, the team was just coming into being. They were looking for players, so they distributed leaflets at some gay clubs. Today there are 20 guys with us.”

They have been successful in many international competitions. For the first time, they played in national colours in Frankfurt in December, 2006. Later, they played in Prague, Halle, Milan, and Barcelona, but it was Stuttgart that stuck in their memory as life for gays in Poland was not that bright under the rule of the Law and Justice (PiS) government. When they appeared on the field, the whole audience stood up and started to applaud wildly. “They expressed their solidarity with us,” says Kamil. Now they are preparing for the EuroGames in Barcelona, which is the biggest sporting event for gay people. “It is an incredible feeling as all teams march with their flags like at the Olympic games,” says Bartek, “You do not feel embarrassed, you are yourself, you are an athlete, and you represent Poland.” The situation looks differently in the country. Players are afraid that others will view them as ‘ladies’ and that nobody will like to play against them. They highlight the fact that that sexual preference has nothing to do with it; all that counts is volleyball. They are in the middle of registering an association which would facilitate the organization of gay volleyball competition in Warsaw in 2009. Right now they are looking for gyms and sponsors. “The mayor of Barcelona invites everybody to come to the event on the EuroGames website. I wish this could happen in Poland one day,” concludes Bartek.
Gazeta Wyborcza