2008 Woodie Awards
Video related to this article is available below.Issue date: 4/1/08 Section: Sports
A Hill Field relay race: They're off! (And they're out)
At Pride Games, gay groups battle varsity squads to raise awareness
Neil Fanaroff
It's not often that the men's and women's track teams compete against each other. It's even rarer that they tie in a relay. And it's almost unheard of that the men's track team would simply brush off the result and eat pie next to its opponents.
Penn's first-ever Pride Games, however, were not a place for arguing between groups divided by gender, race or, most importantly, sexual identity. The event on Hill Field Sunday afternoon was planned and coordinated by Queer Student Alliance Outreach director - and women's track mid-distance runner - College sophomore Anna Aagenes, as part of QPenn, Penn's annual lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender pride and awareness week.
"I really wanted to get my different communities involved - the athletic community and LGBT community," she said. "We wanted an event that we could have a lot of fun doing and we could get lots of different people involved [in], and I think we did."
Members from the two track teams, the volleyball team, the women's club rugby team, the LGBT Center staff, LGBTQ graduate-school students, QSA and Queer People of Color - about 70 people total - competed against each other.
Each of the eight squads wore a different color T-shirt, so when the teams posed for a final picture, they portrayed a rainbow, an international symbol of gay pride.
The men's track team, dressed in matching green shirts, headbands and biker shorts, predictably raced to a commanding lead, with victories in the three-legged and wheelbarrow races. The volleyball team, clad in white, came up just short in each.
Yet a pure athletic advantage was not enough to carry the male varsity runners.
Their biggest struggles came in the drag race. Each person had to run to a cone, don a female's shirt, hat and purse and race back to the starting line. The next participant then put on his teammate's drag clothes and repeated the task. The main problem? The shirts were too small.
They regained form to earn a first-place tie in the egg-balance race. All the athletic teams struggled in the pie-eating contest - won by the LGBT Center staff - allowing the men's track team to narrowly escape with the win.
Penn's first-ever Pride Games, however, were not a place for arguing between groups divided by gender, race or, most importantly, sexual identity. The event on Hill Field Sunday afternoon was planned and coordinated by Queer Student Alliance Outreach director - and women's track mid-distance runner - College sophomore Anna Aagenes, as part of QPenn, Penn's annual lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender pride and awareness week.
"I really wanted to get my different communities involved - the athletic community and LGBT community," she said. "We wanted an event that we could have a lot of fun doing and we could get lots of different people involved [in], and I think we did."
Members from the two track teams, the volleyball team, the women's club rugby team, the LGBT Center staff, LGBTQ graduate-school students, QSA and Queer People of Color - about 70 people total - competed against each other.
Each of the eight squads wore a different color T-shirt, so when the teams posed for a final picture, they portrayed a rainbow, an international symbol of gay pride.
The men's track team, dressed in matching green shirts, headbands and biker shorts, predictably raced to a commanding lead, with victories in the three-legged and wheelbarrow races. The volleyball team, clad in white, came up just short in each.
Yet a pure athletic advantage was not enough to carry the male varsity runners.
Their biggest struggles came in the drag race. Each person had to run to a cone, don a female's shirt, hat and purse and race back to the starting line. The next participant then put on his teammate's drag clothes and repeated the task. The main problem? The shirts were too small.
They regained form to earn a first-place tie in the egg-balance race. All the athletic teams struggled in the pie-eating contest - won by the LGBT Center staff - allowing the men's track team to narrowly escape with the win.
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Erin
posted 4/01/08 @ 11:22 AM EST
As a Pride Games participant who had a blast, I want to thank Anna for organizing a fun and groundbreaking event. I also want to thank the cosponsors -- especially the Student-Athlete Advisory Council -- for 'putting their necks out there' and supporting an LGBT event. (Continued…)
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