Kye Allums made headlines last November when media outlets reported on his becoming the first publicly acknowledged transgender man to play for an NCAA women's college basketball team this season. But George Washington University has declared an end to the junior guard's season with just three weeks left. The official reason for shutting down his season was a concussion, but the school has denied media requests to speak with Allums since the November reports and Allums's mother, Rolanda DelaMartinez, said Allums was medically cleared to play and the school has attempted to squelch media coverage of the player, who is scheduled for reassignment surgery in May.
DelaMartinez told Outsports.com that Allums "feels that there are children committing suicide because their parents don't understand their gender or that they're gay. So when there are speaking engagements scheduled just to talk about feelings, or when a media outlet calls to say, 'Tell me more about your story,' it's just to get the story out and be who (he) wants to be. It hurts to know that there has been no effort to understand. The school has never sat down and said, 'Hey, tell us what you want.' They'll say, 'It's all up to you and how you want to do it,' but then they have capped off every avenue of speaking to the media and then using the guise of academics or basketball, when now (he) can't even play basketball. It should be an open forum."
Same-sex dance nationals
The North American Same-Sex Partner Dance Association has sanctioned the ninth annual April Follies Same-Sex Dancesport Classic, scheduled for April 30 at Just Dance Ballroom in Oakland, as the inaugural national championship for ballroom dancing.
Competition among the top dancers from Canada, Mexico, and the United States will include beginning, intermediate, and veteran couples and pro-am pairs in various international and American style ballroom events, as well as social dance styles including country and western, swing, salsa, and Argentine tango, as well as formation teams.
Tickets are $15 for daytime events only; $25 for evening only; or $35 for the entire day. For further information, visit www.aprilfollies.com.
AIDS/LifeCycle registration maxes out
For just the second time in the event's 10-year history, organizers of the annual AIDS/LifeCycle bicycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles have closed biker registration at 2,500. The riders from 40 states and nine countries, ranging in age from 18 to 80, will leave from San Francisco on June 5 – the 30th anniversary of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's first reported cases of AIDS. The event is expected to exceed the fundraising record of $12.3 million set in 2008.
Registration remains open for volunteers to serve food, transport gear, staff rest stops, direct cyclists, and perform other tasks during the weeklong ride. Registration and donation information is available at http://www.aidslifecycle.org. Riders interested in reserving a spot in next year's event can also sign up on the website.
Last year, the average rider raised more than $4,500 for the AIDS-related services of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.
Wrestler update
I wrote earlier about Jaime Loo, one of my high school wrestlers who came out this year to his teammates through wrestling (see February 3 Jocktalk), and have received a lot of very nice correspondence from people who said they appreciated his story. The city finals were last Saturday and Jaime took first in the 145-pound weight class to earn a spot in this weekend's state championships.