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He has been a recipient of the Gay Games’ prestigious Tom Wadell Award, and he is an honorary lifetime member of the Federation of Gay Games. In addition to his work with the GGWC, Dermody has been a part of the Gay Games since competing at the very first Gay Games in San Francisco in 1982. Adam CharlesĮven though I was only able to come to one tournament, it made a huge difference in my life and being able to compete in the sport in a way that made me feel comfortable. I’m not sure anything will ever be able to replace it. Such a thing is truly rare, putting the athletes goals and desires above your own. With leadership figures that legitimately cared about your success.
GAY MEN WRESTLING GROUP FREE
A place I could visit on my own time, free from any hard oversight in the form of pay-as-you-go coaches. GGWC was a cornerstone of the MMA chapter of my life. I so enjoyed working with you - and salute all your work for sport - especially wrestling for so many years. I want to thank you for all your years of support for sports and for me and our 2012, 20 Olympic & Paralympic Bids, and also for the bid for the Gay Games. Gene, thank you so much for the amazing team and giving me a place to grow and learn what true family is. Thank you for your selflessness, your passion, and your efforts. It has made a difference in so many people’s lives (including my own) that it will endure through each of us. You created an amazing space for countless folks to grow. Thank you so much for your service to the community for making it happen. The response of appreciation and respect for what Dermody and GGWC accomplished has been both local and worldwide, with at least one person saying the group saved his life: “I promised this to GGWC’s founder Don Jung on his death bed in 1986. “I have invested a lot of my resources since Gay Games 1982, to keep GGWC operating professionally, almost free, and welcoming all,” Dermody wrote. In his announcement on Facebook, GGWC president Gene Dermody pointed to issues related to the club’s home venue and COVID-19, which has presented unique challenges to grappling sports around the world. It was designed as a safe space for LGBTQ people, though its mission went far beyond that, working with youth and others to build an interest in the sport of wrestling. The group of wrestlers in San Francisco, many of whom are LGBTQ, was founded by the late Don Jung. I wanted to know I was brave enough to challenge other guys and to see how I felt about winning and losing.The Golden Gate Wrestling Club, one of the pioneering sports organizations in the world for LGBTQ people, is ending its run after 40 years. And so wrestling gets entangled with domination and submission fantasies all too obvious and complex to lay out here.īut I wanted to try out the gay wrestling club not just because it seemed hot but because I wanted to try something new, scary and exciting. Wrestling looks a lot like sex as two men breathlessly try to top one another.Īs gay men, often estranged by the vulnerability and competitiveness of the locker room, we eroticize strength and male-touch. Gay men in particular fetishize wrestling, and it’s easy to see why, as singlets and wrestling briefs accentuate a guy’s muscles and bulges. Others scrap and toss each other around like young jocks with something to prove. Some guys roll around gently together - grunting and straining as they exchange holds. Most matches start slowly, with both guys on their hands and knees. Often in my gay wrestling club we wrestle in shirts and shorts. Though some of the guys are wicked strong, few have formal training. These are submission matches, meaning you’re supposed to wrestle until someone taps out or says the safe-word, which is “Chaka Khan.” (Hey, this is a gay wrestling club.) You get your opponent to tap out by exhausting them with a painful or inescapable hold. The beauty of Olympic Roman-Greco wrestlingĪt the gym, we roll out nine mats connected in a three-by-three square, we do some pair-stretches and warm ups, and then it’s go time. It also said we shouldn’t feel embarrassed if we got an erection because wrestling is intimate and erotic. The group’s invite e-mail indicated it was a friendly recreational group meant purely for the enjoyment of rolling around with other dudes rather than super-competitiveness or skills training. It’s led by a local yoga instructor, and usually 10 to 15 men attend, each of varying skill levels, strength, age and body type, including a few trans men. The gay wrestling club I joined meets once a month at a local gym that also hosts kickboxing and Jiu-Jitsu classes.