Straight Clubs                       Gay Clubs

Creating Rowing Programs | Boosting Membership | Rowers on TV

everything in between

Gay and Lesbian rowers are involved in the entire spectrum of clubs and boathouses. Most of us row in clubs and boathouses without any specific affiliation or sexual orientation.

Some rowers have formed a specific club (with their own equipment) and row out of a common boathouse. That isn’t very unusual. A lot of boathouses have several tenant clubs with their own equipment. A good example is the DC Strokes Club. They row out of the Anacostia Boathouse. 

Another type of club is one that pays fees to use the boathouse equipment. Still another example is a club that rows exclusively among themselves but all the members belong to the overall rowing club.. 

With some clubs, the rowers belong to the overall boathouse and have a social sub-club that puts together a boat for regattas and creates a basis for a social “community.” (Row Team Austin). In Boston and Berlin, gay and lesbian rowers have formed what can best be described as regional groups, that provide an umbrella organization for all rowers that belong to various clubs in the metropolitan area. 

Finally, there are the scullers who store their boats in the boathouse and row without a second thought to anyone or anything.

The bottom line is that we are there to row.

Why do gays and lesbians need a gay club? Just basic human needs - community, safety, sense of belonging, acceptance, things that never cross the mind of straight people.

Building community in and amongst clubs

GLRF offers unlimited opportunities to build community and connect with members of the GLRF rowing community. Our internal social network, All Oars Network, features a robust group feature, All Oars Groups, that brings our members together by geographic and athletic focus. 

Any member can create their own group or join an existing group, depending on the level of privacy. Every group offers these key features to help connect members;

• Self service group creation and administration
• Three levels of privacy: public, private, and hidden
• Group customization, featuring personalized banners and logos
• Invite capability
• Mass messaging to all group members
• A dedicated forum that can have its own level of visibility to members and/or guests
• ‘Like’ topic notification
• Staff levels: owner, administrators, and moderators
• RSS feeds for each group, including separate feeds for news articles and forum topics
• Individualized subdomains for listing on Facebook, gay and lesbian directories, and external websites
• Categories for quick search in a group directory

Groups are great for creating community amongst a number of rowing clubs in a large city, for connecting athletes like juniors, university crews, or adaptive rowers, for regattas, and even for lgbt communities, boats, or squads in a large rowing club.