Athletics has not always been a space where Jared Horman felt comfortable, he shared; but through Stonewall Sports, he discovered a way to genuinely enjoy games while connecting with other queer individuals and allies.
Jared Horman, center, Stonewall Sports
“We get to kind of reclaim this thing that was terrifying for us as children,” said Horman, who was first introduced to Stonewall Sports in 2015 while working in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Many of us were bullied or just felt uncomfortable being in an athletic space growing up, so having the chance to live authentically in that very space — it makes the experience [of Stonewall Sports] that much more empowering and fun.”
Stonewall Sports was founded in 2010 as a national, non-profit sports organization for the LGBTQ+ and ally community; it now has 22 chapters — with leagues in kickball, volleyball, bowling and more — in various locations across the United States. The mission of the organization is to raise funds for other local nonprofits while building inclusive communities, according to their website.
“Stonewall [Sports] was a space that introduced me to queer culture in a way I hadn’t experienced previously in college,” Horman said. “It was the first time I made friends with a gay couple who had been together forever. It was the first time I became friends with a trans person. I met a drag queen and really fell in love with drag.”
Click here to learn more about Stonewall Sports.
Moving back to Kansas City in 2016, Horman knew he wanted to start a Stonewall Sports chapter in KC, he shared.
“I reached out to the lead commissioner in Charlotte and he gave me a really great piece of advice — he said, ‘Spend two years really getting to know the community, make friends and connections, to figure out if this is something that would really benefit Kansas City,’” Horman recalled.
Seeing a strong potential for Stonewall Sports in KC, Horman worked with Ricardo Salabbaria and Eric Thomas to launch the KC chapter in the summer of 2019. Their goal: recruit eight kickball teams, Horman said, but his expectations were greatly exceeded with 14 full teams signing up.
“It really is a testament to how much the queer community wanted some sort of social activity like this,” he continued, noting that the Kansas City chapter has a kickball league in the summer and a dodgeball league in the winter.
With the 2020 season canceled because of COVID-19, Stonewall Sports KC’s second season enrollment in 2021 has nearly doubled — going from about 200 players to 380 players across 22 teams.
As Stonewall Sports KC continues to grow, the organization aims to expand into volleyball, pickleball and any other sport leagues in which players show a major interest, Horman said.
Amazeballs vs. One Hit Wonders, Stonewall Sports
Diversity within the LGBTQ+ community
Although the first season of Stonewall Sports brought an unexpectedly high turnout, the diversity within the members was limited, Horman said — noting that about 80 percent of players were gay, cisgender men.
Ryan Fortney, Charlie Hustle, Stonewall Sports
“We’ve worked really hard to recruit more queer woman, trans players and non-binary players,” Horman said. “That was a big focus between our first season and this current season. Now, we’re at about 58 percent cis, gay men and 42 percent queer women, trans players and non-binary players.”
“Whether it’s gender identification, sexual orientation or ethnicity — we continue to see growth,” added Ryan Fortney, who serves on the Stonewall Sports KC board as the director of marketing. “Although, the facts are that it’s not enough growth, and we need to continue working on that. … We want to make sure that who we are seeing on the field is a true representation of the individuals in Kansas City and the surrounding areas.”
Along with recruiting more queer women to serve in leadership on the Stonewall Sports’ board, the Kansas City chapter has partnered with Woody’s — a local, LGBTQ+ bar which has nights dedicated to queer women, Horman noted.
“That partnership has been really influential in us being able to shift and diversify the demographic,” Horman continued.
Stonewall Sports KC also developed scholarship programs to reach and welcome all those across the socioeconomic spectrum. The LGBTQ+ community includes a vast array of humans with their own unique stories, Fortney said, and all people deserve a place to connect.
“As a gay man, I know what it feel like to be ‘othered’ — to be viewed as something that’s different than everybody else when you just want to feel normal,” Fortney shared. “While the gay community is being more and more accepted, there’s still other members within our community who are still marginalized. [Stonewall Sports] has really opened my eyes and helped me become a more compassionate person, just by pushing me outside of my bubble where I typically live.”
Partnership with Charlie Hustle
Charlie Hustle — maker of the iconic KC Heart shirt — is the major sponsor of Stonewall Sports KC’s 2021 season, said Fortney, who also works as the store manager of the clothing company’s retail shop on the Country Club Plaza.
“I started with Charlie Hustle the same month I started with Stonewall Sports back in June 2019,” Fortney said. “It was the first year [Charlie Hustle] released their pride KC heart, which has been one of our most popular sellers. … We have these ‘Big Idea Days’ every couple months, and everybody pitches what they think the company should do next. This year, myself and a couple other people were like, ‘We need to partner with an LGBTQ+ organization for this collection, and we need to expand it.’”
The partnership came about naturally, Horman said, with the Stonewall Sports community and the Charlie Hustle community embracing one another and their values.
Click here to check out Charlie Hustle’s Pride collection.
As part of the new partnership, the Stonewall Sports board and Charlie Hustle staff are planning to go head-to-head in a kickball game 4 p.m. Wednesday, June 30 in Gillham Park.
Douglas Brown throwing to teammate Dillon Klahr
Nonprofit partners
With an emphasis on giving back to the community, Stonewall Sports KC’s major nonprofit partners include: the AIDS Service Foundation of Greater Kansas City and the Kansas City Center for Inclusion.
“Stonewall is a volunteer-run organization, so none of the board makes money. The main focus is community building,” Horman said. “We’ve participated in the AIDS WALK, as well as helped out the Center for Inclusion with a lot of their space updates and moving.”
Stonewall Sports’ kickball league plays 10 a.m. to 3p.m. Sundays at Gillham Park.
“We want the whole community to come out there,” Fortney said. “It’s a great community event, especially for where we’re at with the COVID pandemic. It’s outdoors, a lot of fun and filled with really great people.”
This story is possible thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that seeks to build inclusive prosperity through a prepared workforce and entrepreneur-focused economic development. The Foundation works to change conditions, address root causes, and break down systemic barriers so that all people – regardless of race, gender, or geography – have the opportunity to achieve economic stability, mobility, and prosperity.
For more information, visit www.kauffman.org and connect with us at www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn.
