Visibility in the community

Creating awareness is one of the single most important ongoing tasks for GLRF. Spawning a worldwide community is the greatest benefit.

Promoting rowing in the gay and lesbian community is still in its infancy. Promoting awareness of the large number of gay and lesbian rowers at the national and international level is not even on the horizon. It will be....

GLRF has the unique position to help clubs and individual rowers. Through a number of different venues, GLRF can raise the awareness of this unknown community of rowers as well as raise the visibility of the sport for gays and lesbians.

Collegiate rowers whose lives on the water had to remain firmly planted in the closet may be loathe to revisit those difficult memories. By spreading the word, some rowers may return to the water, without the burden of that past baggage. For those rowers in college now, creating an awareness of rowing in the gay and lesbian community after graduation may encourage some rowers to stay with the sport.

GLRF can help gay or straight clubs and boathouses with recruiting and fundraising by co-sponsoring gay pride booths and sharing the costs of shirts and uniforms. For individual rowers, GLRF can assist with regatta entries. As the GLRF budget expands, the idea of sponsoring boats at the more advanced levels suddenly becomes a possibility. Imagine a GLRF sponsored entry at a national or intenational competition. Imagine an ad in their sports programme!

Through all of the promotional opportunities listed above, GLRF can create awareness, increase interest in the sport, and perhaps catch the eye of corporate marketers. Then the GLRF board can begin discussing scholarships and sponsorships for gay and lesbian rowers.