I am the author of a new queer rowing romance called See You At The Finish Line, set against the backdrop of the Oxford v Cambridge Boat Race. I did an event at Cambridge Waterstones last night which was attended by several LGBTQ+ rowers who mentioned how excited they were to learn of this book's existence, so I thought I'd do some outreach to your community. It is currently published in the UK and set to be published in Australia in August and the US and Canada in September, but is already available in many countries either on import or Kindle.
I will be reaching out to various queer rowing organisations, but hope you are happy for me to share this news here! The book has been called "a triumph" by Publishers Weekly, while Kirkus Reviews said "This sweet, slow-burn romance will appeal to readers who loved Red, White & Royal Blue, but the dynamic setting and crisp banter in Hammett’s impressive debut are totally his own. A swoony, unputdownable story"
I rowed myself at school including on the Thames and at Henley and still keep it up on the erg, so I hope you find the book accurate enough in its portrayal of rowing!
The Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation is excited to unveil the new Rainbow Logo Challenge application, appropriately on the start of June Pride month and with the launch of the 2025 Rainbow Logo Challenge. The application is the final part of the launch of GLRF Version 2.0.
The premise of the Rainbow Logo Challenge is for organizations to incorporate rainbow colors in their social media and website logos. The application displays each entry along with those media sites that feature an organization’s rainbow-colored logos.
Both GLRF members and guests can now directly submit entries for the Rainbow Logo Challenge, which facilitates the uploading of rainbow logos directly from clubs, programmes, organizations, and businesses. This means the logos are the actual image instead of some version of right click and save.
As an international organization, the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation recognizes that some countries celebrate Pride month during months other than June: Deutschland, Danmark, Nederland, to name a few. For that reason, we included a month selection feature for each challenge entry, and we also featured a field to allow for the local spelling of the month name. We feel this allows for increased inclusivity, and a recognition that each of our rowing communities and global Pride month celebrations are unique.
The application now displays all challenge entries by year and presents a compelling list of clubs, organizations, and businesses that actively support the LGBTQ rowing community.
With the introduction of the optional month selection, the Rainbow Logo Challenge now becomes a year-long engagement, providing more sustained visibility and support for the LGBTQ+ community within the rowing world. It acknowledges the diversity of Pride month celebrations globally.
We believe this new application is a positive change that can expand the reach and impact of the Rainbow Logo Challenge initiative
Seat Search as a concept began at the 1998 Gay Games when the WHOars needed a coxie for their 8+ and 4+. With the launch of Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation website in 2003, we offered a Seat Search feature for featured regattas. The idea of using a database was not really feasible for the website tools we were using at the time so the capabilities were limited.
Fast forward to December 2024 and now Rower Seat Search and Club Seat Search is a default feature in any Regattas+ listing. For example, if a GLRF member added the Head of the Yarra in Melbourne as a Regattas+ listing, a rower could submit a seat search to race in a boat, and a rowing club or program could list a Club Seat Search for an opening in their boat maybe for a cox or for 6-seat.
What’s the difference between a Rower Seat Search and a Club Seat Search? For a rower whose club is not going to a regatta or who wants to race in more than just one entry, the Rower Seat Search helps a rower announce that they are looking for an open seat in a race. For a club or program that perhaps wants to enter two races but only has rowers for one boat and is short one or more for a second race, the Club Seat Search helps a to fill a boat.
Each Seat Search entry leverages the GLRF member profile to display key rower and coxie profile of data that is important for filling a boat. The Seat Search feature provides for three categories: sweep, scull, and cox. Seat Searches can be made for each category, “rower looking for …” and “club seeking a …”
If this was available in 1998, the WHOars would have submitted a Club Seat Search for a coxie.
Regattas+ is part of the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation community platform that enables members to add their own regattas, ergattas, and rowing camps/clinics. Every Regattas+ listing creates community for LGBTQ rowers by providing a RSVP-like members going feature, comments feature, upload files, and share images.
Whether it is the Head of the Mississippi regatta or the Covered Bridge regatta or a Eurogames regatta, GLRF is helping to create community among LGBTQ+ rowers.
Of course, allies can join GLRF and add a Regattas+ listing. GLRF doesn’t ask anyone’s sexual orientation.
Registration is open for the 2025 Sin City Erg. Positioned as the global LGBTQ+ indoor rowing event, the competition will take place on Sunday, 19 January 2025 in Las Vegas.
The Sin City Erg will be one of 27 sports that are part of the 2025 Sin City Classic multi-sport tournament. The event is held every year over the United States Martin Luther King holiday weekend. Over 8,000 athletes are expected to attend, with some sports attracting hundreds if not thousands of participants. The largest sport participation totals from 2024:
Softball: 2,579
Kickball: 1,482
Women’s Softball: 814
Dodgeball: 761
Volleyball: 492
Soccer: 345
Flag Football: 302
Pickleball: 194
Tennis: 183
Sand Volleyball: 159
Cheerleading: 159
The Sin City Erg has been held three times since 2020. The big draw for indoor rowers is the selection of both individual and team events. Using the Concept2 Race software, teams can be created from the athletes sitting on the ergs, creating double, quadruple, and octuple races. The display shows the associated team boats racing down the course. Perfect for teams, clubs, and programmes to compete against each other. With 24 ergs, the opportunities to compete in a 2X, 4X, and 8X team event are endless!
If you only look at the Regatta Central counts for the 2024 Sin City Erg, you will be misled. There were 16 participants in 27 entries for 11 events. We had several walk-up registrations.
Bring your friends, partners, husbands, and wives. There are sports in which they can participate as well as all the fun of Vegas!
Early registration closes on 15 November and regular registration opens on 16 November. There are unlimited entries for one participant fee.
The Sin City Erg is presented by the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation (GLRF). Login to the GLRF website and follow the event and indicate if you are going!
After years of promises and significant personal and developer delays, the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation’s new online community platform is now live. The platform was officially opened for new registrations on 21 October 2024. What’s so different? Just about everything!
Probably the most important change is that V2.0 is responsive. What does that mean? For all you mobile users, you can browse and interact with the community with any mobile device, phone, or tablet, all day and all night. Just type in the GLRF url, glrf.info, into any browser on your mobile and you will see and use just about every feature available that you would find on a desktop or laptop.
Brand new to the V2.0 is Regattas+ The section allows any GLRF member to list any rowing-related regatta, ergatta, and camp/clinic. When we say any, we mean any: LGBTQ+-focused or not. If you have a favorite rowing regatta, you can list it, and once listed, GLRF members can follow the listing to see who is going, track comments, see any uploaded files, and share images. Every listing is designed to have an overview description (provided by a GLRF member) as well as links for the regatta website and registration. Even better, any GLRF member can edit the listing if the description or dates or url is incorrect. Best of all, there is a Member Going feature. Yes, you can click “I’m Going” and the rest of the community can see that!
Probably the most visited aspect of the community is the Gallery. Not only renamed, but completely redesigned, the Gallery removes endless layers of categories and subcategories and simply offers albums. GLRF members can create their own albums or add to existing with absolute ease. Since the gallery is an intrinsic part of the platform, GLRF members can find the gallery albums connected with the Community Calendar Events section and the Regattas+ section.
Another major remodel was the Countries section. Now found under Connections, the Members, section allows visitors to click on every country with a GLRF member and see member demographics by region and metroarea. We have added a country moderator feature that allows one or more country-specific GLRF members to send emails to all or portions of a given country.
The Initiatives section is brand new and supports the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation’s goals to promote inclusion and acceptance, and to promote rowing in the broader LGBTQ+ community.
We encourage everyone to reconnect with our global rowing community. Log in and update your profile, or if you have heard about our community but kept putting it off, take the plunge and register – it’s free!
Oh, we almost forgot! Yes, there is an app! It’s a PWA or progressive web app. It looks and acts like a native application from the Google Store or the Apple Store but just works on any browser in a phone or tablet without all the updating and downloading. Need some help? Click over to our FAQ's.
The Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation marked 20 years of hosting a booth at the Head of the Charles Regatta and Festival on 18 – 20 Oct 2024. Situated along non-profit row, the booth is 100 meters before the finish line and affords some great viewing as crews battle to the finish.
The booth is located along a footpath fronting the Charles River. The booth location creates a bottleneck among the foot traffic flow that creates incredible visibility for approaching crews, coaches, visitors, and parents. Flowing from the finish line towards the main expo of the festival, everyone has to pass in front of the booth before they can peel off in one of several directions.
There were displays for the Rower’s Pledge, the GLRF global initiative to promote inclusion and acceptance in the broader rowing community, and for the 2025 Sin City Erg, in January 2025 in Las Vegas. Booth visitors enjoyed inspecting the various GLRF t-shirts, hoodies, and headwear.
In all the years of hosting a booth, this weekend seemed to be the best with only a touch of wind on Friday and sunny skies every day. Yes, it was jacket chilly in the morning but by Noon, all of us began shedding layers. At the booth we had GLRF members @DPH2002, @Bob715, and @Howie55.
Throughout the weekend, GLRF members stopped by to say hello. It was great catching up with @omac, @DESIGNINGJIM35, @rowrgrl, @OneChocolateRower, @chgorower, @jalfano, @philly_cox, @rasta,and several coaches and coxies whose userids we can’t recall. It was great catching up with allies John and Charlotte from Calm Waters Rowing, Chris from Rowing News, and Bobbie from the Crew Classic.
Do you have images you would like to share from the Head of the Charles? Create a new album or add to this one!
