Gay and Lesbian Tennis Alliance

Last updated November 06, 2019

GLTA Logo

The Gay and Lesbian Tennis Alliance (GLTA) is a not-for-profit international organization that manages and sanctions the gay tennis circuit around the world.^[1] The goal of the organization is to promote access to tennis and diversity and acceptance within the sport. GLTA-sanctioned tournaments provide a safe space for LGBT players to have fun playing competitive tennis in an environment where all who share the value of diversity are welcome.

Gay is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term was originally used to mean "carefree", "cheerful", or "bright and showy".

Tennis is a racket sport that can be played individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's court. The object of the game is to maneuver the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. The player who is unable to return the ball will not gain a point, while the opposite player will.

Founding

The first gay tennis groups emerged in Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Houston as early as 1979. During the 1980s an informal gay and lesbian tennis "circuit" began to form. By the late 1980s gay tennis organizations were hosting tournaments that drew players from around the U.S., and the idea of a more formalized gay tennis circuit was becoming popular around the time of the 1990 Gay Games in Vancouver.

The GLTA was founded in 1991, and there are now over 80 gay and lesbian member clubs around the world. The first officers were elected at the San Diego Open in July 1991. The first Commissioner of the GLTA was Scott Williford, who was also elected to the GLTA Hall of Fame in 1992 along with Les Balmain, who founded of the San Francisco Gay Tennis Federation in 1981. Other original GLTA board members were Norm Burgos, David Black, Chris Walker, and Gary Sutton. The organization continued to grow rapidly in the 1990s and spread to Australia, Canada, and Europe.

A lesbian is a homosexual woman. The word lesbian is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexuality or same-sex attraction.

Recent Status

Tournaments in Thailand, Ireland and Australia were added to the portfolio of events in 2010, increasing the number of tournaments to over 80 around the globe. An estimated 10,000 players take part in GLTA tournaments each year, and the number of tournaments and players continues to grow. Individual tournaments range in size from less than 100 competitors to over 400. Depending on the location, tournaments take place on grass, clay, or cement (hard) courts. Many tournaments encourage international participation by asking local competitors to host visiting players at their homes.

Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and formerly known as Siam, is a country at the centre of the Southeast Asian Indochinese peninsula composed of 76 provinces. At 513,120 km² (198,120 sq mi) and over 68 million people, Thailand is the world's 50th-largest country by total area and the 21st-most-populous country. The capital and largest city is Bangkok, a special administrative area. Thailand is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Myanmar. Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. It is a unitary state. Although nominally the country is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, the most recent coup, in 2014, established a de facto military dictatorship under a junta.

Ireland, also known as the Republic of Ireland, is a country in north-western Europe occupying 26 of 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, which is located on the eastern side of the island. Around a third of the country's population of 4.9 million people resides in the greater Dublin area. The sovereign state shares its only land border with Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. It is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, St George's Channel to the south-east, and the Irish Sea to the east. It is a unitary, parliamentary republic. The legislature, the Oireachtas, consists of a lower house, Dáil Éireann, an upper house, Seanad Éireann, and an elected President who serves as the largely ceremonial head of state, but with some important powers and duties. The head of government is the Taoiseach, who is elected by the Dáil and appointed by the President; the Taoiseach in turn appoints other government ministers.

Players at all levels can compete within divisions determined by ability—the Open division being the highest, followed by divisions A, B, C, and D. Where possible, similar divisions are provided for players over 40 years old. Each year, an international GLTA World Tour Championships invites the top 8 players in each of the 5 GLTA divisions to compete.

Tournaments are usually organized at a local level by clubs and associations, while the GLTA provides technical support, governance, and direction. Each event raises funds for charitable causes chosen by that particular association, and each cause usually has a tie to gay and lesbian issues such as HIV prevention or the mentoring of gay youth.

The GLTA is developing partnerships with national sports organizations such as the United States Tennis Association (USTA) which have identified diversity as a worthwhile objective. The organization has begun to formulate a financial and organizational support strategy to bring events to communities where the political, legal, and cultural situation for gays and lesbians limits opportunities to compete in the sport without hiding their sexuality.

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, from the grass-roots to the professional levels. The association was created to standardize rules and regulations and to promote and develop the growth of tennis in the United States.

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References

↑ "General info | GLTA". glta.net. Retrieved 2018-09-03.

External links

Gay and Lesbian Tennis Alliance — official website

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[1] "General info | GLTA". glta.net. Retrieved 2018-09-03.