The Knickerbocker Sailing Association (KSA) is a members club set up by and for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender sailors in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. KSA membership is open to all LGBTQ and straight people, and it has a goal of being a "friendly, nonjudgmental group of people that have joined the club to share new life experiences, on the water together". [1]
KSA began in 1994, when founder Braden Toan asked around on Fire Island to find fellow people interested in establishing a gay sailing club. [2] It had an inaugural trip in August 1994, when 13 gay men met in Jersey City for a sail aboard a 38-foot Irwin cruiser.
In 2018, KSA had more than 150 members. [3] Its fleet includes both sailboats and powerboats. [2] While some members have extensive sailing experience, no sailing experience is necessary to join. [4] KSA hosts various flotillas throughout the tri-state area, from Atlantic Highlands to Block Island to Provincetown. Captains provide their own vessels, and crew participate in helping to sail boats with other members; boat ownership is not required to join. Members include people who run charter boat companies, live on their boats, or just sail for fun. [5] [6]
KSA participates in the Annual Stonewall Sails Regatta, [5] an official event of New York's Heritage of Pride's Gay Pride Week. KSA races with J/24s on the Hudson River [7] and in the past has partnered with Hudson River Community Sailing, who has provided the racing boats. [3] KSA works with Hudson River Community Sailing as another group that supports diversity in sailing, in particular through maritime education for students in local public high schools. [3]
During Pride week, KSA hosts a floating parade with sailboats decorated in flags, [8] along with sometimes participating in decorated boats in New York's dry parade. [9] Gilbert Baker, designer of the rainbow flag, was a member and created rainbow sails for KSA boats for these occasions. [2] [10]
Fundraising is a focus during KSA's Pride events, benefiting other non-profit organizations such as AmfAR, Rocking the Boat, Callen-Lourde, and the New Jersey Community Research Initiative.
KSA teams have participated in several Gay Games. [2] [11]
The club also organizes flotillas for visiting local destinations, such as New London, Connecticut. [1] [12]
A pride parade is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) social and self acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. The events also at times serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage. Most pride events occur annually, and some take place around June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, a pivotal moment in modern LGBTQ social movements. The parades seek to create community and honor the history of the movement. In 1970, pride and protest marches were held in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco around the first anniversary of Stonewall. The events became annual and grew internationally. In 2019, New York and the world celebrated the largest international Pride celebration in history: Stonewall 50 - WorldPride NYC 2019, produced by Heritage of Pride commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, with five million attending in Manhattan alone.
Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other water-borne craft for as long as such watercraft have existed.
Canoe sailing refers to the practice of fitting an Austronesian outrigger or Western canoe with sails.
Stonewall Democrats, also known in some states as LGBT Democrats, is a caucus within the Democratic Party that advocates for issues that are relevant to LGBT Americans. The caucus primarily operates through individual chapters or political clubs supporting LGBT rights and affiliated with the Democratic Party.
The NYC Pride March is an annual event celebrating the LGBTQ community in New York City. Among the largest Pride events in the world, the NYC Pride March attracts tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each June. The route of the Pride parade through Lower Manhattan traverses south on Fifth Avenue, through Greenwich Village, passing the Stonewall National Monument, site of the June 1969 riots that launched the modern movement for LGBTQ+ rights.
The rainbow flag is a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer pride and LGBT social movements. Also known as the gay pride flag or LGBT pride flag, the colors reflect the diversity of the LGBT community and the spectrum of human sexuality and gender. Using a rainbow flag as a symbol of gay pride began in San Francisco, California, but eventually became common at LGBT rights events worldwide.
LGBT pride is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to shame and social stigma, is the predominant outlook that bolsters most LGBT rights movements. Pride has lent its name to LGBT-themed organizations, institutes, foundations, book titles, periodicals, a cable TV station, and the Pride Library.
Gilbert Baker was an American artist, designer, and activist, best known as the creator of the rainbow flag.
The Britannia Yacht Club (BYC) is a private social club, yacht club and tennis club based in Britannia, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1887 by a group of cottagers.
Britton Chance Jr. or Britt Chance was an American naval architect who developed core elements of three yachts that won the America's Cup and won the World Championship six times. The New York Times said he "was known for having a mathematician's precision and a renegade's willingness to experiment". Professional Boatbuilder called him "one of the brightest minds in yacht design".
New York City has one of the largest LGBTQ populations in the world and the most prominent. Brian Silverman, the author of Frommer's New York City from $90 a Day, wrote the city has "one of the world's largest, loudest, and most powerful LGBT communities", and "Gay and lesbian culture is as much a part of New York's basic identity as yellow cabs, high-rise buildings, and Broadway theatre". LGBT travel guide Queer in the World states, "The fabulosity of Gay New York is unrivaled on Earth, and queer culture seeps into every corner of its five boroughs". LGBT advocate and entertainer Madonna stated metaphorically, “Anyways, not only is New York City the best place in the world because of the queer people here. Let me tell you something, if you can make it here, then you must be queer.”
The LGBT community in Tokyo is one of the largest in Asia. While Japan does not assign as much moral or social weight to sexuality as in the West, it is still difficult for Japanese people to come out in society as being LGBT; the community reportedly experiences homophobia even amongst those in the community. Only 5% of Japanese people report they know somebody who is LGBT.
The Huguenot Yacht Club (HYC) is a private yacht club located on Neptune Island along New Rochelle Harbor in the city of New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York. The club offers a number of boating activities, including yacht racing, frostbiting, one-design sail boat racing, and junior sailing.
The Harlem Yacht Club, currently based on City Island in the New York City borough of The Bronx and incorporated in 1883, is the third oldest continuously functioning yacht club in the City of New York, the first being The New York Yacht Club, and followed by the Williamsburgh Yacht Club. The club currently has over 100 enrolled members in various membership categories.
The American Yacht Club is a yacht club located in Rye, New York distinguished by a long history of competitive racing and leadership in growing the sport among women and junior sailors.
The Queer Liberation March is an annual LGBT protest march in Manhattan, organized by the Reclaim Pride Coalition as an anti-corporate alternative to the NYC Pride March.
Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 was a series of LGBTQ events and celebrations in June 2019, marking the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots. It was also the first time WorldPride was held in the United States. Held primarily in the metropolitan New York City area, the theme for the celebrations and educational events was "Millions of moments of Pride." The celebration was the largest LGBTQ event in history, with an official estimate of five million attending Pride weekend in Manhattan alone, including an estimated four million in attendance at the parade. The twelve-hour parade included 150,000 pre-registered participants among 695 groups.
Reclaim Pride Coalition is a coalition of LGBT groups and individuals that initially gathered in New York City in 2019 to create the Queer Liberation March in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall riots and to protest the commercialization of LGBT Pride events. The following year, in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, the coalition organized the Queer Liberation March for Black Lives & Against Police Brutality.
The New York City Drag March, or NYC Drag March, is an annual drag protest and visibility march taking place in June, the traditional LGBTQ pride month in New York City. Organized to coincide ahead of the NYC Pride March, both demonstrations commemorate the 1969 riots at the Stonewall Inn, widely considered the pivotal event sparking the gay liberation movement, and the modern fight for LGBT rights.
London Otters Rowing Club is an LGBT-friendly rowing club based at the London Regatta Centre in the Docklands area of London, U.K. on the River Thames.