Everyone is welcome to join us at GLTA events

In my communications to tournament teams each year, I have been emphasizing the first principles of the GLTA so that we make our organization as inclusive and diverse as possible. Our LGBTIQ+ community has strived to be as inclusive, and it is vital that we continue to leave the door open to everyone regardless of where they sit in our rainbow family.

At the Olympics, we all saw the many emotional knee-jerk, and negative comments around the Algerian Boxer Imane Khelif. Despite the issue being complex and the science lacking data people still felt they could make a judgment and call for the athlete’s exclusion. We applaud the courage and determination of Imane and can only hope that one day these things don’t illicit such damaging narratives.

At a community sporting level for an organization like ours that strives to promote participation, we must make participation as accessible as possible. You may have noticed on our GLTA Calendar the letters AG and AG/W. This is our way of making things less binary. We continue to advocate for the software developers of our tennis software to include self-reporting of gender giving those who don’t identify and the binary a chance to be themselves (it’s why some events have to use an external registration form outside the software to be compliant with local guidance around gender data collection). Whilst the software developers continue to resist this change, tournament teams can alter the way we set up the events in our calendar and in the software.

AG means “all gender events” and it’s what we previously designated as “Men’s” events. For example, Men’s Open Singles now becomes simply “Open Singles”. Everyone can participate. Women who would like to participate in the AG events should keep in mind that they are allowed to play two (2) categories down from their women’s ranking.

We continue to have events designated as “Women’s” (W) to boost female participation and non-cis male players are welcome to also enter these events. It’s a complex issue and not a perfect solution but I hope our efforts make more people from across the spectrum of gender and identity, participate at one of our amazing events.

If at any time you have any questions or comments on how we can make things more welcoming, we would love to hear from you.

Wishing everyone continued success on and off the court,
Rowen D’Souza
GLTA CEO President