Summer season journeys to Cherry Grove and the Pines—the adjoining, queer-centric, and mega-charming hamlets on Fireplace Island—have lengthy had a fame for being downright magical for people who’re capable of make the two-hour-ish journey from New York Metropolis. No automobiles! Deer wander as much as you as you stroll the wood pathways dwelling from the seaside! Everyone seems to be homosexual! And, on one Saturday in August every year, you possibly can play in an LGBTQ+ volleyball event that particularly caters to girls and nonbinary folks. Based by Danielle Millet-Stanziale and Kristine Bungay in 2011, LezVolley is a manner for groups with names like Homosexual Watch, Uhaullyball, Seashore Cheeks, and I’d Hit That to play sports activities, grasp with their mates, and even make some new ones in a spot that feels really welcoming and protected.
Regardless of a variety of thrilling progress up to now decade, 2023 has been tough, broadly talking, for queer and trans folks within the US. We’ve seen relentless makes an attempt to legislate trans folks’s very existence; widespread e-book bans focusing on titles with themes of LGBTQ+ acceptance; ongoing protests by far-right extremists at drag occasions; the Bud Mild fiasco; the tragic killing of O’Shae Sibley, a Black homosexual man who dared to vogue in public; and a latest Division of Training determination that granted Baylor College a non secular exemption to the Title IX provision that requires colleges to guard queer and trans college students from sexual harassment. (In my very own Brooklyn neighborhood, I’ve been known as anti-gay slurs and spat at when out and about with my girlfriend. Actually cool stuff!!!)
That’s the backdrop this yr’s LezVolley event happened in opposition to, and is a giant a part of why it’s such a special occasion for each gamers and spectators—it provides neighborhood, queer pleasure, heart-pumping competitors, and exuberant recreation.
A pleasant element about this yr’s occasion: Two groups have been fully made up of single gamers who registered alone—principally permitting people who didn’t have an current group to play with to take part. In response to LezVolley’s organizers, when this has occurred in previous years, the gamers typically keep in contact and a few even return the next yr as a group once more, this time as outdated mates, which is extraordinarily cute. Additionally cute? The truth that somebody proposed to their girlfriend on the tourney’s after-party on the Ice Palace.
SELF despatched photographer Hunter Abrams to seize this yr’s LezVolley event; beneath, you’ll discover a few of our favourite moments.