How a Queer Kickball League is Creating a Safe Space in Athens
Robbie Haynes, 32, moved to Athens last July from Orlando, Florida, after his partner, Tyler Goehring, 31, accepted a position as an assistant professor of string music at the University of Georgia. To his surprise, he found that the city did not have any explicitly queer-labeled spaces.
Athens, despite its progressive culture and the ACC Commission’s designation of the city as a “safe haven” for the LGBTQ+ community in December 2024, still lacks clearly defined queer spaces. Boneshakers Bar, the last officially recognized gay bar in Athens, closed in 2005. Since then, Athens has had a handful of queer-adjacent bars, such as Go Bar and now Church Bar, but no spaces that explicitly market themselves as queer.
Haynes, in response, decided to start a LGBT+ Allies kickball league as a way to build community for himself and others. OutLoud Sports Athens was soon born, part of the broader OutLoud Sports network, which is the nation’s first Queer+ adult recreational sports organization.
OutLoud Sports Athens launched its inaugural season on Oct. 11 with 37 players across three teams and grew to 68 players by its second season in February.
Why it’s Newsworthy: OutLoud Sports Athens is creating a safe, inclusive community for LGBTQ+ residents at a time of rising anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and a lack of dedicated queer spaces in Athens.
More than Kickball
Cass Hall, 36, moved from Liverpool, England in October 2020 to take a job as an assistant professor of computational astrophysics at the University of Georgia. She initially had reservations about moving to a Southern Bible belt state, questioning what it would be like as gay woman, but said those concerns quickly eased after arriving.
“I saw that this town has like rainbow crosswalks, and on my first evening here, while I was still interviewing on campus, I saw these two gay lads, a young couple, holding hands,” Hall said. “I was like, it must be OK to be queer here.”
Thus, she was surprised by what felt like a gap between Athens’ welcoming atmosphere and the lack of dedicated queer spaces.
“So I felt like Athens was probably quite a welcoming place, and I think it is,” she said. “But having said that, I was surprised that there wasn’t much in the way of like queer spaces for us because it is quite welcoming.”
OutLoud Sports Athens has given Hall a space to meet people outside of her normal academic circle, with people in the league coming from all different walks of life and career fields, with ages ranging from 21 to 62 years old.
Hall said some of her favorite moments have happened off the field, especially during the postgame socials the team holds at Athentic Brewing Company.
“The favorite memories have been just talking to people, either in the dugouts when you’re waiting to kick or at the brewery afterwards,” she said. “That’s been really nice.”
Haynes has worked to create a safe social space that goes beyond kickball, noting in the pre-game emails that the league is 80% social and 20% healthy competition.
Broader Political Climate
For longtime Athens resident Rob Hagwood, 54, a social worker in the ICU at Piedmont Athens, OutLoud addresses a growing need. Hagwood has been part of the city’s queer community for the past 15 years and has watched both it and Athens grow and evolve. He said the current political climate has made spaces like OutLoud Sports Athens even more important.
“I think finding those spaces is incredibly important now more than ever,” Hagwood said.
And I think in small towns, like we’re in, even though it is a little more progressive than other parts of our state. It’s still very clear that there is a strong population of people here that don’t want us here.”
The Trevor Project’s 2024 national survey found that 90% of LGBTQ+ young people said their well being was negatively impacted due to recent politics.
“Maybe because I’m a little bit older, I might just have a little bit of a different outlook on things,” Hagwood said. “But I also very much understand that if I were a young person right now, I would be scared shitless.”
In 2024, more than 75+ anti-LGBTQ+ bills were signed into law, alongside a record 600+ anti-transgender state and federal bills that were introduced. This historic rise of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation has been felt by the community, with nearly 80% of LGBTQ+ adults in the U.S. reporting feeling less safe because of such legislation, according to a survey by LGBTQ+ market research firm Community Marketing & Insights.
Finding Belonging
Jayne Roberts, 33, a copywriter in the University of Georgia’s marketing communications office, said the broader political climate became more noticeable after she moved from Atlanta to Athens in 2021. She struggled to find safe queer spaces and sometimes made the hour-and-a-half drive back to Atlanta to access them.
Outloud Sports has since helped fill that gap by offering her a sense of safety and community in Athens.
It honestly made me see Athens in a different way,” Roberts said.
“You kind of go throughout the day not acknowledging this part of yourself, and so having this space where you can put 100% of yourself in, where nobody’s judging you and everyone’s welcoming, and you can talk about experiences that you may not be able to talk about in your day-to-day life … I got this really warm feeling,” Roberts said. “Sometimes I think about it during the day, and I just smile.”
Growing Community
OutLoud Sports Athens is continuing to grow with new cornhole and dodgeball leagues launching this summer. The cornhole league sold out in just six days.
“People want to do it. They want things that we can do, you know, during the week, or I’m gonna sound older, a reasonable hour,” Hagwood said.
