This week’s winners and losers in LGBT sports

Each week, Outsports stops the clock for an instant reply of the week that was. It’s our way of memorializing the glorious victories, the ignominious defeats, and the players and personalities who made them, lived them or just couldn’t avoid them.

If you’d like to read more about each entry, just click the link!

We realize our roster may differ from yours, and we welcome your comments, contributions and critiques. We read them all! Details on how to reach us are below, after our look at the week’s winners and losers.

Winners: Anya Battaglino and Madison Packer

Anya Battaglino and Madison Packer of the NWHL got married last weekend in Newport, Rhode Island, and we have the awesome photos.

Losers: Colorado Rockies and Coors Field management

A Coors Field employee cited stadium policy against ‘not appropriate’ PDA when she spotted a lesbian couple ‘casually’ kissing. Their tweets got them an apology and free tickets.

Winners: Alec Smith, Katie McCabe and Nathan Matthews

• After years of hiding, CrossFit athlete Alec Smith says he’s gay and has never been happier.
• Katie McCabe, the captain of Ireland’s WNT and her teammate girlfriend, Ruesha Littlejohn, say when they came out they were widely accepted by fans, friends, family and teammates.
• Nathan Matthews has thrived as a coach, player and student since coming out as gay. And he met his boyfriend on the team. He’s the latest athlete profiled in our “Being Out” series.

Loser: Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro s1mple called Twitch “a joke” in response to his one week suspension for using harassing and homophobic language.

Winner: Straight couple who met playing gay flag football

We particularly enjoyed a story in The Washington Blade Sports Issue profiling the budding relationship between Amanda Livingstone and Jorge Membreño, two straight allies who fell in love through their participation in the D.C. Gay Flag Football League.

Loser: Leah “GIlty” Hayes

The trans Street Fighter pro received a ‘global prohibition’ in response to allegations of sexual assault from multiple women dating back to 2015.

Winners: Staten Island Yankees, MiLB and You Can Play

A record 70+ MiLB teams have hosted Pride Nights this season, and thanks to You Can Play, the Staten Island Yankees will play theirs wearing jerseys featuring rainbow pinstripes.

Loser: The Maui high school volleyball coach who said a trans student athlete posed an “elevated level of risk” to other girls

A Hawaii high school girls volleyball team now has a transgender girl on its roster, and so far, her only obstacle appears to be one bigoted coach, who refused to give his name to the newspaper reporting on her debut last week.

Winner: Out NASCAR team member Ryan Hines

Ryan Hines never thought he could be gay and work in NASCAR. He said reading Outsports helped him realize “I could be myself and still do what I love.”

Losers: Everyone still speculating about Odell Beckham, Jr.

The circular speculation that Odell Beckham, Jr. of the Cleveland Browns is gay does no one any good and is, at this point, desperately unfair to OBJ.

Winners (but not officially): Scotland’s non-binary and gender neutral runners

Letting non-binary and gender-neutral runners compete is a great start for Scotland’s Great Run, but organizers will not allow them to win prizes or claim official rankings.

Losers: Radio listeners of Alex Reimer

A mainstay at WEEI for the last few years, Alex Reimer will now be walking the halls of the Massacusetts State House as we moves from radio to politics.

Winners: SonicFox and LGBTQ charities

Dominique “SonicFox” McLean’s 48 to 72 hour Twitch stream, which started on August 23, will benefit at least three LGBTQ charities.

That’s all for this week! We’ll bring you a fresh list of winners and losers next Saturday. Got a name we missed, or want to challenge our choices? Comment here or on Facebook or Instagram, tweet at us, message us via any social media, or just plain email us at outsports@gmail.com Thanks!