Get ready Wellington! Here’s the Gay Polo League
Tags: Chip McKenney, florida, Gay Polo League, Mason Phelps, Polo, tom cruise, Wellington
| Wednesday 15 July 2009 10:32 am
Move over macho man Tommy Lee Jones!
You and those manly South Americans you share the field with in Wellington every winter won’t get so much attention this time around.
Make way for the GPL — the Gay Polo League.
The founder of the California-based league says his boys are planning to spend several weeks in the East Coast’s polo capital in suburban West Palm Beach to observe how it’s done — and field the GPL’s top team.
GPL match (Courtesy gaypolo.com)
In time, the GPL hopes to accede to the U.S. Open, rough-and-tumble polo’s equivalent to the Super Bowl. It’s played at the International Polo Club Palm Beach, whose most famous member is Hollywood actor Jones (The Fugitive, No Country for Old Men).
“The ladies with the floppy hats may not be the best looking people at the club on Sundays,” said Mason Phelps, an openly gay local equestrian and Olympics TV commentator. “Every drag queen from Miami will be tailgating at the games. It’ll definitely bring another fan base. Sure, it will grate on the nerves of some of the macho guys, but who cares what a player’s sexual orientation is. If they can play a good game of polo, so be it.”
GPL founder and former show-jumping specialist Chip McKenney says the league has fielded three teams in tournaments up and down the Left Coast so far, in places like Indio and Los Angeles.
But to get any credibility, the league needs to come out into the Florida sun, so to speak.
For more on the boys of winter and the poll, look below or click
McKenney
“We want to experience the Wellington scene first, then play a few games and get ready for the following year,” said McKenney, who runs a broadcast design studio in La-La-Land. “Our league is two years old and it targets members of the gay community.”
So far, says McKenney, the teams have treated with the utmost respect.
“I expected some resistance but it hasn’t been the case. One umpire told us we’d changed a lot of misconceptions he had about gay people.”
And then, says McKenney, GPL teams and their fans know how to party.
“The teams look great, with the shined boots and (powder-blue uniforms),” he says. “And the tailgate parties are second to none. We feel obligated to serve a great table. We have fun.”
Anyone famous on the teams?
“No, we’re all professional men who play for fun,” McKenney says. “We haven’t heard from Tom Cruise, but I’m sure he’d want to know about us.”
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I’m all for it and wish the team well. I’m also happy to let my Dover’s World readers know about your team. Let me know if I can help.
Cheers!
RD
Many of our friends, my husband and I have been watching Polo matches regularly. Personally, I fully embrace the GPL and they can count me in to support the games by attending!
Sporting events are messengers of peace, and we should admire the skill of the athletes - not practice bigotry upon their sexual orientations, beliefs or heritage.
Greetings to all athletes!
Ingrid Webster
I say go for it. As Mason says-good polo is good polo. I think the parties and tailgating will be different and great fun! I highly doubt Welly will have any problems with this.
#2 cmon a gay guy with last name of Dover, I dont believe it!
I don’t have a problem with the gay sexual orientation although, being gay just isn’t me.
However, what I do have a BIG concern about is the idea that “Every drag queen from Miami will be tailgating at the games.”
Not being gay, I don’t know what all this type of statement entails, however, if these events are going to be used to flaunt the gay sexual orientation, then I have a problem with that part of it, just like I would if ’straight’ couples where flaunting their sexuality.
Many times, gay people end up getting a bad rap because of inappropriate behaviour and/or clothing; this is within their ability to control using the same guidelines for every human being regardless of sexual orientation.
I do not want my children being exposed to sexually suggestive behaviour or clothing, either from gays or non-gays.
Hopefully, my concerns are just needless worry. And for anyone who thinks I am gay bashing, again, please re-read my comment in an objective manner.
GREAT! I have gay men dressage, jumper, and hunter friends; now, maybe I’ll have some polo ones as well. The Wellington Polo tail-gating crowd can certainly handle it “just fine”…actually a lot of us will welcome it. Can’t wait to see the tail-gate spreads GPL fans will lay-out.
I don’t understand what being gay has to do with polo, or what sexual orientation in general has to do with the sport? It just seems silly to me. I don’t have a problem with sexual preference but I do have a problem with flaunting any type of sexual behavior. Our world is so screwed up I wonder what it is going to come to for our children? Lesbian Soccer? Straight Football? Gay Polo?
Just play your sports already…leave your sexuality for after.
Of course they’ll be welcomed. As long as they spend money, the local government and merchants will continue the equestrian season tradition and let them walk all over us, stink up our places coming straight from the barn and be rude to us and the hard working kids in our stores and restaurants (”Tip, what’s that?”) - all without regard to sexual preference. No problem at all.
I feel that if you are going to play polo, play polo. Do not make a spectacle of yourself. Our society is filled with so many negative influences that we really need to be careful what we subject our children to. I am definitely not a bigot, but would have issues with the whole affair.
are the horses gay also?
Hi Everyone, I think it’s great. However, Being a professional Equestrian myself, the idea of porclaiming my sexuallity and using it as a branding tool seems a bit “out there”. Hey I’m gay, It has absolutly nothing to do with my abilities as a pro. It’s personal and it belongs at home between myself and my partner. Wearing it on your shirtsleeves’ like some type of badge, (In my opinion),is a bit tasteless. I’ve never heard anyone organize a “Straight” polo team. or a, “Straight” football team for that matter. Be proud but don’t expect that by forcing the issue you will be making a positive statment… Personally I’d just like to know you’re good horseman.. Don’t really care what your personal lifestyle is. Keep it real. Be tasteful and please don’t turn this into a Circus.
As a Gay dude myself. I firmly beleive that If you want to be treated as “Normal” Don’t do somthing “Ab-Normal” to bring about change. If you want to introduce the gay population to the sport, advertize in gay publications. Seems to me that this sport has a very long standing persona of it’s own. One of culture and integrity.It is as much a part of the sport as the sport itself. Challenge that, and you are already alianating its own core. thus,giving the wrong impression. That,(once again),we(the gays)intend to force change. It would be Bad form in my personal opinion to open the floodgates and invite our sub-culture to conduct themselves in a maner that causes embarasment to itself. Integrity and respect for the sport and it’s customs are in order.
IT’S ALL ABOUT DISTORTED POWER, ANGER AND THINKING WITH GAYS. SEXUAL POWER OVER OTHER MEN, SORT OF A HYPER-SEXUALLY DISTORTED ALPHA MALE CONTROL COMPLEX WHICH IS EXHIBITED IN THE FORM OF SAME SEX IMPULSES FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE (UNCIVILIZED OR AUTOMATIC) LOWER ANIMAL BRAIN BYPASSING THE HIGHER CONSIOUS (CIVILIZED) RATIONAL AND MORAL FRONTAL LOBE, SIMILAR TO PYROMANIA AND PERHAPS GAMBLING AND SELF SABATAGE (I’M GAY AND ANGRY SO I CAN’T CONNECT WITH THAT WOMAN WHO WILL HURT ME).
Pyromania is multiple deliberate and purposeful (rather than accidental) fire setting. Homosexuality is multiple partner deliberate and purposeful (rather than accidental) sexual expression, sort of like a dog humping on your leg to proclaim dominance and alpha male status.
MYTHOLOGY:
Herostratus (Ancient Greek: Ἡρόστρατος) was a young man who set fire to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (in what is now western Turkey) in his quest for fame (POWER) on about July 20, 356 BC.[1] The temple was constructed of marble and considered the most beautiful of some thirty shrines built by the Greeks to honor their goddess of the hunt, the wild and childbirth. The temple was also one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, 425 feet long and supported by columns sixty feet high.
Far from attempting to evade responsibility for his act of arson, Herostratus proudly claimed credit in order to immortalize his name in history. In order to dissuade similar-minded fame-seekers, the Ephesean authorities not only executed him but also condemned him to a legacy of obscurity by forbidding mention of his name under the penalty of death. This did not stop Herostratus from achieving his goal, however, as the ancient historian Theopompus recorded the event and its perpetrator in his history.
As a gay man I am happy to see the entry of the Gay Polo League into “the sport of kings”. Emphasis on “kings” and not “queens”. There is absolutely no reason for not welcoming them to the sport as long as the conduct themselves properly and not use it as a platform to flaunt their sexuality. This goes especially for those of the gay comunity that come to cheer them on. Mason Phelps remark about drag queens is the kind of thing that draws the ire of followers of this time homored sport. I wish the team well and look forward to watching them play and making us all proud in the years to come.
I have been part of the equestrian community in Wellington as a judge and exhibitor for many years but I have never attended a polo match. I look forward to the GPL in Wellington and wil support it as a spectator and advertiser.
While a lot of the concerns seem to be about sexual deviant behavior exhibited at this game, how many parents are going to bring their children to a gay polo match? If something is offensive,DO NOT GO.I don’t go to any rap festivals,w/ their boom-boom vibrations and holding up their pants below their ass, so their underwear is hanging out.the lack of intelligence and the bad light it shines on most hard working intelligent black people, I find offensive!#2Until Obama became president, how many young black kids believed they could be president.Young gays need role models to break barriers, they generally are not accepted on teams and while allowed to play, how comfortable are they when coaches/teammates ostrasize them. Having role models helps you to not feel abnormal,even when your peers are trying to make you feel that way. Look at how many pro sport players have not been able to come out until after their careers are over.
Some of us need to lighten up. Hector, good to see the research into the link between homosexuality and pyromania continues apace in your capable hands…
Nobody wants to see their sport, their club or their community mocked or exploited - and I doubt that would be the motive for the GPL to make the trip out from LA. But suggesting that gays should demonstrate their normalcy rather than celebrate their difference sort of misses the point. Would you ask a women’s tennis team attending a tennis match to “conduct themselves properly and not flaunt” their gender? Do we ask Tiger Woods to “leave his ethnicity for after” the US Open?
Guests are obliged to be gracious and considerate… but so are hosts. It’s the height of “bad form” as one poster put it, to ask guests, before they arrive, not to behave “abnormally”.
To those unable to overcome their fear, suspicion or biases, hopefully they can at least find a way to exhibit the grace and good manners they profess to expect from the GPL.
I have played polo for thirty years and I like to date women who have red hair and freckles. I think I will start a polo league with other guys who date women with red hair and freckles. That should get us some much needed attention.
If you like to play polo, do it. WHO CARES ABOUT YOUR SEX ! !
I love polo, I am a gay man. I think it’s great that GPL is comming to Florida. As a gay man I don’t attend gay pride events because of the nasty behavior that takes place there. This will not be a family friendly event for straight families with Children, because if as Mason Phelps says “drag queens will be tailgating” it’s not going to be a safe enviorment for Children, because there will be drinking, and people getting out of hand. No one needs to flaunt their sexuality. I hope the event will be sucessful, but if the prices I have see are true $3,500.00 for a table of 8, I think they will have a hard time filling them. That’s more than double what others have charged. I attended a polo event just this weekend and tables were no where near that amount and it was geared toward the Palm Beach elite crowd. I wish GPL a lot of success, but I think the focus needs to be more on Polo, and not Gay and tailgating Drag queens. You can be a gay man or woman and still be a respectable member of society with out flaunting your sexuality. Show some class that’s all.