{"id":20079,"date":"2015-11-11T09:23:49","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T15:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=20079"},"modified":"2015-11-11T11:42:35","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T17:42:35","slug":"largest-lgbt-sports-organization-in-the-midwest-celebrates-community-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/largest-lgbt-sports-organization-in-the-midwest-celebrates-community-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Largest LGBT sports organization in the Midwest celebrates community (Video)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Lena Blietz<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">Positive changes have occurred in the last two decades at the LGBT-focused \u00a0sports league, the Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association, said coach and former player Linda Horwitz.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are certainly more children around as more lesbians are choosing to have children. I also think we are more trans-inclusive. In the past when my friends transitioned, they usually stopped playing,&#8221; Horwitz wrote in an email. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think that is the case currently.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"1 20151111 - CMSA - PKG - BLIETZ\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/145403890?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The CMSA combines athletics and the community. As the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender sports organization in the Midwest, the CMSA offers a wide variety of competitive and recreational sports. The CMSA&#8217;s women&#8217;s flag football began in the mid-1990s and has grown to include a wide range of ages.<\/p>\n<p>Horwitz\u00a0began playing softball with the CMSA in 1991. \u00a0She had moved to Chicago to attend graduate school at Northwestern and wanted to meet people in the LGBT community. Other members of the league said they\u00a0joined for similar reasons, as well as to play sports in a large organization.<\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">PHOTO AT TOP:The CMSA&#8217;s women&#8217;s flag football teams compete every Sunday in the fall.(Lena Blietz\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lena Blietz Positive changes have occurred in the last two decades at the LGBT-focused \u00a0sports league, the Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association, said coach and former player Linda Horwitz. &#8220;There are certainly more children around as more lesbians are choosing to have children. I also think we are more trans-inclusive. In the past when my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":177,"featured_media":20097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[509,31],"tags":[192],"class_list":["post-20079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2015","category-sports","tag-promo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Largest LGBT sports organization in the Midwest celebrates community (Video) - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/largest-lgbt-sports-organization-in-the-midwest-celebrates-community-video\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Largest LGBT sports organization in the Midwest celebrates community (Video) - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Lena Blietz Positive changes have occurred in the last two decades at the LGBT-focused \u00a0sports league, the Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association, said coach and former player Linda Horwitz. &#8220;There are certainly more children around as more lesbians are choosing to have children. I also think we are more trans-inclusive. 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