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On a chilly Saturday morning in January, swimmers with Squid — Swimming Queers United in Denver — become swim caps, goggles, Speedos and race fits and splashed into the Abraham Lincoln High School pool.
Normally, the long-lasting Denver staff can be training at a rec middle. But in December, Denver Parks and Recreation stop renting area to Squid and all different non-public groups. Now, public faculty swimming pools are the one locations the group is welcome in Denver — and availability is scarce.
The staff used to follow a number of occasions weekly. Now they’re solely swimming collectively as soon as every week — far too little for swimmers who’re coaching to compete within the Gay Games this summer season.
Squid swimmers are baffled: After greater than three many years of partnership, how may the parks division minimize ties, particularly when the nationwide political local weather has turned so hostile towards the LGBTQ group?
The timing of town’s resolution in addition non-public swim groups was notably dangerous. The staff misplaced entry to Rude Recreation Center — simply earlier than the brand new 12 months, when swimming pools can be flooded with individuals who made New Year’s resolutions. Washington Park’s pool was closed, too, placing further demand on different rec facilities. Outdoor swimming pools have been shuttered for the winter.
Members are pissed off that athletes in different sports activities proceed to lease parks and recreation amenities when Squid can not.
“This is at least unequal treatment and at worst discrimination,” longtime member John Hayden stated.
Which non-public swim teams have ‘a benefit to the city’ — and thus get pool entry — is controversial
The motive for slicing ties has nothing to do with the LGBTQ group, John Martinez, the deputy govt director of Denver Parks and Recreation, instructed Denverite. All different non-public swim groups additionally misplaced follow area.
“One of our most popular assets is our pools,” Martinez stated.
Demand is excessive and personal teams like Squid will not be the precedence — even when they pay.
“To exclude the public to have private rentals is not in line with our mission and vision any longer,” he added.
But members of Squid say their presence as an LGBTQ swim staff offers individuals who in any other case may not really feel snug within the swimming pools an opportunity to follow collectively and construct group.
The staff says it makes good use of the lanes, with a number of swimmers sharing lanes to avoid wasting area.
Other exterior swim teams nonetheless lease the amenities. For instance, the division works with Vive Wellness, whose CEO Yoli Casas supplies swim classes — a service the parks division additionally affords.
“She is teaching kids of color how to swim,” Martinez stated. “She has access to our pools, but it’s through a formal agreement. And that’s the direction where I want to move to — from more of the one-off facility rentals to a long-term partnership agreement that has a benefit to the city.”
But Squid maintains it meets these standards and is making its case to Parks and Rec.
“I know what a positive impact Squid has had on so many people’s lives in Denver,” Hayden stated. “Why wouldn’t the city value that?”
Squid has proposed various concepts: paying further to swim exterior regular pool hours, training in much less incessantly used rec facilities, turning into an official metropolis program.
But to this point, Parks and Rec has stated no, although it’s contemplating the way it would possibly work with exterior teams sooner or later whereas sustaining precedence for public use.
The staff already practices water polo in Lakewood, exterior of its hometown. Now, it fears it could additionally need to deliver its swim practices to the suburbs.
Squid started when Colorado was nonetheless the ‘hate state’
In 1993, a bunch of homosexual swimmers met throughout lap swim on the Congress Park pool. They determined they needed to coach collectively for the 1994 Gay Games to commemorate the twenty fifth anniversary of the Stonewall riots.
Back within the ‘90s, Colorado got the reputation as the “hate state.”
“We were actually contending with Amendment 2 at the time, which sought to strip the rights of LGBTQ people and make it absolutely clearly legal to discriminate against them,” Hayden said.
Being a part of a gay swim team — or any group at the time — put people at risk of discrimination, he recalled.
“So forming the swim team and saying that we are here and we are going to be open, and we are going to be supportive of LGBTQ people and provide a safe and healthy place for them to meet and exercise and learn to swim and have community was a big step and a big risk, and people took it,” he said.
Squid started swimming with the University of Denver masters team and eventually started practicing at the rec centers.
Hayden’s husband is certainly one of Squid’s founders. One time, the couple hugged one another after follow.
“We actually had the rec director at the time tell us that there would be no public displays of affection in the pool, and all we did was a hug,” Hayden recalled.
That coverage didn’t final lengthy.
“The mayor at the time, Wellington Webb, who had a gay son, came out right away and said, ‘No, we’re not going to have that in our pools. We’re not going to have discrimination in our pools. These people will be welcome in our pools,’” he stated.
Since the ‘90s, the culture of the LGBTQ community — and the understanding of gender itself — has changed. These days, Hayden said, it’s difficult to inform who’s a part of the LGBTQ group and who’s an ally.
“We actually attract a tremendous number of heterosexually identified swimmers to the pool because we’re a fun swim team,” Hayden stated.
Squid is rising whilst practices are threatened
Rochelle Novilla, 33, wrapped her final lap and toweled off. She had simply accomplished her first follow with Squid. She was prepared for a breather.
She moved to Denver two years in the past from New York, drawn to the state’s outdoor tradition. Over the vacations, she discovered herself consuming dessert for breakfast, lunch and dinner and determined she wanted a change. So she signed up for the Boulder Half Ironman, purchased a race bike and began coaching.
On this Saturday morning, she discovered herself within the lightning lane and acquired some tips about her freestyle stroke from coach Jenna Fossum.
Novilla was impressed {that a} couple dozen folks awakened and confirmed up on the pool at 9:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning — creating staff camaraderie in a sport that’s usually finished alone.
“It’s a different dynamic when you swim with people,” she stated. “Not only are you getting splashed in the face, but … you have to synchronize in the lanes that we’re sharing. I made a friend today in my lane — because we have to coordinate.”
New members present up at practically each Squid follow. The staff is a protected touchdown pad for LGBTQ folks migrating to Denver for the state’s authorized protections and welcoming group.
Orion Richmond moved from the Bay Area to Denver in 2015 and joined Squid shortly after. Around 2018, he helped discovered Squid’s water polo staff.
“There’s something about swimming that is great for the body, great for the mind, but more importantly, this team is an LGBTQIA+ inclusive team, meaning we welcome everyone here, and we don’t exclude anybody,” Richmond stated. “And that’s important for folks to find community who might feel isolated at home or isolated where they work.”
With federal coverage focusing on the LGBTQ group and transgender athletes specifically, Squid’s choices are each bit as pressing as they have been again within the ‘90s, Hayden stated.
“We’re excited to be able to offer that safe and healthy place again to people who are maybe not able to find that in their homes in other places,” he stated.
He simply hopes they will share that have a number of occasions every week — not simply on weekends.
This web page was created programmatically, to learn the article in its unique location you possibly can go to the hyperlink bellow:
https://denverite.com/2026/01/29/denver-squid-queer-swim-team/
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