From yoga to theater, the gay sports group uniting Brussels

In just over 20 years, Brussels Gay Sports (BGS) has gone from a volleyball club to one of the biggest LGBT organisations in the country, attracting 30 different nationalities and doing far more than just gay sports.

Meet Bruno Olislaeger of BGS:

When was BGS established?

We were founded in 1991 by a small group of gay and lesbian sportspeople. BGS was the official follow up to a volleyball activity that had been organised for some years before.

What activities do you offer?

We have grown from that first volleyball team to a real multi-sport club, we now include :
Tennis
Badminton
Swimming
Volleyball
Futsal (five-a-side football)
Jogging
Body conditioning
Yoga
Dance
Hiking
Water polo

In addition we also offer cultural activities that include our choir and our theatre group.

How many members do you have?

Today we have almost 700 members. Membership been growing constantly over the years. This is also due to the new sports that we have introduced.

We’re not afraid to try out new activities if they seem to have enough potential and if we find someone who wants to be in charge of the activity.

What is the gender balance like in the club?

The gender balance differs according to the different activities. Volleyball and tennis have much more women than swimming or running, for instance.

Do your members take part in competitive events?

Yes they do: In tennis, badminton, swimming, water polo and jogging, people do compete in competitions all over Europe, and sometimes even further. It depends on where the Gay Games or Outgames are organised or where the official championships are being held.

We participate mostly in the LGBT tournaments. But we sometimes also participate in competitions that aren’t specifically targeting the LGBT community. For instance, some of our swimmers won medals at the Open Belgian Masters Championships, and our runners participate almost always in ‘open’ runs all over the country and also outside Belgium.

What sort of role does Brussels Gay Sports play in its local community?

Brussels Gay Sports is by far the biggest sports club for gay people in Belgium, and is also the biggest LGBT association in Brussels — and probably the biggest in the country.

Apart from the numbers, BGS is an important factor of integration and of community in Brussels. For Walloon, Flemish, and Brussels gay people alike it’s a means of getting to know people and to meet people in a friendly and non-commercial environment, as well as a means of building their social circle and their network.

An important additional factor is that BGS is a very international group, we have at least 30 different nationalities participating in our activities. It’s fun to meet people from all over the globe in Brussels!

What are the challenges of running a club like Brussels Gay Sports?

There are a few difficulties. First and foremost it’s to try to run this club with volunteers only. BGS is still growing and thus it becomes more difficult to deal with everything, especially the financial part of the club. Our treasurer has loads of work dealing with this so we’ll need to find a solution.

We’re also being asked to participate in all kinds of meetings which takes a lot of time, time that we don’t always have as we have a regular life as well.

Another difficulty is to find volunteers for all our activities: Who will translate our newsletter? Who’s in charge of the yearly barbecue? Who’ll run the bar of the Rainbow House every first Saturday of the month? Who will coordinate our Pride activity?

And finally, another difficulty is to bring all members together. You’ve got people who see BGS as a sports group. So they just come to practice their sport and nothing else. But we’ve always seen BGS as a social group as well. That’s why we organise a sports weekend, a barbecue, and a ski trip — for all our members. We’re also behind the bar of the Rainbow House every first Saturday of the month so that all members, but also non-members, can meet each other and get to know many other people in a non-commercial environment.