ATLANTA RAINBOW TROUT

Our mission is to promote amateur competition at the United States Masters Swimming (USMS), United States Water Polo (USWP), and International Gay & Lesbian Aquatic (IGLA) levels, to provide a healthy environment of sport and social activities for gays and lesbians in Atlanta as well as encourage our members to serve as positive role models for gay, lesbian and other athletes everywhere.

Our teams are members of United States Masters Swimming, the Georgia LMSC, USA Water Polo, and International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics. We host two USMS swim meets per year and one USA Water Polo sanctioned tournament open to all USMS swimmers and USA Water Polo players. Additionally, we hold recruitment events throughout the year including the Atlanta Pride Festival. We hold four swim practices and two water polo practices per week. Each year our swimmers, polo players, and triathletes participate in competitions throughout the country and internationally at the IGLA Championships.

Travel and entry fees to participate in competitions are paid individually by each athlete. Some members simply cannot afford to travel. Our members receive significant discounts to participate in our own events. We do provide a limited number of financial scholarships each year based on financial need, primarily for unemployed members who receive free team membership.

The Atlanta Rainbow Trout has been in existence for more than 20 years. It is one of the most respected LGBT organizations in the country and a standard in the Atlanta community. Although our membership has changed in both the number and mix of LGBTS members over the years, we remain a resource for the community and have grown in acceptance. Many straight identifying athletes join our team. We routinely practice with Georgia Tech swimmers, polo players and triathletes and some of them compete for us. We have taken athletes and teams all over the world to compete and will continue to do so in the future.

The need for a safe and accepting environment continues. In an era of bullying and where LGB youth are almost 5 times as likely to have attempted suicide compared to heterosexual youth and LGB youth who come from highly rejecting families are 8.4 times as likely to have attempted suicide as LGB peers who reported no or low levels of family rejection, clearly we can help.