San Francisco Earthquakes LGBTQ Plus Ice Hockey Club

The San Francisco Earthquakes LGBTQ+ Ice Hockey Club (Earthquakes) began in 1998, the brainchild of lesbian and gay recreational sports enthusiasts seeking to form a team for the 1998 Gay Games in Amsterdam. This pioneering group wanted to ensure that LGBTQ+ persons could enjoy the inspiration, recreation, community, and fun that hockey offers. Today, the Earthquakes advance the elimination of discrimination toward LGBTQ+ individuals, their supporters, and causes by providing a safe, healthy, non-discriminatory forum for public-facing, community-based ice hockey competition and related events. Current programming includes an LGBTQ+ team and allied players competing once weekly at the Yerba Buena Ice Center in San Francisco; a professional sports partnership for an annual Pride scrimmage at the Shark Tank versus the San Jose Sharks front office; participation at Gay Games, a quadrennial sport and cultural festival; and playing in tournaments throughout North America. The Earthquakes seek funding to launch a "Hockey with Pride Program" that will amplify our pro-sports partnership and include hockey's Team Trans in the scrimmage; host a California Pride Invitational Tournament; and conduct young adult outreach to lay the foundation to grow the club to a second team so that beginner players, experienced players who would leave the sport for lack of a welcoming team environment, and communities traditionally underrepresented in hockey have a place to participate in ice hockey.