By Joslyn Hatfield

Welcome to the Sports and Recreation issue of Las Vegas PRIDE Magazine. We are excited to celebrate some of the best and brightest in sports. In case you missed it, the word is out, and Las Vegas has emerged as a bonified sports mecca.

The sky is truly the limit. From bull riding to basketball, ice hockey to baseball, Ultimate Fighting to the NFL Draft, Las Vegas is home to some of the biggest stages in sports, and our community is not only visible but celebrated in this era of growth. Sports are good for the state, the city, and the economy, but what about us as individuals?

The benefits of sports are well documented and include everything from elevated mood, boosted self-confidence, and developing collaboration and leadership skills. But the single most important lesson sports can teach you is how to lose.

Sports make you resilient in a way nothing else can. No one wins ALL the time, and sports can provide us with amazing opportunities to grow. Just ask the freckle-faced, feisty eleven-year-old version of me who once scolded her grandparents for the lack of hustle in a family pick-up game of volleyball.

For our community, sports can also provide opportunities to find our chosen families or give us the support we need to live as our authentic selves. Positive representation of LGBTQ athletes is critical because sports of their dominant presence in our national identity. As we enter an era of increasing visibility of LGBTQ+ athletes on the global stage, we adopt the mantra that sports truly are for everyone. We celebrate the growing list of OUT athletes and support those who cannot come out safely.

In Pride,

Joslyn Hatfield
Editor, Las Vegas PRIDE Magazine

This article was originally published in the Sports & Recreation Issue of Las Vegas PRIDE Magazine, and can be read in its original format here.