Revived Rainbow Cycling team aims to bring awareness to GLBT community

Every Little 500 cyclist has his or her own reasons for entering the race.

Many cyclists enjoy the competitive edge. Others crave the instant feeling of pride that comes with wearing their team’s jersey in front of a stadium filled with their fans.

For Rainbow Cycling, the inspiration to compete in the race stems from more than just personal ambitions.

The riders for Rainbow Cycling, which is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Student Support Services, will be riding for an entire community that has never been represented in the women’s Little 500, a community to which some of the riders do not even belong. Junior Rachel Curley of Rainbow Cycling said although not all of the riders on the team personally identify as a part of the GLBT community, supporting GLBT is about more than just sexual orientation.

“I hope (riding in the Little 500) shows the GLBT community that there are students at IU that don’t have to identify with them but are allies and that don’t see any division between straight and gay people,” Curley said. “I hope that it can at least show them that there are people out there that are totally for their cause.”

While this will be the first women’s team to compete for Rainbow Cycling, the origin of the team can be traced back to 2006, when the first and only Rainbow Cycling men’s team took the track.
 
THE ORIGINAL
Jason Sinex, now the coach of the women’s Rainbow Cycling team, was a founding member of the 2006 Rainbow Cycling team. Originally, the team had no affiliation with the GLBT community. The name Rainbow Cycling came from an unlikely source.

“Our friend, who was from San Francisco, where they have a very strong GLBT community, had these rainbow sandals,” Sinex said. “We put those two things together and he said, ‘Call it Rainbow Cycling.’”

At first, the name was a bit of a joke, but when the opportunity came to get involved with GLBT through Doug Bauder, the director of the GLBT Office, the team said they knew it would work.

“Doug and the whole community took us in with open arms and really supported us both financially and by giving us a community that we knew we could ride for,” Sinex said. “It really meant a lot to ride for something outside of ourselves.”

While the team placed 27th out of 33 teams, Bauder said its result could be felt around the race track as at least 75 people from the GBLT community cheered on the team from the stands.

“As we watched the race, other people seemed respectful, but many seemed surprised that the people wearing the Rainbow Cycling shirts were not all gay students,” Bauder said. “There were families, kids and students. I think since it was the first time that GLBT was represented, it must have impacted people to show that diversity matters, no matter where you are.”

RAINBOW CYCLING 2.0
While the women’s team qualified in 30th place out of 33 teams, a men’s Rainbow Cycling team did not qualify for this year’s race. Sinex said although it is unfortunate that they could not have both a men’s and women’s team in the race, he hopes being represented in both races in the future will lead to even more support from the GLBT
community.

“I thought that if we started the team up again, we wanted to have a girls’ and a guys’ team so that we could get even more people that had never been involved with Little Five involved in it to see how much fun it really is.”

As for the team, four out of the team’s five cyclists will also be involved in Little 500 for the first time. Sophomore Torrey Byrd, senior Carrie Coon, junior Stacey Schwarz and Curley are all rookies, while junior Meaghan Reed will be riding in her second Little 500.

Byrd, a Bloomington native, said she never thought she would be riding in the Little 500, but said when Sinex presented the chance to ride for Rainbow Cycling, she did not hesitate.

“I never even thought about riding in Little Five, so when Jacob asked me to join Rainbow Cycling, I just said yes,” Byrd said. “I didn’t even think about it. I am from Bloomington, so I have always seen and heard about the race and watched ‘Breaking Away,’ so I thought it would be cool to actually be in it, especially riding for a cause.”

Reed, who rode for the Collins team “Dynamica” last season, said Rainbow Cycling wants to help promote diversity while standing for what is right.

“I would say that Rainbow Cycling stands for gay rights in the Bloomington area and around the world,” Reed said. “For people that are in the closet, hopefully they will see that they have a community of support in the Little 500 and throughout Bloomington, so hopefully that will help them show pride in who they are.”

Bauder said the buzz is building within the GLBT community.

“It’s exciting because we see this as another first because we have never had a women’s team competing before,” Bauder said. “Throughout our fundraisers, we have been very excited with the amount of volunteers that have stepped up to help organize these events and that there are people giving their time and energy to help out.”

Curley said she has felt nothing but positive excitement from the very welcoming GBLT community of Bloomington.

“I didn’t even realize that the people that work for the GLBT’s office and the whole community were really this excited about us until we had a potluck dinner,” Curley said. “Everyone was coming up to us like, ‘Thank you for doing this.’”

THE POT OF GOLD AT THE END OF THE...
With all of the negative media attention that covered the suicides of gay and lesbian students during the fall semester, Bauder emphasized the importance of having a GLBT-sponsored team in the Little 500.

“Over the years, my sense is that people look for symbols of acceptance. People look for that something that gives them the feeling that this is a safe place to be,” Bauder said. “What saddens me is IU is a big place and people that could use the GLBT may not even know about us. The story of Rainbow Cycling will help highlight the work of the office, and that’s great news.”

With the future in sight, Reed and all of the other cyclists said they view the GLBT community’s involvement in the Little 500 as a sign of progress in the battle for equal rights and hope the Rainbow Cycling team will become a staple in the race.

“Who knows if Jacob thought this team would happen in 2011? So hopefully in 2021, our team will still be around,” Reed said. “In general, I think we are a lot more open than we used to be, but I still feel like we have a long, long way to go. Now I look and see that the GLBT is a part of the Little 500, and before, who knew when that day would come? Now it’s here, so we are progressing.”

While the impact of this year’s Rainbow Cycling team may never be fully known, Sinex said he hopes the team can provide some inspiration for people within any community to see that it’s okay to be who you are and proud of it.

“I would want Rainbow Cycling to be thought of as a team that inspired a community that wasn’t particularly involved in the Little Five and sporting events at IU to join in and be welcomed by the existing Little Five community,” he said. “Both groups can definitely learn from each other and share in this experience.”