The Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation or GLAF is a non-profit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

. Its purpose is to increase acceptance and visibility of LGBT

LGBT

LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

 athletes in the professional, amateur, and recreational athletics communities.

GLAF Executive Director O. Mac Chinsomboon describes the group's objectives:

"Our goals are twofold: One, create a community of gay athletes who can communicate with each other regularly. Two, help cultivate an environment in sports in which athletes are accepted and respected without regard to their sexual orientation. In the process, we help to create positive role models for the society at large."

GLAF's advisory board includes many prominent gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 and lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

 athletes, including tennis player Billie Jean King

Billie Jean King

Billie Jean King is a former professional tennis player from the United States. She won 12 Grand Slam singles titles, 16 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, and 11 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. King has been an advocate against sexism in sports and society...

, former NFL players Dave Kopay and Esera Tuaolo

Esera Tuaolo

Esera Tavai Tuaolo is a retired American professional football player. He was a defensive lineman in the NFL for nine years.-Early life:...

, former Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

 player Billy Bean

Billy Bean

William Daro "Billy" Bean is a former Major League Baseball player who made news in 1999 when he made his homosexuality public.-Career:...

, Olympian gold medalists Bruce Hayes

Bruce Hayes (swimmer)

Lawrence Hayes is a retired American freestyle and individual medley swimmer in the early 1980s. Hayes is best known for anchoring the U.S...

 and Mark Tewksbury

Mark Tewksbury

Mark Tewksbury, MSM is a Canadian former swimmer. He is best known for winning the gold medal in the 100 metres backstroke at the 1992 Summer Olympics...

, and triathlete

Triathlon

A triathlon is a multi-sport event involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance events. While many variations of the sport exist, triathlon, in its most popular form, involves swimming, cycling, and running in immediate succession over various distances...

 Christopher Bergland.