New York Ramblers
The New York Ramblers are a soccer club based in New York City, operated by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of the same name. They were founded in 1980 when an ad was placed in the Village Voice looking for gay men interested in playing soccer in an area of Central Park known as the Ramble. This was the birth of the New York Ramblers, the world's first organized openly gay soccer club. The Ramblers provided a space for gay men who enjoyed the sport to meet and socialize outside of the traditional settings of bars and clubs. Shortly after the beginning of the Ramblers, more gay soccer clubs began forming around the country. In conjunction with this, the original members of these first clubs organized the International Gay and Lesbian Football Association (IGLFA), which today has over twenty women’s teams and thirty men’s teams in its membership. The Ramblers have traveled the country and globe participating in various soccer tournaments, from the Philadelphia Pumpkin Patch and Provincetown Classic to the Munich Oktoberfest Tournament and many IGLFA World Championships and Gay Games held throughout the world. The league hosts the New York Indoor Classic held every winter. In addition to weekly