It was Tuesday night at Dart Bowl, which means it was gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender bowling night. I had no idea how gay bowling or bisexual bowling might be any different than any other kind of bowling, and I’d come to find out.
From up where you get your shoes, I surveyed the lanes. Nobody looked particularly gay. Nor did they look particularly straight. What they looked like were, simply, bowlers. Which is not to say they looked like particularly good bowlers. You can be throwing gutter balls all night long – it doesn’t matter. As long as you’re wearing those shoes, you’re a bowler. It’s not a choice. It’s not a lifestyle. It’s who you are – a bowler. It’s how God made you.
Anyway, the first two guys I approached – sort of schluby, middle-aged guys just like you’d expect in a bowling alley – weren’t singing show tunes or anything. But something told me they were probably gay. It may have been the cards they were playing between frames that gave them away: On each was a picture of a beefcake with an enormous erection. You know, like from the pages of Inches.
Still, that’s gay gin rummy, not gay bowling. What exactly is different about gay bowling?
“I don’t know,” said Mike Strano, who had impeccable form and was clearly a cut above the rest, with an average of 218. “I’m not gay.”
But Strano plays in the league all the same. What happened was, he was looking to join a league when he and his wife had moved to Austin eight years ago. One night, he showed up at Dart Bowl, got invited to sub for somebody, and had a good time. He didn’t know that it was a gay league until somebody told him.
Truth be told, until then he probably had some homophobic stereotypes.
“But I said, ‘Well, I might as well try it.’ I’d met some good people and had a good time, but I still wasn’t sure what to expect. I guess there’s a lot more affection – a lot more kissing and hugging and holding hands than you’re going to see in a straight league – and, at first, that kind of threw me off. But mainly it’s just a lot more relaxed, a lot more social. You’re not out to win. You’re here to have fun.”
The league – they call it the Austin Gamblers – currently has 18 three-person teams, and it’s open to anyone. They keep stats, but sexual orientation isn’t one of them. Chances are it’ll never come up. However, there is one thing that sets this league apart from more competitive leagues: It’s okay to suck. At bowling, that is.
“I never thought I would be a bowler,” said Cynthia Brown, who has been in the league the longest, since 1987. “When I first started, my handicap was higher than my average. I’ve improved, but if my average starts to go down, I’m like, ‘Whatever!’ For me, it’s about having fun. And here I am, 20 years later, still bowling.”
This article appears in March 14 • 2008.