The club also plays water polo in London on Saturday and Wednesday evenings. Their competitive water polo team, the London Orcas, participates in London league matches as well as other national and international competitions.

We caught up with club member and secretary Tom to find out more about the club and its members.

How did the club get started?
Pascal moved down from London and started it along with Phil.

How many members do you have?
About 40 on the books and about 20 regular swimmers.

Do you have a typical member?
No – everyone’s very different from social class, education, background and motivation – although we're predominantly male with some female members.

How long have you been a member of the club for?
Since November ’06.

Are all of your members gay/lesbian?
Yes, as far as I know, although I haven’t personally checked everyone’s gay credentials!

What are the highlights of the year for the club?
Pride was great fun, if a tad nerve-wracking at first, and a real group/team effort and a great day. The sea swim in September is scary as fuck at times but pretty exhilarating.

Would more ‘out’ players help the sport?
Yes, to a degree, although swimming has a pretty good following and isn’t particularly known as a ‘homophobic sport’, unlike say football and rugby where more ‘out’ players would definitely encourage gay participation.

Has their ever been any homophobia towards the team?
Not that I’ve witnessed. I think some people expect us to be a bit nancy-ish with our training as we’re a gay team and are surprised at how hard we work.

What are the goals of the club in the future?
More members, a water polo team, more sessions and more coached sessions.

What originally made you get involved with the club?
I’d swum with London Out to Swim once or twice and having been involved in swimming clubs since the tender age of 4, I hadn’t realise until then how constrained I was by the heterosexist atmosphere of a straight club. The feeling of friendliness and inclusion of Out to Swim in London made me very keen to join a gay club, so when I heard Pascal was starting a division of the club down here, I joined up straight away.

So, how good do you have to be to get involved?
You need to be able to swim, that’s it, the rest you can work out once you’re in the pool, but you need to be willing to make the effort to swim the set.

Is the club a good place to make new friends?
Yes, I’ve met a number of people through the club I would definitely consider friends and the social aspect of the club has been an unexpected bonus. They’re a great bunch, friendly and very easy to get along with.

What's it like playing other straight teams?
In swimming they don’t particularly seem to notice, I’m sure they do, but there was no sign of hostility or even overt curiosity at the recent straight competition we attended.

If you had to pick one, who’s your sporting hero?
Ian Roberts – built like a brick shit-house, fit as hell and one of the only ‘out’ gay rugby players in the world, and succeeded cos he was so good at the game.

Greg Louganis – One of the few truly positive gay role models I had as a kid growing up, handsome, fit and he wiped the floor with them at the Olympics (once even with a major head injury – true class).

So, what do you think of the state of 'gay sports'?
It’s definitely on the up, and growing in status and profile. There are more and more groups competing in gay and non-gay leagues. The fact that there are enough sports men and women to compete in two large national competitions (OutGames and Gay Games) is a phenomenal achievement for gay sport.

Do you think it's true that the majority of gay men and women don’t like sport?
No. I think there are stereotypical notions around homosexuality and sport and that the codes are different for men and women - gay women are perceived as ‘butch’ and ‘manly’ and therefore innately athletic and powerful, where as gay men are perceived as ‘less than men’ or effeminate which reiterates the sexist notion that sport is a ‘man’s world’ for manly men and manly women.

Homophobia in sport deters a lot of gay men from competing as witnessed at an early age in the horrors of PE at school and the fact that there are very few out gay sportsmen doesn’t help - how many professionally footballers are there in the UK alone? And not one of them is gay, yeah right)

What’s the worst cliché about gays and sport?
Only ‘real’ men are any good at sport and gay men aren’t real men and only compete for the showers afterwards.

How can people find out more information about the club?
All details of the club can be found on www.outtoswim.org


Are you involved with a gay sporting group that wants to be included? Then contact us at editor@gaydarnation.com.


Want more? Then buy The Outsports Revolution, Truth and Myth in the World of Gay Sports by Cyd Zeigler and Jim Buzinksi and Eric Anderson's In the Game: Gay Athletes and the Cult of Masculinity online and save money!