Fire Island’s 2023 LezVolley Tournament Is a Perfect Summer Mood (PHOTOS)

Summer trips to Cherry Grove and the Pines—the adjoining, queer-centric, and mega-charming hamlets on Fire Island—have long had a fame for being downright magical for folk who’re capable of make the two-hourish journey from Latest York City. No cars! Deer wander as much as you as you walk the wood pathways home from the beach! Everyone seems to be gay! And, on one Saturday in August annually, you may play in an LGBTQ+ volleyball tournament that specifically caters to women and non-binary people. Founded by Danielle Millet-Stanziale and Kristine Bungay in 2011, LezVolley is a way for teams with names like Gay Watch, Uhaullyball, Beach Cheeks, and I’d Hit That to play sports, hang with their friends, and even make some recent ones in a spot that feels truly welcoming and secure.

Despite a number of exciting progress up to now decade, 2023 has been rough, broadly speaking, for queer and trans people within the US. We’ve seen relentless attempts to legislate trans people’s very existence; widespread book bans targeting titles with themes of LGBTQ+ acceptance; ongoing protests by far-right extremists at drag events; the Bud Light fiasco; the tragic killing of O’Shae Sibley, a Black gay man who dared to vogue in public; and a recent Department of Education decision that granted Baylor University a spiritual exemption to the Title IX provision that requires schools to guard queer and trans students from sexual harassment. (In my very own Brooklyn neighborhood, I’ve been called anti-gay slurs and spat at when out and about with my girlfriend. Really cool stuff!!!)

That’s the backdrop this 12 months’s LezVolley tournament took place against, and is a giant a part of why it’s such a big day for each players and spectators—it offers community, queer joy, heart-pumping competition, and exuberant recreation.

A pleasant detail about this 12 months’s event: Two teams were entirely made up of single players who registered alone—mainly allowing folks who didn’t have an existing team to play with to participate. In keeping with LezVolley’s organizers, when this has happened in past years, the players often stay in contact and a few even return the next 12 months as a team again, this time as old friends, which is incredibly cute. Also cute? The proven fact that someone proposed to their girlfriend on the tourney’s after-party on the Ice Palace.

SELF sent photographer Hunter Abrams to capture this 12 months’s LezVolley tournament; below, you’ll find a few of our favourite moments.