Halifax's gay curling league marks a decade on the ice
Katy Parsons | CBC News | Posted: November 22, 2016 11:00 AM | Last Updated: November 22, 2016
'It totally makes me proud,' says founder of the city's Loose Ends Curling League
Ten years ago, Curtis Cartmill formed the founding teams of Halifax's first and only LGBT curling league.
Since then, the league has tripled in size and members have made countless lasting memories — on and off the ice.
Like the time Justin Trudeau braved a hurricane to throw a rock at the league's first bonspiel.
Or when curlers held an Olympic-themed martini party where gold, silver and bronze prizes were awarded for the best drinks.
A league of their own
The Loose Ends Curling League is one of the new kids on the block when it comes to gay curling in Canada.
Canada has 11 LGBT curling leagues. The oldest, the Rotators Curling League in Toronto, formed in 1962.
Cartmill started the original teams of Halifax's league in 2006, when he moved back to the city from Vancouver.
He had been curling in a gay league on the West Coast and when he couldn't find one here, he decided to change that.
"I wanted to meet other people in the LGBT community that had similar interests to me," he said.
The league, called Loose Ends, started out with just eight people on two teams who joined the Mayflower Curling Club's Friday night recreational league.
As more people became interested, the league became more official, signed on new teams and got its own ice time. Although it started 10 years ago, Loose Ends became an official club in 2009-2010.
Trudeau takes the ice
An Olympic-themed martini night wasn't the only good thing to come from the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.
At the Games, Canada won curling gold and silver, bringing new attention to the sport.
It was around that time when Mark Gammon signed up to join the Loose Ends Curling League
"It was this whole momentum of curling building as this popular sport," said Gammon, who was a first-time curler.
Gammon went on to help organize the league's first Bluenose Bonspiel, a tournament where a young prime minister-in-the-making made a surprise appearance.
Trudeau's impromptu visit and the curling tournament coincided with Hurricane Earl. Power outages across the city caused Trudeau to cancel events, said Gammon.
But at the Mayflower, the power and the tournament were still on. So Trudeau dropped by, said a few words and threw a rock down the ice, though not particularly well.
"Let's just say he threw the rock," Gammon said. "It didn't necessarily end up where it was supposed to."
Pride in the league, 10 years later
Gammon believes Halifax's gay curling league draws people to the sport who may not have otherwise taken up curling.
"There is a bit of a stigma between sport and gay people," he said.
The Loose Ends curling league now has six teams — a number Cartmill said he's proud of.
"It's like your baby, you know?" he said. "It really is a great opportunity for LGBT."
Cartmill said anyone of any sexual orientation can join the league. Curling is 1 p.m. Sunday afternoons and registration is now open.