Spaces like boxing and mixed martial arts gyms haven’t always, historically, been the most hospitable to people in the LGBTQ community but Red Planet MMA, over on Broadway in Bushwick, has made itself especially open to prospective customers regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
In 2016, the gym’s head coach Mario Marin started getting petitioned by several of the gay fighters at the gym to start dedicating a space at the gym for LGBTQ fighters and give them a small pocket of time each week to learn and teach kickboxing and muay thai. Marin said yes and that’s how the neighborhood’s “Gay Fight Club” was born.
“Giving people a big neon sign that says ‘Gays here, come learn fighting’ should at least help assuage a little bit of that trepidation and adverse experiences where they tried to fight before,” said Daffodil Bisono, a trainer at Red Planet that’s been running its Gay Fight Club since 2021.
“With Gay Fight Club, I want it to be a community space. I want people to come in even to just manage emotions and get some physical activity,” said Bisono.
Bisono says they try to focus on individualized coaching. This past week, they spent a significant portion of time with a first timer, introducing them to basic strikes, demonstrating how to hit a heavy bag and then going over the drills being practiced that day.
“Eventually everybody gets it. Even the people that warn me that they’re not coordinated at all. They’ve never done any kind of martial arts at all. Sometimes people get it in the first class,” says Bisono.
“It makes me feel like I can be like all of my favorite fantasy characters,” said Grace Fawcett, who found out about Gay Fight Club on a date. Although Fawcett never saw that person again, they did find Gay Fight Club, which they’ve been involved in ever since,
“Then when you come in frequently enough and you spot a bag and run up to it and it’s just ‘OOMPH’. It’s just fun to know how far you’ve come,” chipped in Soph Durso, another regular.
“Gay Fight Club” takes place every Sunday from 2-3pm at Red Planet MMA, located at 1449 Broadway. The hour-long training is offered to anyone, pay-what-you-wish.
Images taken by Shenal Tissera for Bushwick Daily.
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