The Lansing-based Mitten Mavens roller derby team hosted the Eastside Derby Girls from Macomb County in a Rainbow Bout to raise money for MSU’s Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender Resource Center. MSU students talk about which part of the intense action they enjoyed most.
There were menacing stares, elbows thrown and women sent flying on Saturday evening at Demonstration Hall.
It was roller derby night as the Lansing-based Mitten Mavens roller derby team hosted the Eastside Derby Girls from Macomb County in a Rainbow Bout to raise money for MSU’s Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender Resource Center.
Tickets were $8 for students and $10 for the public. Mitten Maven Autumn Gear, a food industry management senior, said the idea to donate money to the resource center stemmed from the accepting nature of the team. About 300 people attended the match, yelling from the bleachers as the Mavens won in a dominating fashion.
“Derby is a really open sport, and we’re really embracing it as a whole,” said Gear, who goes by the derby name “Hurtin Season” and is one of 10 MSU students on the team.
“We have people on our team who are lesbians or transgendered, and it doesn’t matter to us (because) we’re just trying to help a cause.”
The resource center was contacted by the Mitten Mavens in the spring about hosting a fundraising match on campus, and LBGT Resource Center interim director Deanna Hurlbert said the event gives legitimacy to LBGT issues.
Hurlbert said she did not have a final tally of money raised at the event yet, but she said the money will go toward creating an endowment to fund projects such as guest speakers, community service projects and trips to out-of-state conferences.
Hurlbert said creating accepting environments, such as Saturday’s roller derby match, are necessary at MSU.
“I think it’s absolutely essential, and what’s more essential is that it normalizes LBGT interests,” she said. “This is something that was taken on by a largely heterosexual organization that is concerned about civil rights issues for same sex couples and transgendered people.”
MSU students on the derby team joined for different reasons, but they have each found their role on the squad.
About a year ago, graduate student Deon Claiborne was looking for an unconventional way to get some exercise when she stumbled upon a Mitten Mavens flyer in Olin Health Center. She decided to give roller derby a shot and now skates to the name “Qweer As Folk.”
“As a (graduate) student, I spend most of my time sitting and reading, so I needed to get some kind of exercise and I find the gym excruciatingly boring,” she said. “(Roller derby) is welcoming to everybody.”
After joining the Mitten Mavens in July, social work junior Ali Jahr said all she can talk about is roller derby.
“Your life becomes derby, and it helps that the girls here are really awesome,” she said. “You call them your derby sisters, and they’re there for you.”
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