With roots dating back to the ‘30s as a co-ed sport, roller derby has, since its invention, been one of the only contact sports for women. While the “Whip It” style of campy, punk, and theatrical derby came out of the early 2000s, the sport has always been a space centering female and gender-expansive aggression: as Margot Atwell writes in Derby Life: A Crash Course in the Incredible Sport of Roller Derby, “Feminism is in the DNA of the sport.”
Thus, it’s no coincidence that roller derby has become well-known as a sanctuary for queer people.
“You join the sport and immediately know what community you’ve walked into,” Mac Attack, the President of Atlanta Roller Derby (ARD), told Georgia Voice. “I look around and I know that I’m gonna have common interests with everyone there. I don’t have to ask what people’s views are because we’re in this community together. We chose to be here.”
Mac joined ARD in 2022 as a way to connect to the athletic side of her life she left behind in college. At almost 40 years old, there weren’t many options beyond derby, but it didn’t matter: after only one practice, she was hooked.
“I fell in love with it as soon as I got there,” Mac said. “It’s a fun place to be. It’s a great community, and we get to hit people for fun!”
Leftist Chainsaw Massacre, ARD’s Head of Public Relations, joined the group after moving to Atlanta in 2020 – and subsequently coming out as trans – to make some friends and connect with other trans people.
“I didn’t know any other trans people, didn’t really know any queer people,” they said. “So, when I stepped into that space, it helped me a lot to not only grow into myself and learn more about myself but also understand more of what other trans people were going through and be able to build that community as well, which has been gorgeous and wonderful.”
Like Mac, Chainsaw fell in love, the sport cleaving their life in before and after derby.
“I feel like I’m a completely new person,” they said. “I’m rougher around the edges, I’m a little wilder than I was before, I love to yell… I did it because I wanted something to do just to meet a few more people,” they said. “It’s completely taken over my life in a really nice way… Every day, I’m thinking about it.”
If you’re accepting of them, ARD is accepting of you, whether for your identity or your ability. Everyone is invited to open recruitment (happening next on April 28), where you will be taught the basics of skating. You don’t need any experience – you don’t even need skates.
If skating is for you, stick around, make friends, and learn to skate at the bronze level. If derby is for you, you can decide to get assessed at the end of the training cycle (which lasts about 10 to 12 weeks) and move on up to the silver level, where you’ll learn contact and derby rules. From there, you can move onto the gold level, where you’ll start scrimmaging and integrating into the league.
If skating isn’t for you, though, that doesn’t mean you can’t be involved. Every Wednesday, ARD scrimmages and hosts ref school, where people can learn to officiate on or off skates. You can also become a “jeerleader” or announcer, or just come to the monthly matches and become a fan! The next match will be on March 29 at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at Agnes Scott’s Woodruff Athletic Complex.
To join the ARD Academy and attend recruitment on April 28, visit atlantarollerderby.com/get-involved/ard-academy to fill out the intake form.
