What is the Jocs Taronja?

The Jocs Taronja is the International Sport Tournament that the Club Esportiu LGTB+ Samarucs València organizes. Our Club gives the chance to lesbian, gays, transsexuals, bisexuals and heterosexuals (that is, LGTB+) of practicing sport on a distended form with the integration and nondiscrimination principles. This event is characterized by the sportsmanship, the plurality and the respect between the people with independence of its sexual orientation.

Samarucs and the Jocs Taronja

On March 2004, the Grup d'Esplai Esportiu Samarucs València assembled six volleyball teams in our city to participate in the first international sport meeting for gays, lesbians, transsexuals and bisexuals celebrated in the Valencian Community. More than 90 sportsmen came from Barcelona, Madrid, London, Milan, Brussels and Paris to enjoy with our team in an intense competition day. Three unforgettable days that served to make an important act of visibility and normalization of LGTB+ groups, using the sport as a way to appearing to the society.

The great success achieved in the celebration of that first international encounter animated us to organize one second edition of the Jocs Taronja in March of 2006, this time with the participation of the swimming section. 12 volleyball teams and around 90 swimmers took part on that edition of the Jocs Taronja. Altogether 300 people were involved between organizers, sportsmen, judges, partners, collaborators and supporters who enjoyed those days of coexistence.

At the moment, we are organizing the third edition of the Jocs Taronja for 27th and 28th of February and 1st of March of 2009. The presence of more than 250 sportsmen of different states and European clubs is expected. They will participate in the volleyball and swimming competitions. Both competitions will be developed on Saturday 28th of February in the Nazaret sport facilities, ruled by the Municipal Sport Foundation and yielded by the Valencia City Council. They will be observed by referees and judges of the Valencian Volleyball and Swimming Federations. For the development of these competitions, Samarucs València counts on the support of the Valencian Volleyball Federation, the Valencian Swimming Federation and the European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation.