Starr Girls have no "Hope" Venue

The Hope Center of Adrian MI, (who had no problem letting us run our fundraiser there last year, Starr Girls Valentines dance, STARR-GIRLS.COM), feels that women's wrestling is inappropriate in their venue.

The Hope Center was contacted at the beginning of January 2012 and we were told by their staff that it shouldn't be a problem to have our fundraiser show there again this year. The date was available, but we needed to discuss the fliers as they seemed to have some issues regarding last years promotional materials. I called for a week after that, but their facility person was out sick and no one could help me to get the contract signed. After 10 more days, I finally got a call from them saying we needed to discuss the show (this was last monday) we set an appointment up for Thursday afternoon of last week.  

Scott Whitehouse, executive Director of the Hope Center, accused me personally of fraud or something as I had the Hope Center on our fliers for this year already (as I was under the impression we were a go. I had yet to get the fliers printed-thank goodness!, so they are only online as I didn't have the contract signed with them yet, so why would I spend my money on advertising when I had yet to sign a contract for the venue?)  Honestly, so many things he said to me I found personally very offensive, he treated me like some sort of enemy and I had to fight just to be heard. He basically called our girl wrestlers strippers and prostitutes, and tried to say we were going to do some kind of naughty things publicly, which I am still not sure what he was even trying to get at. . it was just weird and awkward. .  I explained that women's wrestling through-out time has gotten a bad rap and the big thing we are looking to accomplish is to bring respect to women's professional wrestling. Their organization, The Hope Center, is supposed to be fighting stereotypes and is supposed to be an inclusive place where the disabled people can feel like they are part of our community. I guess it is ok for disabled people to be a part of this community, through the Hope Center, but not for Lady wrestlers. Last year, we gave them 20 free tickets for their disabled community to come out to our show, and many people did. (but not their board members or their executive director) There were nothing but compliments and actually the only reason we wanted to run there again is to strengthen what we hoped was a relationship with the Hope Community center and because so many fans requested us. I tried to get him to see that we were on the same side, the one of breaking down stereotypes, and Scott told me they have enough of a fight on their hands and just can't help us out. Does this seem like an inclusive environment to you?

  If I don't have a new venue for us by tomorrow. . we will not be able to run this show on Feb 18th. . I will not have enough time to promote it. . the city may have a space for us, but it may be too close to the date to get it approved properly. . so, what I am trying to tell everyone, is that we may need to postpone our show until May. . . GRR. . why can't women be who they are (beautiful, strong, and sexy) and be taken seriously .????


Starr Girls Professional Wrestling Association (SGPWA) was created to give
women pro-wrestlers a voice and a venue. We believe in Girl Power! Girls
are more than "gimmicks" in the wrestling ring. Ladies work hard, wrestle
hard, learn and pay their dues just like all the other wrestlers out there,
but then we also have to deal with stereotyping and being objectified by
our peers and fans. The Starr Girls are real women, living real lives, they
are your sisters, wives, daughters, mothers and friends. The Starr Girls
strive to continually grow as wrestlers and as confident women, and we do
this through our participation in the martial arts. We hope to encourage
other girls' to become more self-confident by encouraging their
participation in the martial arts.

xoxoxo
Sybil