Welcome to the Home of the Brawlin' Betties!
The One and Only Full Contact Roller Derby League
in Santa Barbara, California
We are dedicated to fostering a supportive community and environment through the sport of flat track roller derby. We are committed to advancing our sport through encouraging self-confidence while promoting camaraderie. We celebrate and welcome all who choose to participate in our league, in any capacity. We strive to provide a positive and safe environment for skaters, non-skating officials, and volunteers of all gender identities and backgrounds to challenge themselves, tend to their wellness, and experience overall growth.
The Brawlin’ Betties are actively recruiting new adult members of all genders and skill-level! While we are proud to play derby under the Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby Association (WFTDA), we are an all-gender league for adult skaters with any level of experience. No experience is required to join. New members are welcome to join us at any time of year.
Practices are held on Mondays, 7-9PM, and Thursdays, 7:30-9:30PM, at Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara, California. Please contact us to join our next practice, we would love to see you on the track!
Land Acknowledgement
The Betties acknowledge the traditional custodians of this place and pays our respects to the Chumash Elders past, present and future for they hold the memories, traditions, and culture of this area. We honor the Chumash people and their rightful place with this land that has been taken from their community as a way to acknowledge the pain, suffering, and violence that the land and its people have experienced and continue to experience. We encourage everyone to learn about the Indigenous territories and nations of this region and become knowledgeable, proactive advocates of narratives that combat colonialism.
Working towards Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion in Roller Derby
The Brawlin’ Betties stand firmly against discrimination and harassment, and commit to building a non-hostile environment for everyone within our league. To achieve this goal, we intend to be proactive by educating members about racism, transmisogyny, sexism, transphobia, and ableism. The league expects all members to foster an environment welcoming to all individuals and will hold members who violate those standards accountable.
Our league works continuously to combat the effects of discrimination in our communities. We commit to self-evaluate regularly and have a committee to oversee accountability and restorative justice. The league considers restorative justice to be recognition of harm, reflection on actions, reduction of harm, and restoration of emotional and physical safety and trust. This committee oversees inclusiveness training for all members encompassing topics of racism, sexism, transphobia and homophobia, along with an agreement of understanding how these affect their presence in real life and online.
We follow the lead of our supervisory organization, Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby Association (WFTDA) in their updated Code of Conduct, and as they build their Anti-Racism Team Project (ART Project). WFTDA offers training resources and toolkits which we use. Our league echoes WFTDA’s policy stating: “All Member Leagues are expected to make the commitment to call out discrimination when it appears in our communities. We expect that all Member Leagues will continually work to decolonize their organizations, act with integrity and fight racism, transmisogyny, sexism, transphobia and ableism, and develop a firm understanding of intersectionality and the many ways in which racism contributes to further marginalization of all of our communities.”
Although our league is a skating organization, at heart we are a community first. A goal of all Brawlin’ Betties is to actively foster a culture of anti-racism.
Reaffirming Trans Inclusivity in Roller Derby
The Brawlin’ Betties recognize that ongoing anti-trans bias and trans-exclusionary behaviors, both implicit and explicit, have been and continue to be a source of immense pain in the roller derby community. As a league, it is our responsibility to listen to and uplift trans voices within our community about the issues they experience and how we can face those issues together. We will continue to fight alongside our trans community members to build a world that protects and celebrates the lives of all trans people.
Following our parent association, The Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), we recognize that identifying as transgender, intersex, and/or gender expansive is not in any way related to an individual’s eligibility for participating as a member of our league. Our league welcomes every person who would like to skate, volunteer, or referee with us. Our league is both committed to creating a climate in our league that is welcoming and inclusive of transgender, intersex, and gender expansive participants, and collectively creating and realizing a vision of roller derby that prioritizes trans members’ visions for our sport. Any conduct which fosters a hostile environment for any participant on the basis of gender identity will not be tolerated in our league—we keep us safe, as an injury to one is an injury to all.
We urge our members, fans, and fellow community members to visit transathlete.com and utilize their action items to help fight transphobic legislature across the nation.
Equal Opportunity Statement
Our league is an equal opportunity league and does not unlawfully discriminate internally (in its administrative and program operations) or externally (in provision of services or community outreach) on the basis of: race, ethnicity, color, religion, national origin, age, ancestry, mental or physical disability, medical condition, marital status, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. The discrimination precluded by this policy includes any discrimination against an individual because that individual is perceived to have any of the foregoing characteristics or is associated with a person who has or is perceived to have any of the foregoing characteristics. Any league member found to be engaging in any type of unlawful discrimination or retaliation will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including expulsion from the team.