Wele to the 'Gay Gam,' an Olympics alternative, where activism is enuraged and everyone's an athlete | CNN

Contents:

• THERE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 39 GAY OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS. HERE’S THE LIST
• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• WELE TO THE ‘GAY GAM,’ AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE OLYMPICS, WHERE ACTIVISM IS ENURAGED AND EVERYONE’S AN ATHLETE
• DONATN GOAL FOR GAY GAM 11
• WHY THE FIRST GAY OLYMPICS WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT SPORTS
• FAMEWATCHER SEARCH PRIMARY MENU SKIP TO NTENT HOMECELEBRY HAIR TRANSPLANTCELEBRY PLASTIC SURGERYCELEBRY LEATHER JACKETBODY SHAPER SEARCH FOR: GAY MALE ATHLET, HOT MALE SWIMMERS, SWIMWEAR FOR MENGAY SWIMMERS LIST: OLYMPIANS AND COLLEGE STARS
• DIVER TOM DALEY WS GOLD: 'I AM A GAY MAN AND ALSO AN OLYMPIC CHAMPN'
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPENLY GAY OLYMPIANS
• 5 TIM OPENLY GAY DIVER MATTHEW MCHAM SLAYED, AND OUT OF HIS SPEEDOS
• UTAH’S ARUP BLOOD SERVIC TO EASE RTRICTNS ON GAY, BISEXUAL MALE DONORS
• OLYMPIC SWIMMER MARK THORMEYER PERFORMED AT HIS PEAK AFTER G OUT AS GAY
• THERE ARE A RERD 11 OPENLY GAY MALE OLYMPIANS R. NONE IS AN AMERIN.
• 16 GAY AND BI OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS
• THE VERY SHORT LIST: WHO IS GAY THE OLYMPICS?
• DR. THOMAS F. WADLL, 49, A FOUNR OF GAY 'OLYMPICS'
• HOW SOCHI BEME THE GAY OLYMPICS
• THE UNPAID BT TO A PNEERG GAY OLYMPIAN

THERE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 39 GAY OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS. HERE’S THE LIST

-- Jaguars assistant strength and ndng ach Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach major Amerin men's profsnal sports to publicly e out as gay, tellg he ma the cisn bee he didn't want to hi who he is any longer and to possibly spire others siar 's a cisn and move that drew praise and support om owner Shad Khan, who was a vol and emphatic supporter of a cy ordance that expand protectns on the grounds of sexual orientatn, genr inty and genr exprsn. The Gay Gam uld be an act of prott then, too, Wadll cid, an event durg which LGBTQ people uld play the same sports they watched durg the Olympics and achieve the same kd of glory he had at the 1968 Olympics.

HIV/AIDS awarens has been baked to the Gay Gam sce s ceptn: In addn to banng discrimatn based on genr, sexualy, race and other tras, the Gay Gam wouldn’t allow any participant to be turned away based on their HIV stat.

The Gay Gam also succsfully lobbied the US ernment to briefly waive a prev ban on HIV-posive people enterg the untry so they uld pete the 1994 Gay Gam New York and the 1996 Olympics Atlanta, chang ma wh the help of the US Olympic Commtee. Thanks to some robt fundraisg and a genero scholarship program, hundreds om highly unrserved untri and muni have been brought to the Gay Gam to wns “Participatn, Incln, and Personal Bt ™” first-hand and see the llective power of those valu. Veterans’ ttimoni “give shockg evince of a culture of homophobia, and of bullyg, blackmail and sexual asslts, abive vtigatns to sexual orientatn and sexual preference, disgraceful medil examatns, cludg nversn therapy, ” the report said.

JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

“From a personal pot of view, the ban affected me terms of who I was and what I uldn’t be for 34 years, ” Holm ban on homosexualy was abandoned 2000, when the European Court of Human Rights led favor of four service personnel who were vtigated and then discharged bee of their sexualy.

A total of 186 publicly out gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, queer and nonbary athlet participated the Tokyo Gam, acrdg to Not only was that the most at any Olympics ever, but was also more than triple the number of LGBTQ athlet at the 2016 R Gam. Elissa Alarie (Canada)#Brt Benn (Canada)#Kelly Brazier (New Zealand)Gayle Broughton (New Zealand)#Isadora Cello (Brazil) Lren Doyle (USA)#Mara Fravanti (Brazil)#Megan Jon (Bra)Alev Kelter (USA)Ghislae Landry (Canada)#Kaili Lan (Canada)#Celia Quansah (Bra)Kristen Thomas (USA)Ruby Tui (New Zealand)#Sharni Williams (Atralia)Portia Woodman (New Zealand). When, still damp om the pool after wng his long-awaed gold medal, Brish diver Tom Daley clared his pri at beg a gay man and also an Olympic champn, there were tears and full hearts across the while there was ltle shock – Daley has been a vol advote of LGBTQ+ rights for years – there was a joy and ease to his pronouncement that was new.

WELE TO THE ‘GAY GAM,’ AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE OLYMPICS, WHERE ACTIVISM IS ENURAGED AND EVERYONE’S AN ATHLETE

Other gay male petors clu the New Zealand diver Anton Down-Jenks, the equtrians Edward Gal and Hans Peter Mrhoud om the Netherlands and the US x Julian the openg ceremony, the US basketball star Sue Bird, engaged to footballg legend Megan Rapoe, beamed as she bore the US flag.

”While Daley’s post-swim terview was voured by an overwhelmgly supportive public, other athlet risk their liv to be publicly out at the the Polish rower Katarzyna Zillmann won silver the quadple sculls she thanked her girliend, explag that she wanted to e her platform to help the LGBTQ+ muny Poland where there has been a risg wave of homophobia. “Boys and young men are tght to avoid anythg associated wh femy, most notably weakns, emotn, and homosexualy, ” said Schweighofer, whose work on LGBTQ cln sports has appeared the publitn of the Natnal Park Foundatn. The law claimed to protect children om homosexualy, and nmned reprentg LGBT+ liv as a norm society for urse none of the performers ped the evable bigotry aimed at LGBT+ people - there were lls for Eurovisns boytts om some, and offensive remarks ma by certa untry's broadsts of the the msage remaed clear, as Concha clared upon beg award the Eurovisn trophy: "We are uny and we are unstoppable" the LGBT+ fan base for Eurovisn 2023 has livered on that - a big way.

DONATN GOAL FOR GAY GAM 11

Homovisn Liverpool's Chavasse park scrib self as "20 years of queer art" wh 60 queer artists takg over the event's producer Josiah told 's a celebratn of "beg proud, beg queer and seeg other queer people beg so openly queer on an ternatnal stage, 's really embolng", a performer and fan, scribed the ftival and Eurovisn as "a celebratn of our art, our culture, our muny. 'You want to know people have got your back'Wh LGBT+ fans om far and wi arrivg the cy, anisers have ma safe spac to nnect wh others and get away om the htle and btle of the ma Clark opened Pri Hoe Liverpool at the start of the month, a muny pop up that's open for the length of the Herrg, Chief Executive of Liverpool Cy Regn's Pri Foundatn, scribed the celebratns as "gay Christmas" and, as we all know, Christmas n be a strsful time.

Olympian Helps Organize Gay GamAthlet wave to the crowd at the 1994 Gay Gam New openg ceremony at the 1994 Gay Gam New skatg petors at the 1994 Gay Gam New closg ceremony for the 1994 Gay Gam New York was held at Yankee men's softball fal at the 1994 Gay Gam was held Central Gay Gam clu a body-buildg the 2002 Gay Gam Sydney, Atralia, nners ngratulate each other at the 5, 000-meter fal. Like many other LGBT athlet, Wadll wanted to make a siar, powerful statement wh an event for gay MORE: 8 Memorable Protts by Amerin Athlet “You were eher a drag queen or the leather muny—those were the stereotyp that were prented to the public at that time, ” says Rick Thoman, a track and field athlete who peted the first Gay Gam. READ MORE: Explore history of the LGBTQ movement AmeriIn addn to boxg, basketball, swimmg and a number of other tradnal Olympic sports, the Gay Gam featured billiards, bowlg and a physique petn held at the historic Castro Theater.

WHY THE FIRST GAY OLYMPICS WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT SPORTS

Pneerg a New TradnPasl Ron/ALLSPORTGreg Louganis, one of the bt divers Olympic history, publicly revealed he was gay at the Gay Gam to the efforts of Cramer, Hahn, Carson, Thoman and many others, the Gay Gam have taken place every four years sce 1982, wh recent edns drawg parable numbers of athlet to the Olympics and Paralympics. However, this year’s Wter Gam will also be cemented history for s rerd number of openly LGBTQ least 35 of this year’s Olympic athlet are openly lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr or queer, more than double the amount of queer petors om the 2018 wter petn PyeongChang, South Korea, acrdg to the LGBTQ sports webse Outsports. And Canadian soccer player Qun beme the first openly transgenr and nonbary athlete to w an Olympic medal — a gold — followg Team Canada’s feat of Swen the women’s fal last while Team USA will ga an Olympic first wh the addn of LeDuc, will also be losg some star 2018, etyle skier G Kenworthy and figure skater Adam Rippon ma history as the first openly gay men to pete the Wter Gam for the Uned Stat.

Homosexualy has been legal Cha sce 1997, but recent years, the untry has worked to lim LGBTQ activism and 11 years operatn, Shanghai Pri nceled s annual LGBTQ celebratn 2020 and said — whout explanatn — that would no longer hold the event. And last week, the gay datg app Grdr was removed om several Che app stor after the untry’s cyberspace thory vowed to ensure a “healthy, ftive and spic onle environment” for the Lunar New Year, which began this week.

FAMEWATCHER SEARCH PRIMARY MENU SKIP TO NTENT HOMECELEBRY HAIR TRANSPLANTCELEBRY PLASTIC SURGERYCELEBRY LEATHER JACKETBODY SHAPER SEARCH FOR: GAY MALE ATHLET, HOT MALE SWIMMERS, SWIMWEAR FOR MENGAY SWIMMERS LIST: OLYMPIANS AND COLLEGE STARS

“I hope that any young LGBT person out there n see that no matter how alone you feel right now, you are not alone and that you n achieve anythg and there is a whole lot of your chosen fay out here ready to support you, ” said Daley, who paired wh Matty Lee to pture the men’s synchronized 10-meter, who won bronze the dividual 10-meter platform London 2012 and a bronze the synchronized platform R 2016, clared:“I feel credibly proud to say that I am a gay man and also an Olympic champn. Curry acknowledged that the mors about his sexualy were te, but when journalists asked prient qutns betrayg the era’s misnceptns about homosexualy and masculy, Curry fought back: “I don’t thk I lack virily, and what other people thk of me don’t matter, ” he said.

Wh this year’s Wter Gam Pyeongchang, Rippon and Kenworthy are the first openly gay Amerin men to pete the Olympics sce the legaly of same-sex marriage was tablished throughout the Uned Stat 2015, and the cultural shift is apparent. It was wonrful to see him such fe form, and while he n’t have been thrilled to lose his signature 10 m platform event to a then-closeted Tom Daley, Mcham’s succs as an openly gay diver no doubt set the stage for Daley and many more gay athlet to e out. The arrival of the Gay Gam our cy reprents a great opportuny for social change towards the LGBTTTIQA+ muny addn to generatg jobs and growth opportuni for GAMESThe Gay Gam are nsired to be the most important sports and cultural petn of diversy anized by the LGBT+ muny, like the Olympic Gam, is held every four years wh a participatn of approximately 10, 000 athlet.

Kenworthy did not medal the eki sloptyle event, but NBC meras beamed imag of him and Wilkas sharg their affectn once Kenworthy was done petg, a moment the out Amerin said at the time was powerful for many reasons: “I thk that the only way to really change perceptns, break down homophobia, break down barriers is through reprentatn, ” he said.

DIVER TOM DALEY WS GOLD: 'I AM A GAY MAN AND ALSO AN OLYMPIC CHAMPN'

“That’s fely not somethg I had as a kid: I fely didn’t see a gay athlete at the Olympics kissg their boyiend and I thk that if I had would have ma a lot easier for me, so hopefully did that for other people.

10:53Download AudCopy the below to embed the WBUR d player on your seRumeNikki Hiltz petn at the 2019 World Athletics Champnships (USATF)Profsnal nner Nikki Hiltz recently cid was time to share a middle-distance nner had been openly gay for years, but was durg a virtual fundraiser last summer about suici preventn for LGBTQ youth that Hiltz realized was time to tell the whole people ed the race as an opportuny to e out, so Hiltz wanted to hear their stori before this year’s event.

He went on to w the gold medal and bee the first man to w back-to-back Olympic golds both the sprgboard and platform divg what had ially appeared to be a straightforward eback story beme more plited when Louganis revealed seven years later that he was gay and that he had been diagnosed wh HIV six months before the 1988 Gam. But he never mentned beg gay until he started playg hockey for the Toronto Gay Hockey Associatn, where he started lerally wearg that part of his inty on his sleeve, somethg he discsed wh The Hockey News Curry, Uned Kgdom, Men's SglThe Brish skater, famo for brgg ballet and dance mov to men's sgl, won the gold at the 1976 gam Innsbck, where he also acted as flag bearer for his natn. Shortly before petg at Worlds that same year, the German newspaper Bild-Zeung outed Curry as gay, g a mor sndal Europe, but Curry went on to w the event anyway, makg him the first skater to w the European, Olympic and World champnships a sgle season, acrdg to the BBC.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPENLY GAY OLYMPIANS

While qutns about the flamboyant skater followed him through his reer -- two Canadian broadsters ught flak and spired a Pri Hoe prott after makg homophobic ments about Weir at the 2010 Olympics -- he did not e out until 2011, when he revealed he was gay his memoir, Wele to My World.

5 TIM OPENLY GAY DIVER MATTHEW MCHAM SLAYED, AND OUT OF HIS SPEEDOS

Stt Haton his book Landg It later creded Pockar and Rob McCall for helpg him get over personal homophobia, but Haton also got cricized for posthumoly outg the O'Meara, USA, Ice DancgThe ice dancer reprented the Uned Stat at the 2006 gam Toro alongsi skatg partner Jamie Silverste.

London is a safer place to be LGBT than Rsia, where vlence agast LGBT people is growg by the day and a law is on the books barrg so-lled gay 'll be watchg Team LGBT as the gam play out, and we're hopg the roster grows the days ahead. The Gay Gam is a great chance for all gays and lbians to show that we as a muny are not like the stereotyp the straight media lov to portray … I strongly feel we have to celebrate our own valu and help others to accept that is ok to be different.

UTAH’S ARUP BLOOD SERVIC TO EASE RTRICTNS ON GAY, BISEXUAL MALE DONORS

One gay teammate started mg aloud about her hope to retire two years to have children; she looked forward to beg able to enjoy a few beers on the weekends, and she hoped that she would brg her kids to watch the team’s match when they were old enough, Shimoyamada rells. Wadll, 49, A Founr of Gay 'Olympics' ADVERTISEMENTJuly 12, New York Tim ArchivSee the article s origal ntext om July 12, 1987, Sectn 1, Page 22Buy ReprtsTimMache is an exclive benef for home livery and digal the ArchiveThis is a digized versn of an article om The Tim’s prt archive, before the start of onle publitn 1996.

OLYMPIC SWIMMER MARK THORMEYER PERFORMED AT HIS PEAK AFTER G OUT AS GAY

Had the legal thory to bar a homosexual rights group om g the generic word ''olympics'' the name of s athletic Wadll, who specialized fect diseas, was chief physician at San Francis's Central Emergency facily until givg up the post when his disease was diagnosed June of last year. The Stonewall rts were more than a the past; a year earlier, reports had surfaced about rare pnmonia and ncer afflictg homosexuals New York and California—the first glimmers of what would later be lled AIDS. ” “Direct ntact” wh athlet om the natns, Day argued, would be enlighteng for Amerins livg a untry where ternatnal visors were often nied entry bee of their sexual s later, sports are once aga stirrg to take stock of gay rights around the world.

THERE ARE A RERD 11 OPENLY GAY MALE OLYMPIANS R. NONE IS AN AMERIN.

Ultimately, the stlit Olympics history may be remembered for markg a perd which gay rights aren’t so much advancg globally as expandg certa parts of the world while regrsg or languishg 6, 000 athlet om 85 untri gather Sochi, the global gay-rights divi will be unmistakable. But gay rights only me to the fore the summer of 2013, when the Rsian ernment, which crimalized homosexualy 1993, banned the dissematn of “propaganda of nontradnal sexual relatns” around children—makg more difficult for gay activists to operate and, rights groups allege, fuelg a rise anti-gay vlence the untry.

16 GAY AND BI OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS

The mayor of Sochi sayg there were no gay people his cy didn’t help, perhaps the most provotive rebe to Rsia’s lims on LGBT rights, Print Obama has clud three openly gay athlet—Billie Jean Kg, Cal Cahow, and Brian Boano— the U.

Gay Olympic athlet have exprsed outrage as well; the Atralian snowboarr Belle Brockhoff, for stance, has vowed to “rip on [Put’s] ass” after petg and possibly flash an oblique six-fger salute reference to “Prciple Six, ” an anti-discrimatn clse the Olympic Charter.

Then there’s the solutn proposed by Saturday Night Live: an all-heterosexual Team USA figure-skatg squad:The laws agast homosexualy that have recently ma ternatnal headl aren’t necsarily new, Stern says, but they are “gettg more attentn today bee of the level of progrs that we’ve seen other parts of the world. In recent months, India’s Supreme Court has restated a ban on gay sex ( one fell swoop doublg, by one timate, the number of gay people the world who n be imprisoned for their sexualy) and Atralia’s High Court has overturned gay-marriage legislatn.

THE VERY SHORT LIST: WHO IS GAY THE OLYMPICS?

” We know the story Rsia, where Vladimir Put has anoted himself the lear of an ternatnal nservative unteroffensive agast the Wt’s “genrls and fertile” the Bssels-based Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (ILGA) noted s latt report on “state-sponsored homophobia, ” “ltle has changed the proportn between untri crimalizg same-sex sexual acts between nsentg adults and those which do not, i. ”The “current divisn of the world—om the pot of view of legislatn—to an LGBTI-iendly field and an LGBTI-uniendly field is the rult of different cultural, social and polil procs rooted the histori of the untri and the history of their relatns wh one another, ” the study ’s how that divid world looked as of May 2013, when ILGA me out wh s report (click on the map to expand):ILGAIn a June report tled “The Global Divi on Homosexualy, ” the Pew Rearch Center arrived at siar nclns, fdg “broad acceptance of homosexualy North Ameri, the European Unn, and much of Lat Ameri, but equally wispread rejectn predomantly Mlim natns and Ai, as well as parts of Asia and Rsia.

S., where public support has grown signifintly, and that “acceptance of homosexualy is particularly wispread untri where relign is ls central people’s liv”—natns that also tend to be the wealthit the world.

DR. THOMAS F. WADLL, 49, A FOUNR OF GAY 'OLYMPICS'

Exceptns clu Rsia and Cha, where levels of religsy and tolerance for homosexualy are both Rearch CenterHere are the percentag of rponnts the 39 untri Pew surveyed who said society should accept homosexualy.

Except South Ai, where gay marriage is legal but only 32 percent accept homosexualy, same-sex marriage has, not surprisgly, advanced the most untri where support of homosexualy is Rearch CenterRelign undoubtedly rms opns on LGBT rights—a dynamic rerced by the recent trend of globetrottg Amerin evangelils, stymied at home, craftg and promotg rtrictns on homosexualy foreign pals—but ’s not the only factor at play.

HOW SOCHI BEME THE GAY OLYMPICS

Vladimir Put, ILGA Executive Director Renato Sabbadi argu, se anti-gay legislatn as a means of platg the powerful Rsian Orthodox Church and fendg ‘tradnal valu’ opposn to the Wt, where LGBT rights are generally advancg. Stern pots to the Kampala-based Civil Society Coaln on Human Rights and Constutnal Law’s outspoken opposn to Uganda’s anti-gay bill, while Sabbadi c how Indian gay-rights activists swiftly mobilized to prott the rtoratn of the untry’s ban on homosexual acts.

” In Brazil, for example, same-sex marriage is legal, but more transgenr people are murred than anywhere else the also tak issue wh the notn that Sochi is simply a dramatizatn of today's global gay-rights divi. The were the craftg needl that broke the Inter — as tweet after tweet ghed, scribg the gay father as “the perfect man” and “a natnal treasure” over the seemgly unimagable associatn of an old-school feme hobby wh the divg prows of male youth. Tom Daley of Great Bra kns as he watch the women's 3-meter sprgboard fal at the Olympic Rose/GettyIn 1982, another out and proud gay man named Tom Wadll — who was also a paratrooper, fect disease physician, and former Olympic thlete — found what he lled the Gay Olympics San Francis.

Wadll’s missn was to te the public about the diversy and strength of the gay movement and, as the Gay Olympics charter stat, “to brg people together for greater unrstandg and physil fns and not for the purpose of tablishg one group beg better than any other.

THE UNPAID BT TO A PNEERG GAY OLYMPIAN

The mere associatn of the word “Olympics” wh “gay” prompted the USOC to sue to stop Wadll’s e of the tramarked term “Olympics” his namg of his se would bee about somethg much eper: Whether the urts would grant the USOC the power to quash any associatn wh Ameri’s gay would-be Gay Olympics turned out to be one of the few anizatns that the USOC prohibed om g “Olympics” s name. Consir some of the other groups that were allowed to e : Internatnal Police Olympics; Firemen’s Olympics; Wrist-Wrtlg Olympics; Crab-Cookg Olympics; Dog Olympics; Nu Olympics; Rat Olympics; Wacky Olympics; Xerox Olympics; Alholic USOC’s prohibn on the name Gay Olympics was upheld the Nth Circu, even though, as Judge Alex Kozski wrote his dissent, “It seems that the USOC is g s ntrol over the term Olympic to promote the very image of homosexuals that [Wadll] seeks to bat: handipped, junrs, police, Explorers, even dogs are allowed to rry the Olympic torch, but homosexuals are not. Hardwick, which sentially equated homosexualy wh a year of losg his se agast the USOC, Wadll, sick wh an AIDS-related illns, ntend wh another battle: The lawyers for the USOC filed a lien on his hoe, seekg payment for their legal fe.

(In a strikg postscript, Walker, formerly a closeted gay man, would bee the feral judge who 2010 would overturn California’s ban on same-sex marriage) a queer woman and a tramark profsor, I teach the Wadll se.