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Contents:

• WELE TO THE ‘GAY GAM,’ AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE OLYMPICS, WHERE ACTIVISM IS ENURAGED AND EVERYONE’S AN ATHLETE
• FIRST GAY OLYMPIAN HISTORY PETED 1928
• HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM
• WHY THE FIRST GAY OLYMPICS WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT SPORTS
• DONATN GOAL FOR GAY GAM 11
• HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM
• TRAVEL ADVISORY; SPORTS AND THE ARTS AT GAY GAM AMSTERDAM
• HONG KONG TO HOST GAY GAM 2022
• THERE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 39 GAY OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS. HERE’S THE LIST
• A GAY GUI TO AMSTERDAM
• GAY AMSTERDAM

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

They draw over 10, 000 athlet and sometim seven or eight tim as many spectators, said Shiv Pl, vice print of external relatns for the Feratn of Gay Gam.

And unlike at the Olympics, activism is enuraged at the Gay Gam, as has been sce the begng when the HIV/AIDS crisis was ravagg LGBTQ muni. Above all, though, the Gay Gam are an event for queer and trans people to gather safely, play sports they love and be themselv whout fear of tolerance.

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.

FIRST GAY OLYMPIAN HISTORY PETED 1928

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. And unlike the “regular Olympics, ” at the Gay Gam, a same-sex figurg skatg pair n don matchg nim jumpsus a performance set to “Hopelsly Devoted to You.

HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM

Participatn the Gay Gam steadily grew every year was held, and 1994, at the New York Gay Gam, the number of participants exceed the number of athlet at the 1994 Wter Olympics. The openg ceremony of the Gay Gam is still emotnal all the years later, Pl said, pecially when participants om untri where homosexualy is not accepted march the Para of Natns. His ath 1989 mak him the send LGBT Olympian to die of AIDS-related , the first was Tom Wadll, founr of the Gay Gam, 1987.

You’ve probably heard about the Gay Gam, but you might not be too sure what actually is, or if has anythg to do wh the Olympics. Well jt before the 10th Gay Gam e to Paris this Augt, we cid to go back time and brg you up to speed on s long and proud sportg history. The first Gay Olympics was to take place San Francis 1982 as a sports petn and arts ftival, but the Uned Stat Olympic Commtee (USOC) sued Wadll’s anizatn over s e of the word “Olympic.

WHY THE FIRST GAY OLYMPICS WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT SPORTS

The Gay Gam has been held every four years sce 1982 and has traveled om North Ameri to Europe, Atralia and back aga to the US. The Gay Gam Feratn was ut not to take risks, or get to bt, and talks between the mtee and the cy of Montreal broke down, more than once. Sger Ta Turner was the ma draw at the openg ceremony San Francis for the first Gay Gam 1982, but cy supervisor Doris Ward may have received the biggt reactn om the crowd.

You uld have an Olympics for anythg, ” says Shamey Cramer, a swimmer who -led Team Los Angel the first Gam, “but heaven forbid you should be gay or lbian. Succeed blockg the official e of the term "Olympic, " but the lawsu galvanized support for the Gam, pecially among the gay muny. 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. Still, many outlets for gay athlet, namely bowlg and billiards leagu, were still tied to the bars that had served as safe harbors for s.

DONATN GOAL FOR GAY GAM 11

“The Gam offer another place to ‘e out’ bis a dark bar, ” Jill Ramsay, the chair of swimmg and divg at the first Gam, told the Bay Area Reporter, one of the natn's first gay newspapers,  1982.

HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM

READ MORE: Harvey Milk, in the gay munyLike the mpaigns of gay polician Harvey Milk, a well-known muny anizer, the first Gay Gam were a grassroots project. Wadll ed an irong board as a makhift sign-up table for the Gam on a street rner the Castro, a hub of San Francis's gay muny. How the First Gam Play OutAnnie Wells/Los Angel Tim via Getty ImagShamey Cramer was stmental anizg Gay Gam followg the gural event Gay Gam I, teams were anized by cy, each signg their own uniforms.

Charlie Carson, a swimmer who traveled to om New York for Gay Gam I 1982, rells meetg a young swimmer om Atralia who had never peted agast others. 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.

TRAVEL ADVISORY; SPORTS AND THE ARTS AT GAY GAM AMSTERDAM

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.

“People went back to their muni, and gay sports jt me out of the woodwork, ” says Thoman, who is still a member of a track club that formed the wake of the Gam. Gay Pri Amsterdam 2022The Amsterdam Gay Pri program lasts for 2 weeks, wh the Canal Para, street parti and ma dance parti and events durg the send openg weekendThe pri week kicks off wh a gatherg at Dam Square and Pri Walk towards Vonlpark. 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.

As the world’s largt sports and cultural event open to all, the Gay Gam have created and nurtured a movement that has bee among the greatt forc for muny empowerment and social change.

HONG KONG TO HOST GAY GAM 2022

After g out as gay an Instagram post 2020, Bank hop to show younger athlet “that they n be whomever they are, or want to be, whout discrimatn. Radford ma history as the first petive figure skater to e out as gay while still petg for champnship tl 2014, pavg the way for future LGBTQ+ athlet to e out. To improve LGBTQ reprentatn profsnal sports, Schweighofer and Denison said, ach and lears youth sports should set a precent that homophobic language and discrimatn are unacceptable.

Denison’s rearch fds that most LGBTQ athlet leave their sports as young people, a parture driven by a culture of homophobic language and stereotyp. Daley has said that while he’s accepted his sport of divg, he often pet agast divers om untri where beg gay is crimalized. And Rapoe 2018 said that, as a kid, she “would have loved to have more rmatn” about what meant to be gay and why g homophobic slurs was wrong.

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

“Anytime you hear somebody say, ‘Oh, that’s gay, ’ or whatever, those thgs matter, ” said Rapoe, who didn’t e out to her teammat until llege. Homophobic slurs ntue to be prevalent sports – a 2020 study om Out on the Fields, which studi LGBTQ cln sports, found that more than 80% of gay participants had heard them ed while playg.

When ach and teammat e gay slurs equently, sends the msage that the language is harmls and OK to e – and solidifi the belief that all members of the team are heterosexual, Denison said. The same Out on the Fields study reported that over 81% of gay men unr 22 hid their sexualy to avoid rejectn by teammat or discrimatn by ach or officials, among other reasons. “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 same homophobic norms that affect men sports impact women and girls, too, and they origated the 19th century, Denison said. But the first known gay Olympic athlete was actually Otto Peltzer, a German middle-distance nner who peted the 1928 Amsterdam and 1932 Los Angel Gam.

A GAY GUI TO AMSTERDAM

Wadll wanted the Gay Gam to be lled the Gay Olympics, but the US Olympic Commtee nied him the right to e the word bee of potential nfn wh the forthg Los Angel 1984 Gam. Siarly, Atralian diver Matthew Mcham, one of the most well-known openly gay athlet at the 2012 London Olympics and now an ambassador for the Gay Gam, said:. 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.

Olympians – gay and straight – along wh fluential gay lears outsi Rsia, were vol about the nial of a Pri Hoe the Sochi Gam. That statistic may seem signifint but shows that over 16 years – or five Summer Olympics – the total percentage of openly gay participants creased tenfold. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Matthew Baniak was the first thor on the paper Homosexualy and the Olympic Movement, Journal of Olympic Studi that this article is based on.

GAY AMSTERDAM

Those who are gay Amsterdam will feel totally at home this welg cy which has long been at the foreont of LGBTQ activism and fight for acceptance. In 2019, a Eurobarometer poll reported that 97% of Dutch people agreed that gay, lbian, and bisexual people should have the same rights as straight people (the send hight percentage the EU). You’ll have no trouble fdg hotels that wele gay guts, and ’s unlikely for you to enunter issu when displayg affectn public.