The first Gay Gam took place San Francis Aug. 28-Sept. 5, 1982, and the 11th edn is set for Hong Kong 2022.
Contents:
- 1982 GAY GAM
- A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPENLY GAY OLYMPIANS
- WELE TO THE ‘GAY GAM,’ AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE OLYMPICS, WHERE ACTIVISM IS ENURAGED AND EVERYONE’S AN ATHLETE
- 1982 GAY GAM OPENG CEREMONY AND MARATHON
- HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM
- THE GAY GAM: THEN AND NOW
- HOW SOCHI BEME THE GAY OLYMPICS
- LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH: THE HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM - THE EVENT THAT GREW BUT STUCK TO S PRCIPL
- 10 THGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THE GAY GAM, HEADG TO HONG KONG 2022
- HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM
- WHY THE FIRST GAY OLYMPICS WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT SPORTS – HISTORY
- A LOOK BACK AT LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: THE GAY GAM
1982 GAY GAM
The 1982 Gay Gam were held San Francis, California, Uned Stat om Augt 28 – September 5, 1982. They were the very first Gay Gam, an event officially nceived by Tom Wadll, an athlete and activist, along wh the help of many others. The event's goal was to promote the acceptance and cln of gay, lbian and transgenr athlet the athletic world and celebrate their abili and achievements. A total of 1,350 petors om over 170 ci globally participated the first Gay Gam Parallel to the Olympics, a torch was rried om New York, at the se of the Stonewall rts, all the way to Kezar Stadium where the openg and closg ceremoni were held. Other events took place different surroundg areas as participants om around the world peted var events such as swimmg, track, and field, basketball, boxg, golf and more. The event also featured a performance by Ta Turner durg the openg ceremony, and Stephanie Mills durg the closg ceremony along wh San Francis Gay Freedom Day Marchg Band and Twirlg Corps and Meg Christian sgg a "Gay Anthem". Congrsman Philip Burton also spoke at the event durg the closg ceremony. * gay olympics 1982 *
The event also featured a performance by Ta Turner durg the openg ceremony, and Stephanie Mills durg the closg ceremony along wh San Francis Gay Freedom Day Marchg Band and Twirlg Corps and Meg Christian sgg a "Gay Anthem".
A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPENLY GAY OLYMPIANS
Tom Wadll, an athlete the 1968 Olympics, created the Gay Gam first held 1982 to celebrate LGBTQ cln. The Gay Gam are still held to this day wh the next round schled for 2022 Hong Kong. * gay olympics 1982 *
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.
There, a fiery, unflchg athletic spectacle, Curry abandoned his ual lively route of skips and hops for a stern technil masterpiece, makg him the first openly gay athlete to perform on the Olympic stage. LGBT journalists and historians, cludg Zeigler and Tony Scupham-Bilton, have talogued the many Olympians who were homosexual but peted a time before beg “out” was safe and acceptable. 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.
The summer before hostg the Wter Olympics, what many saw as an afont to gay rights activism, the Rsian ernment passed a law prohibg the promotn of “nontradnal” sexual relatnships to mors. The Uned Stat ed the Olympic platform as an opportuny for subtle prott, cludg proment gay athlet Brian Boano, Billie Jean Kg and Cal Cahow s Olympic legatn, and protts were staged across the world. Rippon recently ma headl when he refed an offer to meet wh Vice Print Mike Pence due to disagreements wh his stanc on LGBT rights – which clu past statements that appear to support fundg gay nversn therapy.
WELE TO THE ‘GAY GAM,’ AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE OLYMPICS, WHERE ACTIVISM IS ENURAGED AND EVERYONE’S AN ATHLETE
Raw and uneded clips of the 1982 Gay Gam openg ceremony and marathon event. The ceremony clus shots of upl the crowd, a mic performance, and... * gay olympics 1982 *
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.
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. 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.
1982 GAY GAM OPENG CEREMONY AND MARATHON
Jt before the 10th Gay Gam e to Paris this Augt, we cid to look back at the history of the Gay Gam and brg you up to speed on ’s long and proud sportg history. * gay olympics 1982 *
A mere neteen days before the openg ceremoni of the 1982 San Francis Gay Olympics, the USOC nvced a feral urt to issue an junctn agast Wadll and the event anizers, the San Francis Arts & Athletics, Inc., claimg their e of the word “Olympics” vlated pyright law. ” Ignorg the implitns of homophobia, USOC Executive Director Don Miller murred that the e of “Olympics” nnectn wh the Gay Olympics would “dilute the meang and signifince” of the Gam.
For example, the New York Tim’ headle clared “Rare Cancer Seen 41 Homosexuals, ” while the Chigo Tribune noted that although KS primarily affected men olr than 50, medil centers New York and California diagnosed younger men, “all of whom said the urse of diagnostic terviews that they were homosexual.
HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM
The 11th Gay Gam will take place Hong Kong next year, four s after a former US thlete-turned-physician's dreams of a tly clive sportg event beme realy. * gay olympics 1982 *
” Due to this supposed nnectn, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) rmally intified the illns as the “4H Disease” as seemgly affected Haians, hemophiliacs, hero ers, and “homosexuals. As historian Carole Symons explaed her book The Gay Gam: A History (2010), some believed “the stagg of the Gay Gam durg a time which the gay muny of San Francis was at one of s lowt pots was a b like dancg on the grav of the ad and the dyg” (p.
” Some pani started to view the gay muny as a viable market to target bee “[g]ays and lbians were portrayed as the mols, even the fashn-leadg cizens, of nsumer-driven society” (p.
Bee of the ncerns and addnal fancial difficulti, followg the Sydney Gam, an FGG document tled “The Image of the Gay Gam” reemphasized the origal missn of the Gam, showg the anizatn’s “sire to return the Gay Gam to their begngs” (Symons, p. The Gay Gam may have enhanced s clivy; however, those who peted sports sanctned by ternatnal feratns, such as swimmg, were required to follow the stipulatns put forward by the leadg body.
THE GAY GAM: THEN AND NOW
The documentary Light the Water tells the story of a group of gay men and women who fought agast prejudice to swim their way to victory * gay olympics 1982 *
Acrdg to Symons, “[t]he two separate events were the rult of an acrimon breakdown relatns between Montreal 2006 and the FGG over their failure to negotiate the licensg agreement for Gay Gam VII” (p.
HOW SOCHI BEME THE GAY OLYMPICS
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. “She said, ‘I’d like to ve you all to the first-ever Gay Olympics,’” remembers Jim Hahn, one of roughly 1.300 * gay olympics 1982 *
Symons argued that bee the FGG and Chigo wanted “to ‘keep alive the legacy of Wadll, ’” along wh mid-2000s “[a]nti-Amerin sentiments, prcipally fuelled by opposn to the ternatnal and anti-gay domtic polici of Gee W.
LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH: THE HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM - THE EVENT THAT GREW BUT STUCK TO S PRCIPL
U.K. Prime Mister Rishi Sunak has apologized for the treatment of gay veterans by sayg that a prev ban on LGBTQ+ people servg the U.K. ary was “an appallg failure of the Brish state.” * gay olympics 1982 *
As Cleveland ( Oh, which remas a state that bans same-sex marriage) has been natnally nsired a “blue llar factory town a nservative farm state” which Time scribed as not “particularly novative or gay-iendly, ” officials believed hostg the Gam would help the progrsn of the cy. Lears the LGBT movement also saw headg to Cleveland as a way “to boldly go to a place that is perhaps not regnizable throughout the world as a gay center, but where real change is startg to happen, ” reported Darl Schaaff, the head of the Gay Gam se-selectn mtee. Certaly wh the ntuatn and growth of the Gay Gam, recent social movements, and proment sport ins discsg their sexualy, the environment for LGBT athlet and the larger muny has improved.
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. 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. Put has sce clared that gays attendg the Olympics should feel "at ease” (so long as they “leave the children peace”), but that’s done ltle to prevent Sochi om beg a battleground for gay rights.
10 THGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THE GAY GAM, HEADG TO HONG KONG 2022
Pl, 2019 Pan Am Gam gold medallist Tomas Gonzalez out as gay and a look back at Team France on the uneven bars at Athens 2004 * gay olympics 1982 *
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. In Uganda, Print Yoweri Meveni has exprsed opposn to a proposed bill metg out life imprisonment for gays—only to characterize homosexualy as an “abnormaly” and lbianism as a product of “sexual starvatn. ” 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.
HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM
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. 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.
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.
WHY THE FIRST GAY OLYMPICS WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT SPORTS – HISTORY
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.
A LOOK BACK AT LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: THE GAY GAM
Synchronised swimmg is among 36 sports nfirmed for the 2022 Gay Gam Hong KongThe Gay Gam is the world's largt all-clive sportg event but many athlet face an uncerta journey towards Fzgerald has been swimmg sce he was five years old and says he knows he's "probably been gay sce about the same time" he didn't know how to tell his lol pool what he was trag for. "When I told the manager I was preparg for my first Gay Gam, I was fearful they'd say: 'OK, we really don't want you practisg here, you n leave, '" says Fzgerald om his home Vanuver.