A WEEK ABOUT GAY PRIDE, AND PREJUDICE - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• 10 THGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THE GAY GAM, HEADG TO HONG KONG 2022
• MARATHON AND CEREMONY BRG GAY GAM TO CLOSE
• HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM
• WHY THE FIRST GAY OLYMPICS WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT SPORTS
• A WEEK ABOUT GAY PRIDE, AND PREJUDICE
• 1982 GAY GAM CLOSG CEREMONY (1)
• THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

10 THGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THE GAY GAM, HEADG TO HONG KONG 2022

While November 2022 may seem far off, LGBTQ athlet the world over are trag and workg hard ahead of the Gay Gam’ 11th stallment, set to take place Hong Kong. Tom Wadll — who himself was an Olympian, havg peted the 1968 Mexi Cy Olympic Gam and placg sixth the thlon — found the Gay Gam, a sports petn moled after the Olympic Gam. Takg place every four years and welg athlet om nearly 100 untri, the Gay Gam have que a legacy, and tertg facts about the ternatnal sportg event abound.

Vanuver, New York, Amsterdam, Sydney, Chigo, Cologne, Cleveland and Akron have all played host for the Gay Gam, wh the most recent eratn — Gay Gam X — takg place Paris 2018. Back 1982, the Gay Gam saw athlet pete a number of sports — basketball, billiards, bowlg, cyclg, divg, golf, marathon, physique, powerliftg, soccer, softball, swimmg, tennis, track and field, volleyball and wrtlg — but e 2022, the total number of sports have reached 36. In every prev eratn of the Gay Gam there have been Cafés Philosophiqu, which are basilly nferenc and panel discsns on topics of tert to the LGBTQ muny.

At the Paris Gay Gam 2018, topics vered how sports n bat discrimatn and sports as a source of well-beg and health. The Internatnal Rabow Memorial Run opens every Gay Gam week, and there’s typilly a slew of programmg at the Gay Gam ftival village and venu throughout the cy. Here’s a historil tidb you may not know: Back 1982, when Ta Turner was attemptg to rurrect her reer as a solo artist (havg prevly performed wh her ex-hband Ike), she performed at the openg ceremony of the 1982 Gay Gam Goln Gate Park.

MARATHON AND CEREMONY BRG GAY GAM TO CLOSE

In 1994, the Gay Gam me to New York Cy memoratn of the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprisg, and Sir Ian McKellen gave the closg addrs at Yankee Stadium. In 2014, Print Barack Obama opened the 2014 Cleveland+Akron Gay Gam wh a pre-rerd vio welg athlet om around the world to the gam. Ahead of very first Gay Gam 1982, the event was lled the “Gay Olympics, ” which ed the Uned Stat Olympic Commtee to sue Wadll and his anizatn.

HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM

Jt 19 days before those very first gam were to take place, the Olympic Commtee secured an junctn, but stead of ncelg the gam, they went forward unr a new name — the Gay Gam — and were a huge succs. The very first Gay Gam is said to have brought 1, 350 athlet om 11 untri to San Francis, but the roster of athlet who pete the days is signifintly larger. Hor has long thrown s support behd the Gay Gam, but for the upg 11th eratn, Hor CEO Christof Wtig has taken a personal role guaranteeg the event’s succs, actg as Director of Fundraisg for the Hong Kong gam.

It’s jt another way Hor, the world’s leadg gay social work wh 25 ln ers worldwi, supports the greater LGBTQ muny.

Ocsnally the digizatn procs troduc transcriptn errors or other problems; we are ntug to work to improve the archived fourth Gay Gam drew to an ebullient close yterday as 750 nners slogged through a humid marathon Central Park, thoands of athlet and spectators thronged to Yankee Stadium for a Olympic-style closg ceremony and Greenwich Village was transformed to a giddy, glterg ftival of homosexualy. "This is exactly what I was hopg for: 's one big gay world, " said Cay Mahoney, a 21-year-old lbian stunt who arrived yterday om Baltimore, as she took snapshots of iends ont of the Stonewall Inn, the shre of the gay-rights movement on Sheridan the Gay Gam IV and Cultural Ftival wrapped up, anizers and cy officials said none of their worst fears had e to pass. The cy quietly absorbed the large flux of gay men and lbians whout missg a least 40, 000 people filled most of Yankee Stadium last night, payg $10 a ticket to see the closg ceremoni, where 11, 000 athlet om 40 untri parad around the perimeter of the field and then packed the stadium's remag seats.

WHY THE FIRST GAY OLYMPICS WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT SPORTS

Erik Jensen, a 54-year-old export-import executive om Queens, said he remembered the opprsive days of the 1960's, when gay people left furtive liv behd closed doors. "The gam' closg set the stage for an ternatnal march today past the Uned Natns and a rally Central Park to memorate the 25th anniversary of a clash between the police and homosexuals at the Stonewall Inn that many nsir the start of the gay-rights movement. Organizers of the gam and cy officials say the gam and the march have brought at least 500, 000 spectators and 10, 400 athlet to New York Cy for a week of sports, cultural events, fairs, parti, vigils, march and gam were held parks and stadiums throughout the cy and ranged om door sports like billiards to the hard ntts like track and field, cyclg and officials timate that visors spent about $400 ln on hotels, meals, taxis and the natn's media pal, the verage of the athletic events also brought some strikgly normal imag of homosexuals to a wir dience than the three prev Gay Gam, which were held San Francis 1982 and 1986, and Vanuver, Brish Columbia, 1990.

Competn Breakthroughs"We alt wh a lot of different people that hadn't had algs wh gays and lbians before, " said Jay Hill, the executive director of the Gay Gam.

And the openg ceremoni last weekend, Greg Louganis, the diver who won four Olympic gold medals the 1980's, acknowledged for the first time, a viotaped wele speech, that he is gay. Miller, who peted ternatnally as a teen-ager, said that those days any ht that a skater was gay uld one's Thursday, Mr. A Wele to g StrangersBis sports, the gam and the Stonewall march spun off dozens of plays, art exhibns, mil performanc and edy revu wh gay them.

A WEEK ABOUT GAY PRIDE, AND PREJUDICE

"It's like flexg our polil mcl, " said Ana many out-of-towners, the trip to New York was a pilgrimage to the heart of the gay and lbian unrground railroad.

Others were om untri where one uld be jailed or tortured for homosexual Christopher Street the Village and at the fish for the marathon Central Park, homosexuals spoke of relief at beg surround by people who shared their sexualy. "A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn 1, Page 25 of the Natnal edn wh the headle: Marathon and Ceremony Brg Gay Gam to Close.

"France is proud to host the 10th edn of the Gay Gam open to everyone worldwi, which for more than 35 years has acpanied the fights agast discrimatn by g sports as a lever for cln, " shared Emmanuel Macron, Print of France before the Gay Gam kicked off Paris Augt.

1982 GAY GAM CLOSG CEREMONY (1)

Wh over 13, 000 participants and 10, 000+ athlet, the 2018 Gay Gam weled athlet and supporters om across the LGBTQ+ spectm for ne days of sports and cultural the Gay Gam village at Hotel Ville that weled over 54, 000 visors throughout the gam to venu across Paris cludg the largt public park -- Bois Boulogne -- home of the half and full marathon, the energy was ntag.

"Stg at a rtrant the Marais after the marathon, which Josh ran, we met a lbian uple attendg the Gay Gam om Atralia who scribed the Dance Sport petn they'd attend the night before, as ptivatg as Dancg wh the Stars or World of Dance. We joed over 5, 000 people to celebrate as the Gay Gam flag was hand off to the legatn om Hong Kong, who will host the Gay Gam 2022. The Netherlands weled participants to the first European Gay Gam – yellow flags wh the tulip-and-triangle logo were everywhere.

Wh a gay sports history datg to 1979, Cologne’s tradn of openns, bed wh two great villag and a ncentratn of sports at the German Sports Universy translated to a highly memorable week for 9, 500 participants om 70 untri. This week-long ftival for the 10th edn of the Gay Gam clud 36+ sports, 14 cultural events, and an amic nference.

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

Produced and curated by Feratn of Gay Gam Archivist Doug Lw and FGG Honourary Life Member Shamey Cramer.

“Passg The Torch: Ruby Anniversary Edn” is a factual timele of the major events that have been part of the Gay Gam evolutn sce s ceptn.