Why the First Gay Olympics Was a Watershed Moment Sports | HISTORY

Contents:

• LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH: THE HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM - THE EVENT THAT GREW BUT STUCK TO S PRCIPL
• HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM
• WELE TO THE ‘GAY GAM,’ AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE OLYMPICS, WHERE ACTIVISM IS ENURAGED AND EVERYONE’S AN ATHLETE
• WHY THE FIRST GAY OLYMPICS WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT SPORTS
• HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM
• THE GAY GAM: THEN AND NOW
• LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH: GAY GAM 2023 - WHERE 'S THE TAKG PART THAT UNTS
• DONATN GOAL FOR GAY GAM 11
• A LOOK BACK AT LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: THE GAY GAM
• GAY GAM HISTORY
• A GAY HISTORY OF GAMG
• GAY GAMES 9

LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH: THE HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM - THE EVENT THAT GREW BUT STUCK TO S PRCIPL

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.

The LGBT Sport podst - The one on the history of the Gay GamFor nearly 40 years, the FGG has brought people om around the world together for a quadrennial celebratn of LGBT+ sport and culture.

HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM

But to unrstand the origs of the Gam, you have to go back to 1982 - and the dream of one Amerin bids to host 2018 Gay Gam'You have people om untri where 's crimal to be LGBT+'Tom Wadll was the founr of the Gay Gam, and had peted the Olympic thlon for the USATom Wadll loved New Jersey, he went to llege on a track scholarship - and reprented the Uned Stat the thlon at the 1968 Olympics Mexi Cy, where he fished sixth. Inially, he had hoped to stage a 'Gay Olympics' - but an junctn om the US Olympic Commtee over the e of the word 'Olympic' meant he had to e 'Gay Gam' while the name changed, Wadll's ia remaed the same - to provi an clive, multi-sport event that was open to all petors, regardls of sexualy. Wadll did not want the Gay Gam to be a petor or alternative to the Olympics, but wanted to apply the ethos of the Olympics to an event where people of all sexuali and abili uld pete, a style that mirrored the stcture of the Olympics.

But by this pot, the event he'd created was well tablished - and gettg bigger wh each passg 2013, then-Deputy Prime Mister Nick Clegg lent his support to London's unsuccsful bid to host the 2018 Gay Gam - and 2014, then-US Print Barack Obama rerd a vio msageexternal-lk to wele petors to the Gam Oh.

"'It felt fiant to say: No, I'm not gog to be ightened' New York hosted the 1994 Gay GamNo two Gay Gam feel the the Olympics, each host cy brgs s own style and flavour to the event.

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

"It was amazg, bee there was this terrible thg gog on wh HIV and Aids, and people talkg about how sick was to be gay, what a dreadful thg was, and how we're all gog to die. '"'It was md-blowg'The 2022 Gay Gam will be the 11th time the event has been heldIn 2022, the Gay Gam will mark s 40th anniversary by gog to Asia for the first time.

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. 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.

WHY THE FIRST GAY OLYMPICS WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT SPORTS

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. 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.

HISTORY OF THE GAY GAM

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. 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.

THE GAY GAM: THEN AND NOW

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. “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.

LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH: GAY GAM 2023 - WHERE 'S THE TAKG PART THAT UNTS

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.

DONATN GOAL FOR GAY GAM 11

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. 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.

A LOOK BACK AT LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: THE GAY GAM

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. 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.

GAY GAM HISTORY

Although Wadll mirrored the blueprt of the Olympics, he remaed disillned by the elism, natnalism, racism, sexism, and homophobia he wnsed as an Olympian. 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. ” 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.

A GAY HISTORY OF GAMG

” 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.

GAY GAMES 9

The “clive and participatory atmosphere, ” she argued, did not “appear to have been extend to the more genr non-nformg segments of the gay and lbian muny” (p. Addnally, “[a]ll Gay Gam and Stonewall 25 participants were engaged what was the largt and most ternatnal gay and lbian pri event and para ever staged” (Symons, 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.