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

Contents:

• 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
• THERE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 39 GAY OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS. HERE’S THE LIST
• DONATN GOAL FOR GAY GAM 11
• HOW SOCHI BEME THE GAY OLYMPICS
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPENLY GAY OLYMPIANS
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

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

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. 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.

WHY THE FIRST GAY OLYMPICS WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT SPORTS

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.

“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.

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

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.

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. 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. At least 186 publicly out gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, queer and nonbary athlet were Tokyo for the Summer Olympic Gam, more than triple the number who participated at the 2016 R Gam.

HOW SOCHI BEME THE GAY OLYMPICS

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).

RtersJul 22, 2021, 09:17 AM ETMore than 160 openly lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer athlet are due to participate the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, makg this year's Gam the most clive has put a foc on host natn Japan, which activists say is out of step wh much of the rt of the world, havg not seen the same sweepg social change that ma same-sex marriage and greater cln a realy many Sugiyama, a 39-year-old former fencer for the Japan natnal team and a transgenr activist, said he was lighted to see the progrs diversy at the Gam. "I loved the sport of fencg, I didn't feel I uld fd a place for myself, " he Japan is known for s strong civil society and mocracy, rights activists say has a long way to go on addrsg lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer (LGBTQ) Olympic charter bans discrimatn and while Tokyo passed an anti-discrimatn law three years ago, there are not the same legal protectns for much of the rt of the activists hope to e the Gam as an opportuny to raise awarens and public support for LGBTQ issu. 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.

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.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPENLY GAY OLYMPIANS

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.

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. 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.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

Photograph: WPA/Getty Imag“When I heard – I’m gog to get emotnal here – when I heard Tom Daley talk the prs nference about beg a proud gay man, and an Olympic gold medalist, I jt thought: y, absolutely y. Photograph: Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty ImagWomen outnumber men on the list of out gay athlet by about an 8-1 marg, wh women’s football alone acuntg for more than 40 out players.

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. Ziegler rells a gay footballer tellg him about speakg to the cur Iranian football team about his sexualy, bee their untry homosexualy was illegal and punishable by ath.

”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. 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. Tom Wadll, a gay Olympian who would die of AIDS five years later, told The New York Tim that he had anized the athletic petn to “pull the gay muny together globally.