In what ways did Sydney's Gay Gam revent the Atralian natn? In this paper I set out to exame this qutn by drawg upon the ia that sports and paras of athlet durg openg ceremoni have been five moments for the Atralian natn. I vtigate the social terras or bodysp voked by sportg gay pri durg the participants' para at the openg ceremony and sports venu of the Sydney 2002 Gay Gam. This enabl sights to whether the spac subverted the heteronormativy of sportg bodi that are metaphors for Atralian natnal space. I centre my argument wh a post-Fouuldian performance theory to nsir both lived experience and textual reprentatns of queer sports spac. This approach advot a recursive relatnship between power, disurse, and crilly reflexive, geographilly embedd subjects. The ethnographic basis of my fdgs is participant observatn and a time seri of -pth terviews wh over forty self-intifyg gay and queer mal livg Sydney. I extract two overarchg them om the bodysp of the gam: transcennce and imprisonment. For those actively volved the makg of mp bodysp, mimickg the monopoly of the domant orr through the thory of natnal signifitn provid by the para of athlet at openg ceremoni and by sportg bodi offered a transgrsive vehicle. However, the pillar of hetero- normative sportg bodi fg Atralian natnal boundari survived unchallenged. Sportg gay pri also worked to close rather than to open up a space for disurs about sexualy and natnal inty to occur. Closure om a mastream dience occurred by jettisong the shame that lks sport, sex, and bodi. Closure also occurred amongst certa rponnts who shunned the gam, regardg as disciplg bodi to `normalcy'.
Contents:
- WELE TO THE ‘GAY GAM,’ AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE OLYMPICS, WHERE ACTIVISM IS ENURAGED AND EVERYONE’S AN ATHLETE
- FERATN OF GAY GAM
- SYDNEY GAY GAM 2002 [ELECTRONIC ROURCE]
- GAY GAM 2002
WELE TO THE ‘GAY GAM,’ AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE OLYMPICS, WHERE ACTIVISM IS ENURAGED AND EVERYONE’S AN ATHLETE
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 games sydney *
His gay and lbian iends San Francis, though, had never experienced an event as thrillg or movg as the openg ceremony. And so Wadll created the Gay Gam – then lled the Gay Olympics, until the Internatnal Olympic Commtee sued over the name.
“The formula for succs was visibily and inty, ” Wadll said an terview followg the first Gay Gam 1982. That’s what the first Gay Gam were all about. Wadll died 1987, but the Gay Gam ntue to this day, growg to an ternatnal phenomenon sce their first eratn.
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. You don’t have to be a profsnal athlete – even a proficient one – to pete the Gay Gam. You don’t even have to be gay.
FERATN OF GAY GAM
Gordon R. Wat, Boundari of Dire: Beg Sexual through the Spac of Sydney's 2002 Gay Gam, Annals of the Associatn of Amerin Geographers, Vol. 96, No. 4 (Dec., 2006), pp. 773-787 * gay games sydney *
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 first Gay Gam were held San Francis 1982, where transmissn of HIV had peaked among the cy’s btlg gay muny.
SYDNEY GAY GAM 2002 [ELECTRONIC ROURCE]
Some of the bt photos om Gay Gam VI Sydney 2002, featurg swimmers, nners, basketball players... and body pat * gay games sydney *
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.
Anyone n participate the Gay Gam – really, jt about anyone.
GAY GAM 2002
Though Wadll emphasized that sports weren’t the central foc of the Gay Gam, the event has hosted athlet wh real prows. Swimmer Jim Ballard set a world rerd the 100-meter backstroke 2002 at the Sydney Gay Gam. Powerlifter Chris Man began his reer at the Gay Gam and went on to w another 30 medals at var world champnships.
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. The upg Gay Gam will take place next year Hong Kong, where same-sex marriage is not legally regnized.
The openg ceremony of the first Gay Gam was the stuff of Wadll’s dreams. Wadll died of AIDS 1987, one year after the send Gay Gam, but the Gam and his dream for their impact have only grown sce.