1982. Not the Gay Olympics - Gay the 80s

Contents:

• THERE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 39 GAY OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS. HERE’S THE LIST
• THIS OLYMPIAN WAS OUTED THE 1980S. THE 1990 GAY GAM HELPED HER RENNECT TO SPORTS
• 1982. NOT THE GAY OLYMPICS
• WELE TO THE ‘GAY GAM,’ AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE OLYMPICS, WHERE ACTIVISM IS ENURAGED AND EVERYONE’S AN ATHLETE
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPENLY GAY OLYMPIANS

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

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 petors the gural event. “And the place jt went nuts.”But Gay Gam I, which ran om Augt 28-September 5, 1982, faced many challeng, cludg the U.S.

THIS OLYMPIAN WAS OUTED THE 1980S. THE 1990 GAY GAM HELPED HER RENNECT TO SPORTS

Olympic Commtee's lawsu barrg the event om g the name "Gay Olympics." The legal actn was a microsm of the discrimatn alt wh by the LGBT muny, which still was rvg out a place for openly queer people Amerin society. 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.”The U.S.O.C. Succeed blockg the official e of the term "Olympic," but the lawsu galvanized support for the Gam, pecially among the gay muny.

Participants the gural event today rell Gay Gam I as a watershed moment for gay athlet around the world.

"When I walk to the [Gay Gam] openg ceremoni," says Hahn, "I always get that sense of history g back.” Ex-U.S.

1982. NOT THE GAY OLYMPICS

Olympian Helps Organize Gay GamAthlet wave to the crowd at the 1994 Gay Gam New York.The openg ceremony at the 1994 Gay Gam New York.Figure skatg petors at the 1994 Gay Gam New York.The closg ceremony for the 1994 Gay Gam New York was held at Yankee Stadium.The men's softball fal at the 1994 Gay Gam was held Central Park.The Gay Gam clu a body-buildg petn.At the 2002 Gay Gam Sydney, Atralia, nners ngratulate each other at the 5,000-meter fal. Combs pete the dancport petn at the Gay Gam Chigo 2006.1 / 8: Al Bello/Allsport/Getty ImagDr. Like many other LGBT athlet, Wadll wanted to make a siar, powerful statement wh an event for gay athlet.READ 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.

“They never thought that we were able to be athletic and be gay at the same time.”A number of gay and lbian sports leagu emerged the 1970s, as the LGBT muny gradually announced self to mastream society.

Still, many outlets for gay athlet, namely bowlg and billiards leagu, were still tied to the bars that had served as safe harbors for s.“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. 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. Wadll ed an irong board as a makhift sign-up table for the Gam on a street rner the Castro, a hub of San Francis's gay muny.

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

How the First Gam Play OutAnnie Wells/Los Angel Tim via Getty ImagShamey Cramer was stmental anizg Gay Gam followg the gural event 1982.At Gay Gam I, teams were anized by cy, each signg their own uniforms. Charlie Carson, a swimmer who traveled to om New York for Gay Gam I 1982, rells meetg a young swimmer om Atralia who had never peted agast others.

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. Extensive verage of the first Gam was found only the Bay Area Reporter.Pneerg a New TradnPasl Ron/ALLSPORTGreg Louganis, one of the bt divers Olympic history, publicly revealed he was gay at the Gay Gam 1994.Thanks 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. Carson remas proud of the impact of the Gay Gam on the Olympics and broar sportg world.“We weren't obliv to the fact that what we were dog at the first Gam was groundbreakg,” he says.

Six years after the first Gay Gam, equtrian Robert Dover beme the first openly gay athlete to pete the morn Olympics.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPENLY GAY OLYMPIANS

Four years later, diver Greg Louganis me out as part of the openg ceremony of Gay Gam IV.

“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. German nner Otto Peltzer, who peted the 1928 and 1932 Olympics, is arrted by the Nazi regime for homosexualy. Tom Wadll, the man who would lnch the Gay Gam 1982, pet the thlon at the Mexi Cy Olympics, where he sixth.