Gay Games
The Unsinkable Gay Games
By Dylan Vox

Mar 16, 2007

Gay Games VIII will be held in Cologne Germany, and although the competition is not scheduled to begin until 2010, there are no doubts already concerns about this still relatively new sporting event. Every year there have been detractors and financial problems, which have plagued the event, and yet somehow the spirit of comoradory and sportsmanship has allowed it to grow with participation rising every year. There is always so much talk about the good that is brought about by the largest gay sporting competition ever, but the road has been hard fought, and in order to improve on each event, it is necessary to remember the problems which it has faced.

The Gay Games is the brainchild of Dr. Tom Waddell who was a decathlon competitor at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. He conceived this event as an opportunity for gay people to demonstrate to the world that their skills and competitive spirits in sports parallel those of the rest of humanity and to show how "normal" gays tend to be in comparison to the stereotypes. 

Two years were spent in the planning of the event, which was to take place in San Francisco, and even Tina Turner had agreed to perform. But just as all things seemed to be prepared, the Gay Olympic Games, as they were first called, hit its first major obstacle.

The United States Olympic Committee obtained an injunction in federal court which prohibited the use of the word "Olympic" in conjunction with the competition. Since everything from signage to sponsorship packages had this as the official name, the committee had to scramble to have everything removed in time for the competition. 

Even though the USOC had ignored the use of the ancient word by Special Olympics, Police Olympics, Nude Olympics, Dog Olympics, and many others--the federal court upheld the injunction and the Gay Olympics was quickly turned into the Gay Games.

San Francisco played host to the sporting event for the next two events and it grew from 1,600 competitors to over 3,500 in its sophomore outing. But it was Gay Games III hosted in Vancouver, Canada where the games grew to Olympic proportions.

The small governing body who organized the first two events was transformed into the Federation of Gay Games (FGG) and would be in charge of the ever-growing event. It was here that the financial problems began to spring up, but that would not be the only turbulence at the event. In Vancouver, spectators and athletes were met violence as bottles were thrown at them and names were called. The community in the city wasn't really aware of the event because it was the first time it had been outside of the United States, and it was the first time there was opposition from people who did not support the gay community.

New York was slated as the next site for the games, and the attendance was booming. The 1994 games drew record crowds because it coincided with a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion, a civil rights protest of a police raid on a gay bar. But the expected crowds drew more criticism of the event as a group of conservative politicians and advocates of traditional values denounced the Gay Games as a threat to the morals of children and a scourge to the city. 

Homophobia, however, was not the only cause for protesters of this event. Transgender activists also protested their exclusion from the Stonewall 25 celebrations and the Gay Games in New York City. The Games were bombarded with letters and complaints about the rules that required "documented completion of sex change" before allowing transgendered individuals to compete. The rule was eventually rescinded, but the precedent would start a trend.

The event survived, however, and the next stop was Amsterdam. The Dutch people were very receptive to the event and the celebration again grew in participation. But it was here that some of the key events began to suffer.  

The Amsterdam organizers showed an ignorance of the sport of figure skating, starting with their contradictory desires to force the skaters into ISU rules and to include same-sex pairs. Figure skating has been a highlight event of the games since it's inception, but the ISU refused to grant a last-minute sanction and the consequences included the loss of four years' hopes, training costs and effort on the part of the skaters, financial loss for the Gay Games, a torrent of bad publicity, ill will from the ISU and other official skating bodies, and the complete loss of credibility in the eyes of anybody who follows the sport.  

The Dutch national skating association failed to obtain the sanction, and was unwilling to hold a non-ISU competition so organizers canceled the competitions the day they were supposed to start. Skaters were asked to perform in what was called noncompetitive "public practices." No skating event was just one of the financial disappointments, but the games closed without further incident.  

Sydney was the site for the 2002 competition, and by most accounts it was a spectacular event that went off without a hitch or any adversity from non-gay groups. However when the event ended, the hitch showed up. While bringing in millions of tourist dollars to host cities, the organizing committees for the last four Gay Games continued to lose money, leaving leaders and businesses devastated. Amsterdam and now Sydney even went bankrupt, and a significant portion of the FGG's licensing fee, more than $600,000, went unpaid, impoverishing the FGG. They had big plans for professional staff and headquarters and expansion, but with the continued losses the future seemed bleak.  

Just when things seemed down they were about to get worse when the Montreal event scheduled for 2006 ran into some major organizational trouble. The FGG wanted to plan for a smaller event with a more conservative budget, and the Montreal organizing committee wanted to plan for an event with 24,000 participants, twice the level of participation of the previous Gay Games in 2002.  

After withdrawal of its sanction from Montreal, the FGG held a second round of bidding and awarded Gay Games VII to Chicago. The Montreal organizing committee nevertheless decided to hold an athletic and cultural event without the sanction of the FGG; this plan developed into the World Outgames, and the creation of its sanctioning body, the Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association.  

This divide would not be the only strain on these Games. The backlash began from anti gay groups. The American Family Association, which regularly does battle against what it calls the "radical homosexual agenda," urged its members to protest Kraft Foods' for supporting the event. Kraft did stick to its guns and reiterated the company's support for the Gay Games. "It's the right thing to do and it's good for our business and our work environment. ...Diversity is not a selective concept. By definition, it's nothing if not inclusive," said an in house email.  

The Illinois Family Institute (IFI) also wasted their time with a campaign that presented an alternative Christian message countering the Gay Games. The focus was that through Jesus Christ, no one had to be gay. Whatever that means.  

Gay Games performer Jody Watley was banned from talking about the event on a local radio station. Mayor Daley, who showed his support for the event, was also forced to provide a protest area outside of the opening and closing ceremonies. Controversy erupted in the community of Crystal Lake where the rowing event was to be held. The lake, situated in strongly conservative McHenry County, is home to many conservative Christians, who were opposed to the events on moral grounds. The application to hold the event there was at first denied but later allowed after support from mayor Aaron Shepley.  

Despite the numerous obstacles the event did host 12,000 participants and managed to break even, which was seen as a great success and an encouragement for the future.  

So Cologne is about 3 years away so the organizers have plenty of time to work out all of the kinks and hold the best event possible. The persistence of the event echoes the persistence of sport itself. A true athlete will compete no matter what obstacles stand in his/her way and the Gay Games has proven that the success is truly in the heart of the athletes.