You can check out his progress on the Gay Games’ blog, including video entries from Andrew in Israel.

Share on Facebook

Eight years after the Outgames separated from the Gay Games and formed GLISA, the two organizations are internally discussing the creation of one quadrennial event, instead of each hosting their own event one year apart. One key organization, Team San Francisco, is drawing a line in the sand, requesting that the Federation of Gay Games maintain control over its quadrennial event and relegate the Outgames to regional events in South America, Asia and Africa. Team SF said in a letter last week to the FGG:

In 2009, the General Assembly discussions and the town hall discussions that followed clearly indicated a desire for a continuation of the Gay Games sports and cultural program as is, retention of site selection, and exploration of a possible small external conference component. That should have been the blueprint for the 1QE working group mandated in 2010. And yet, one year later, we have seen and heard little to indicate that it is.

Team SF and other groups like Wrestlers Without Borders adamantly oppose other Outgames initiatives like a human rights conference as a part of the one quadrennial event (though there could be some leeway for a simultaneous, separately organized conference). They also want to see only Federation of Gay Games General Assembly and Board members have a vote on site selection.

FGG spokesperson Kel Stevens said a letter from an FGG member group does not speak for the entire General Assembly:

The FGG 1QE [one quadrennial event] working group is committed to a united 2018 event with our friends in GLISA.  We are still very active in our work together.

The FGG General Assembly convenes in Toronto Oct. 23-25. The General Assembly will consider 10 motions regarding the one quadrennial event, most of which aim to limit the impact GLISA can have on the event and reaffirm the Gay Games as the premier global quadrennial LGBT sports event brand. The motions range from the forced naming of the event, the core sports of the event, the scope of the opening and closing ceremonies, and exclusive site selection for the FGG. The majority of the proposals are brought by FGG, Team SF and Wrestling Without Borders stalwart Gene Dermody and former FGG co-president Sion O’Connor.

Here is the full text of Team SF’s letter to the FGG:

Dear Federation of Gay Games Colleagues,

We are writing to urge you to retain the Gay Games name, program, and mission in 2018 and beyond; and to state our organizational opposition to any talks or actions to change the Gay Games name, or add a major conference or non-sports or arts component to the quadrennial Gay Games sports and cultural festival.

Team San Francisco (which, like the Federation of Gay Games itself, was born out of the legacy of the first two Gay Games in San Francisco) has actively participated in the discussions regarding the future of LGBT sports and the Gay Games that have engaged our global community for the past decade.  We have shared our views and concerns with our fellow athletes and artists as the dialogue regarding the 2018 Gay Games has evolved. We have on numerous occasions made support statements on a number of issues which we believe help advance the goals of continuing a strong Gay Games and helping the fractured global LGBT sports community achieve a stronger, saner calendar. Those previously advocated positions include:

• Restoration of the original EuroGames schedule to strengthen LGBT sports unity and branding in Western Europe
• Enthusiastic support of the development of GLISA’s continental Outgames in the under-served areas outside North America and Western Europe
• Encouragement of organizations to utilize the FGG’s membership options to join and help us all steer the future, and of individuals to step up in volunteer and board capacities to help shoulder the burden
• Possible establishment of an external, partnered conference event on LGBT sports issues to supplement the inestimable human rights mission inherent in the Gay Games sports and cultural program that over the course of time could grow organically as a self-sustaining enterprise

But what we have seen in the past two years is a sapping of collective resources in a Quixotic quest for appeasement in the name of One Quadrennial Event. Resources that could have been used to bolster host organizations and global advocacy of the Gay Games principles of Participation, Inclusion and Personal Best. Money and time that could have been used on fine-tuning our operations, building our brand and generating scholarship funds to reach more LGBT athletes and artists.

Enough.

The Gay Games have an extraordinary human rights legacy deep felt by all of us whose lives have been changed by the quadrennial coming together of artists and athletes to perform and compete. It is a unique legacy created through recreational athletes and artists, poor and rich, ordinary people striving to do something extraordinary together.
The sustainability of that legacy is deeply imperiled by the continued speculation over a “merged” event, discussions of handing over a portion of the site selection process, figuring out how to put on a mass conference program that is financially dicey at best and other such matters. Our supporters are being burned out on a quest for something they never requested.

In 2009, the General Assembly discussions and the town hall discussions that followed clearly indicated a desire for a continuation of the Gay Games sports and cultural program as is, retention of site selection, and exploration of a possible small external conference component. That should have been the blueprint for the 1QE working group mandated in 2010. And yet, one year later, we have seen and heard little to indicate that it is. Quite the contrary. The Federation was engaged in similar talks not so long ago and was fortunate to survive. Negotiations with Montreal dragged on for two years over disagreements in size and scope of the Games, and at the end of that we were asked to change entirely what we wanted in the event. We held firm and history has proven we made the right choice. Let’s not re-invent a battle already settled.

The Board of Team SF asks the Federation to:

• Move forward with the Gay Games RFP and site selection process, keeping the sports, ceremony and cultural programs intact and telling the prospective hosts conferences will not be part of the formula.
• Discuss through the 1QE working group or whatever other vehicle seems appropriate whether GLISA is interested in working on a sports-issue conference to be put on separately but in conjunction with Gay games XII and explore other potential partners whom might be interested in organizing it.
• Ask EGLSF what the FGG and its members can do to help promote the EuroGames in their original schedule of non-Gay Games years.
• Discuss with GLISA what the FGG can do to help promote continental Outgames outside of Western Europe and North America in non-Gay Games years.

Please hear what we, artists and athletes devoted to the Gay Games, are saying. Our best hope for sustaining the Gay Games human rights legacy is to continue to work to produce an affordable and diversely inclusive sports and cultural event, offering the best competition in the LGBT sports world, that breaks even.

It was a difference maker when Tom and his friends created it. Thirty years later, it still is.

Signed,

Tyler Cole, President, Team San Francisco
On behalf of the Team SF Board

* The writer uses the term ‘merger’ as a short cut (though some may balk at the term); It’s also used several times specifically in the General Assembly motions.

Share on Facebook

It’s impossible to rank certain of the moments over others so I’ve chosen to list them chronologically.  The key moments are heavily weighted to the 1980s and ‘90s simply because most of our firsts took place during those decades.

LGBT aquatics still has some firsts to accomplish, notably in Latin America, Africa and mainland Asia, but IGLA is an indicator of stability and success – IGLA’s current membership totals more than 60 teams in 15 countries.  As well, there are a number of other predominantly LGBT swimming teams around the world not in IGLA that take part in local and regional competitions, spreading the same messages of LGBT sport as they go.

1.  Gay Games I, 1982. None of us knew who and how many would show up for swimming and diving that August in San Francisco – and 125 enthusiastic and somewhat giddy people did.  We competed in odd age groups with uneven officiating in an unconventional format of prelims for two days and finals the following two nights.  It was OK for this first meet because we were preoccupied out of the water getting to know each other: “I swam with [blank].  Our coach was [fantastic/pathetic].”  “Did you know [so and so]?”  “I did!  Did you think [he/she] was gay?”  Most competitors were from Los Angeles and San Francisco with others from cities such as Boston, Honolulu, Minneapolis, New York, San Diego and Sydney.  Rafael Montijo (Los Angeles) and Morri Spang (Minneapolis) led a meeting after the second day of prelims to formalize a network and agree that future competitions would follow standard Masters rules.  Rafael became the official points-person for names and addresses of LGBT swimmers and groups around the world.

2.  Beginning of IGLA, Gay Games II, 1986. News of Gay Games I spread widely – 400 swimmers and divers competed using standard Masters rules and age groups in the 25-yard outdoor pool at Laney College in Oakland.  Faster swimmers showed up, including several who’d competed in NCAA Division I.  But the key aquatics moment of this second Gay Games took place at a team leaders’ meeting in which we decided we were having too much fun to wait another four years to gather again.  We decided to start an annual championship tournament and San Diego agreed to be the first host.  Although it took until the next year at that first annual meet to plan for an organization name, bylaws and officers, the team leaders’ meeting at Gay Games II was the genesis of International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics (IGLA).

3.  First world records, Gay Games III, 1990. Michael (Mike) Mealiffe of West Hollywood Aquatics set the first world Masters records in LGBT competitions, breaking the existing marks in the 50-54 age group in the 50 and 100 m. butterfly races (long course).  Mike’s accomplishment stopped Gay Games critics from the casual dismissal that LGBT competitions weren’t “real sports.”

4.  Bruce Hayes, first Olympic medalist, Gay Games III, 1990. A number of prominent Olympians from several countries have taken part in LGBT aquatics over the years, but Bruce – anchor leg of the U.S.’ gold medal winning 4 x 200 m. freestyle “Grossbusters” relay from 1984 – was the first.  Bruce competed at Vancouver’s 1990 Gay Games and went on to set five Masters world marks in his hometown of New York at Gay Games IV in 1994, including being the first Masters swimmer to break four minutes in the 400 m. freestyle (short course).  Bruce has been a prominent spokesman for the LGBT community ever since and continues training and competing today.

5.  Pink Flamingo relay/skits, Gay Games III, 1990. The Pink Flamingo show at the IGLA Championships and Gay Games is now a much-anticipated, ticketed entertainment that has literally brought many once-skeptical meet officials, parents and friends completely around to supporting LGBT teams.  First, some New Yorkers cross-dressed for fun at pool events during Gay Games I and II and showed up costumed to swim joke relays at the first IGLA Championships in 1987.  Then, Vancouver hosted a dual meet with Seattle swimmers and used plastic pink lawn flamingos as relay batons.  Seattle went on to host a Pink Flamingo Relay event at their Northwest Gay & Lesbian Sportsfest which drew swimmers from around North America, and the Pink Flamingo Relay became a feature at IGLA’s annual championships.  At Vancouver’s 1990 Gay Games Pink Flamingo event, several dozen teams showed up ready to go, parading around the English Bay Aquatic Centre in outfits ranging from Madonna’s cone bra to Robert Palmer’s sashaying models, leather mermen to Ariel the Little Mermaid, costumed superheroes to Salem witches on roller skates, and the now-legendary “That Girl” Marlos – 40 of them – from New York.  As West Hollywood’s Tom Wilson, himself a prominent Pink Flamingo participant, said in 1994, everything about the Pink Flamingo came together at Gay Games III.  It’s been a source of silliness, notoriety, photo ops and pride ever since.

6.  EuroGames II in The Hague, 1993. This first LGBT aquatics championship held in Europe is the key moment swimmers in the continent were inspired to begin their own swimming teams.  Continental swimmers fought their own battles within Masters circles, notably reversing an initial rejection of Brussels’ gay team when it sought membership in the Belgian swimming association.  The 2004 EuroGames in Munich held the largest predominantly-European LGBT aquatics competition, and today there are out teams even in eastern European countries.

7.  Greg Louganis, Gay Games IV, 1994. Two years after solidifying his reputation as the greatest diver of all time at the Barcelona Olympic Games, Greg came out in carefully-planned but no less riveting fashion during Gay Games IV.  The gold medal comeback story of Greg’s head injury hitting the board in Barcelona’s 3 m. springboard competition not only was still fresh in the world’s mind but took on new relevance.  He already was a symbol of Olympic excellence and that year Greg became a face for HIV-positive people everywhere.  An HIV+ diagnosis was still particularly grim in 1994 – protease inhibitors didn’t come to market until 1995 – and Greg’s presence during the reading of aquatics participants’ names lost to AIDS since Gay Games I took on special poignancy.  Greg had so much fun during his exhibition performance in a packed, supportive house the first night of diving that he agreed to do it again the second night.

8.  Synchronized swimming added to IGLA competitions, 1995. Montreal’s À Contre-Courant team added synchronized swimming when they hosted the 1985 IGLA Championships.  LGBT synchro teams are regularly profiled in the media at Masters competitions around the world.  The teams are a mix of men and women but the all-male teams have been a bit of a ground-breaking novelty – there are almost no all-male teams except those who formed through the LGBT ranks.  Particular credit goes to the groups in Paris and San Francisco who have trained and competed consistently since this discipline was added to the aquatics schedule.

9.  First inclusion of sexual orientation in nondiscrimination language of a national aquatics organization’s bylaws, USA Water Polo, 1999. In January 1999, USA Water Polo added “sexual orientation” to the nondiscrimination language of its Diversity Vision Statement.  To the best of our knowledge, this was a first by an national aquatics governing body.  That it was initially accomplished by a water polo group – a bastion of macho toughness – makes the symbolism even more significant.

10.  FINA decision to deny world records at Gay Games 2010 and Asia-Pacific Outgames 2011. Things have been so steadily positive and bright in recent years for the LGBT aquatics movement that FINA’s decision not to recognize Masters marks set at Cologne’s Gay Games and Wellington’s Outgames has been a bit stunning.  Efforts to reverse this decision are ongoing as it appears arbitrary – officiating in Cologne and, to my understanding, Wellington was every bit as professional as at New York’s Gay Games IV in 1994 when sixteen world Masters marks were set and FINA recognized them all.

Share on Facebook

Gay Games I medalists

Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history.

Multisports, 1982: Dr. Tom Waddell was an Olympic decathlete who had a dream of holding a sports event geared to gay and lesbians, to shatter the stereotype of what being an athlete meant. He was thwarted in his attempts to call them the Gay Olympics and instead settled on Gay Games. The first were held in San Francisco from Aug. 28 to Sept. 2, 1982. There were 1,350 athletes from 10 countries competing in 17 sports.

The Opening Ceremonies were held in Kezar Stadium (once the home of the 49ers) and “Tales of the City” author Armistead Maupin was the master of ceremonies and Tina Turner performed. Gene Dermody, a longtime force in the Federation of Games, and a gay sports pioneer remembers that day vividly, writing in 2002:

“It is hard after these 20 years, being so jaded, to convey the absolute feeling of liberation and joy I felt that day at Kezar Stadium. I have never experienced that level of exhilaration since. As preparations were being made inside the stadium, some 1300 athletes mulled outside for some three hours, in the typical cool fog of San Francisco. We could hear the wild cheering inside, but were not yet sure what they were excited about. Could it be ‘us’?.  Many ‘travel-challenged’ like me, who thought California summer weather was hot and humid, arrived dressed only in shorts, t-shirts, and back-packs, not prepared for the 50 degree cold winds.

But we didn’t notice our goose bumps. We were too busy checking out the other athletes (where did they all come from?). Like the kids we never allowed ourselves to be, we were soon making new friends, sizing up the caliber of competition, and networking with our alter egos.  The buzz was incessant, but it was a markedly ‘different’ banter for this group: “Where did you wrestle?  Who was coaching at Bakersfield? What weight would Blakeley compete at? How much weight did you cut? Would Title IX kill Princeton’s program? When are the weigh-ins? “..etc… It was as if -everyone- was finally speaking ‘my’ language, and I had finally found ‘my’ lost tribe!

As we were ushered into the stadium by ‘city’ for the ‘March of the Athletes’, I was handed one of the New York City flags to lead Team NY’s athletes. We heard the ‘Olympic Theme’ (was it Chariots of Fire or the other John Williams piece? I don’t remember), but a warm sun ominously exploded out from behind the clouds, as if on queue, to announce the entry of gods into Valhalla. I vividly remember Tina Turner singing on stage, and my crying profusely for no apparent reason. I had finally come ‘home’ after a very long exile.”

I asked longtime gay sports activist Roger Brigham for his recollections. Brigham ran into Gay Games bureaucracy and was not allowed to wrestle in competition. But he still remembers the import of the first Gay Games.

The words Waddell spoke have long faded from my memory, but what remains etched in my mind was the he was clearly an articulate visionary. He saw things as they should be and worked to make them so. And that day he spoke about all that those who had stepped up to compete had done to change the world through their actions. In this sense, it was unlike many of the other “most important” moments in LGBT sports history: there was real self-awareness that what was happening was different, that having been done, nothing would be the same again.

In his opening remarks, Waddell captured the theme that has sustained the Gay Games through nearly 30 years of changes:

Welcome to a dream that is now reality.

Welcome to a celebration of freedom.

These Gay Games, the first of their kind, are offered to Gay and enlightened people from all over the world. They are a departure from other events of this scope and magnitude in that the underlying philosophy is one of self-fulfillment and a spirit of friendship.

This is a first; it is our beginning, and as such, we expect these Games to set a solid precedent for future Games that are exemplary for wholesome and healthy athletics, devoid of the notion that beating someone is the sole criterion for winning. Participation makes us all winners.

I have been to all six Gay Games since 1990 and continue to be inspired by the vision and example set by Waddell.

For more information:

• Gay Games history
• Gene Dermody essay on the gay sports movement
• Gay Games I photo gallery

Share on Facebook

Pairs bodybuilding

Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history.

Multisports, 1990: After being held twice in San Francisco, the Gay Games got more international when they were staged Aug. 4-11 in Vancouver. These were the first Gay Games I attended and I was hooked; I have been to every one since.

The Opening and Closing ceremonies were held in BC Place Stadium, which is 2010 was the site of the Winter Olympics ceremonies. About 7,300 athletes competed in 27 sports, including me.

I played center on the L.A. Motion flag football team, but we were in Canada and played Canadian rules. This meant touch football, not flag, and the chance to get a 1-point “rouge” by kicking the ball into or out of the end zone and having it not returned. We had a soccer player as our kicker, but despite his best efforts we never did get a rouge, which was a bummer. The football competition was small (only four teams since no one outside of Canada or the U.S. played) but we had a blast nonetheless. My L.A. team took silver, losing to San Francisco and our team was a hotbed of drama and sexual tension captured in the book “The Huddle” by Dan Boyle, one of my teammates.

The whole Vancouver experience was awesome. The city is beautiful and the people were incredibly friendly and inviting. And with relatively fewer athletes than in future Games, it was also more cozy and intimate and it became a lot easier to meet people from other sports and countries. Vancouver still had the best Gay Games meeting place — each night, BC Place became an athletes’ only (and their friends, partners or hookups) venue with several dance floors, great food and tons of liquor. No other Gay Games venue has come close to replicating it.

Gay Games III was my coming out as a gay athlete and I always have a warm feeling when I remember those seven days in August.

For more information:

• Gay Games III photo gallery
• Federation of Gay Games

Share on Facebook

Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history.

Sports, 1987: When former Olympic decathlete Tom Waddell wanted to start a multisport competition for gay and lesbian athletes, his original name was the Gay Olympics. But that did not sit well with the  U.S. Olympic Committee, which  sued to stop its use. The USOC suit forced Waddell to change the name of the event to the Gay Games less than three weeks before the first one was held in 1982.

What was galling to Waddell and supporters was that the USOC allowed the Rat Olympics and Dog Olympics to continue while denying the use of the term to gays. In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court had the final say and ruled in favor of the USOC.

In a 7-to-2 vote, the Court rejected arguments that the committee’s broad legal monopoly over use of the generic word ”olympic,” as granted by Congress, violated the First Amendment’s protection of free speech. It also denied that the gay group had a constitutional right to use the word to promote its games to convey a political statement about the status of homosexuals in society. …

Justice [Lewis] Powell held that the evidence of discrimination was debatable but that in any event the actions of the Olympic Committee, as a Congressionally chartered private corporation, were not ”Government actions.” Constitutional provisions against discrimination apply only to Government actions.

Waddell died of AIDS two weeks after the Supreme Court ruling. But his legacy lives on with the Gay Games, which has been held every four years since 1982 and is now an established event on the sports scene. The USOC has also changed and since the 1990s has had a good working relationship with the Federation of Gay Games.

For more information:

• New York Times on the Supreme Court ruling in the Gay Games case
• Federation of Gay Games website
• Tom Waddell resource page

Share on Facebook

Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history.

Gay sports, 2003: It was not an amicable divorce. In 2001, the Federation of Gay Games awarded the 2006 Gay Games to Montreal. Just two years later, after charges and countercharges, the contract was still not signed and Chicago was awarded the 2006 event. Montreal went on to form the World OutGames.

The Chicago Gay Games had its closing ceremonies on July 22, 2006. Just a week later, the OutGames had its opening ceremonies. The closeness of the dates meant that the vast majority of athletes had to choose one or the other. The result was a Gay Games that was mostly American, and an OutGames that was heavily Canadian and European.

The OutGames was a big success in terms of the the logistics  but a financial disaster. The organizing committee ran up a deficit of $5.3 million, and owed $2.2 million to creditors (including Outsports); it later filed for bankruptcy. In contrast, the Chicago Gay Games broke even.

The second OutGames in 2009 in Copenhagen was well-run with great facilities, but it was marred by a gay bashing the night of the opening ceremonies and an explosives attack at the track venue that injured one runner.

The 2013 World OutGames are set for Antwerp, Belgium.

For more information:

• World OutGames 2013
• A look at the Gay Games-OutGames split

Share on Facebook

According to Roger Brigham of the Bay Area Reporter, the City of Cleveland will pay CSF $475k in the settlement. He will have a full report on the settlement in the BAR on Thursday.

Also: Ross Forman’s full story at the Windy City Times.

Share on Facebook

Morgan with Gay Games medals

Heavily decorated openly gay powerlifter Chris Morgan won the best lifter title at this year’s British championships. Lifting in the 180-pound class at the “single event” championships, he made lifts of 462 pounds, 526 pounds and 550 pounds.

This is Morgan’s sixth British championship win during his career, with him completing back to back British, World and Gay Games titles over this last year.

“I’m delighted to have defended both my British Open and Best Lifter titles at this year’s British deadlift championships,” Morgan said. “I’m really pleased to have completed back to back British titles, something I’ve never actually managed to achieve before. This has been one of my most difficult training cycles ever in preparation for this championship due to illness and I’m really grateful to have come through without any serious injuries.

“Following my retirement from full powerlifting events at the Gay Games in Cologne last year, I’d like to confirm my plans to compete solely in deadlift competitions from now on. I’m very grateful for all the support and encouragement from all of my colleagues in the England Team and of course all of my friends at the Federation of Gay Games after taking this decision.”

Chris Morgan can be reached via e-mail.

Share on Facebook

The first in the series is Roger Brigham, whose impact has been felt in the sports media, gay-sports organizations and reaching high school athletes both gay and straight. His trailblazing has spanned 30 years, all amidst major health concerns. He’s an amazing guy with an inspiring story.

Share on Facebook