Chatting
to some straight friends before I left, one of them asked in a narrow minded
manner, why gay people needed to have their own gay Olympics, how did the
participants prove that they were gay and could the event be classified as
sexual discrimination because you couldn’t have a “Straight Games” equivalent. It's
the same sort of question that some people have been known to ask about the Mr
Gay competitions, you couldn't have a Mr Straight UK yet you can have a Mr Gay
UK.
At
the end of the day it's just a bit of fun. The Gay Games isn't a gay equivalent
of the Olympics at all, it's a sport orientated event aimed towards gay pride, participation, celebration
and personal best. The sporting
events are open to everyone, whether you are gay, straight, in-between or
unclassified, it’s basically just a good excuse for LGBT people around the
world to come together, become a stronger community, while competing in their
favourite sport and meeting new like minded friends. It’s very unlike the
Olympics where participants have to compete in their own country first and then
only the elite of each go on to compete. With the Gay Games, anyone can enter
any event they want, whether you’re a novice or pro. You needn’t be any good at
the sport either, it’s about participation. Some athletes even got dressing up
in wild costumes to compete in. The mix between fun and serious competitiveness
is what makes the games unique, although it can be distracting on those
entrants who are intent on achieving personal best or a medal-winning
position.
Age
wasn’t an issue either; there were people with ages ranging from 18 – 89 taking
part. Each sport usually had 5 different age medial categories for both males
and females. Gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded for these and they
were all well deserved from the fantastic talent displayed, but it was the
participation medal which most people really entered for.
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Twenty
years on from the first Gay Games held in San Francisco, it's now grown into one
of, if not the, world's greatest gay event. It’s actually bigger than the
Olympics if you’re comparing, with over 13,000 athletes taking part. They
travelled in from more than 70 countries, and competed in 31 different sports.
A guy called Tom Waddell started it in 1982, he has since sadly passed away,
but his dream was a sporting event based on the philosophy that "doing
one's personal best should be the paramount goal in any athletic
endeavour." Sarah, his former partner said at
the closing ceremony of this year’s event “I think the highlight for me over
the whole seven days was the opening ceremony, watching India and Pakistan
walking in, arm in arm. That’s what we’re all about: teaching the world.”
One
of the sports which I took part in was the Triathlon, even though I’d never
done a triathlon ever before in my life. While doing it I met up with a lovely
lady from California, Megan Dwyer who told me she was a 10 year veteran of the
sport. Surprisingly she also said how she’d only just finished chemotherapy
treatment for breast cancer less than 5 weeks beforehand. She and her
girlfriend of 7 years had been planning to come to the Games to compete for the
past 2 years. “As soon as we could sign up for the Games we did” she said, “I
do triathlons one or two times a year and I thought what better place to do one
than
Gay
Games VII (7) will be held in
Find
out more info at either the Sydney 2002 web site www.sydney2002.org.au
or the Montreal 2006 web site www.Montreal2006.org
For
a pdf map of
