The Gay Olimpics

The gay olimpics. Has anyone heard anything about them, there has been alot of talk on the radio about kraft catching shit because they are sponsering them but i think they should support or way of life

 

Wait, they don't have GLB integrated into the olympics in any way?

 

yeah when they were in sydney in 2002 i went with a friend. it was ok. but i was sick and it was shit hot. but i saw the hockey and some other sports i think. it's the gay games. like the olympics but with gay people. i'm pretty sure there's a website about it. do a google on it. worth checking out. hot gay people playing sports, come on!!

 

The "regular" Olympics Association has forbidden the gay version to use the word "Olympics," so the event is known as the Gay Games. They will be held in July 2006 in Chicago.

The American Family Association (AFA) has called for a boycott of Kraft because of Kraft's support of the games.

There have been lgb people (I haven't heard anything about trans) in the "regular" Olympics, but they are usually fairly low profile. Most athletes at that level spend most of their time training and competing, and they are very, very focused on that. They are highly unlikely to get involved in much social or political activism. Olympic athletes are generally amateurs, and so they want to sign sponsorship deals after the games. This may be another reason why some Olympic athletes are reluctant to come out.

Martina Navratilova actually got a sponsorship deal *because of* being a lesbian. It was mentioned in a recent issue of the Advocate. This is a rare exception.

 

why would gay people want a separate olympics?

 

Do they do events like the dong-suck-a-thon or something?

 

A very good, and inappropiate, question...

 

Actually, it's a pride sort of thing.

 

Or the cock vault, maybe.

 

Now that, was a humourous suggestion.

 

15-22 July. In Chicago. They have all of the same events that regular Olympics & I think a couple of more. Sorry not the ones mentioned, you silly boys.

I in fact am thinking of riding a cycling event, maybe time trial if I can afford the entry fee. They are more open & have no tryout qualifications that the Olympics do. They also accept transgendered which I bet isn't an accepted quality in the Olympics.

From their website

If you want more information here's the Gay Games Chicago link.

 

I think its ok to have the gay games. . . but I think having the gay olympics is absurd. In fact. . . I tolerate gay games, but I don't endorse it. Why do we argue for inclusion, and then create events that only serve to segregate ourselves?

 

Gay Olympics is a bad idea because that will gie the media another opportunity to find the biggest flamer of the bunch and put him on the 6 o'clock news. Will inevibly put a bad image on gays (its not as if we already have 1 )

 

I am guessing that they were started in part because of the exclusion in past of people who were out(ed). I guess that the official sanctioning board is now recognizing transgendered within criteria but I am quite sure that in the past if you didn't test right cromozonailly (sp?) you were out.

Then again there is the whole proving to the world that we are strong & proud & some of us are proficient in martial arts.

It seems to me that even though the small minded media may find someone that is a bit over the top anyone who actually sees any of the serious atheletes will have at least an opportunity to see that sexual preferance or gender identity has little to do with weakness as so many of them think.

The local economy will get a huge boost from this. I bet that the hotels alone in Chicacgo are thrilled as a hog in mud that the games are going to be there. I'm sure that many of the athelets are going to be obvious at being atheletes. The buisness owners are going to know that they are there for the games. Money talks, Large amounts of money gathered from a large group of people makes business owners happy. They will have a more positive concept of GLBT folks than they may have had before.

The fact that they are so inclusional tells me that they are about getting together as a group & celebrating our bodies, our strengths, & just plain being around a mass group of like minded people that many have hot bodies.

I just read through the welcome page again. There is nothing there that says that you have to be GLBT. I suppose that there are going to be many nonGLBT that wouldn't choose to participate but there isn't anything that says that you have to be. It isn't segregational.

 

If anything, the Gay Games are a chance to counteract some of the stereotypes.

 

It would be much more effective to combat stereotypes while integrating yourself with mainstream America, rather than segregating yourself.

How many bigots will be watching the gay games?

 

I agree that integrating is an effective strategy, but there are probably some LGBT athletes who might not feel comfortable enough to do that. It's the old "safety in numbers" thing.

Large numbers of LGBT athletes make a powerful statement. The bigots can disregard one or even two of us as an exception, but getting so many together in one place is difficult to ignore.

I don't think it's just the bigots we need to reach. There are lots of lesbian and gay and bi and trans people who could benefit from seeing a wider variety of LGBT people. We all see the stereotypes, but we don't often get the wider picture. I can understand how LGBT athletes might want to meet other LGBT athletes.

No, the bigots probably won't be watching and that's OK. Some of the bigots are so hardcore that it might not matter much what we do. The Gay Games is an event that will probably do more good for LGBT people, and I don't think that's a bad thing.

 

They should do the "Anal Duration" event. See what homo sexual can encounter and endure the most ass pounding. Duration would be the determining factor. Kind a like a marathon for the rectum, if you will.

 

Actually, the 2006 Gay Games were originally going to be held in Montreal. But due to a bitter split between the Federation of Gay Games (FOGG) and the organizing committee of the Montreal games, there will be TWO international gay athletic extravaganzas -- with the majority of athletes heading for Montreal for the first International OutGames. The Montreal committee has since evolved into a rival Gay and Lesbian International Sports Association (GLISA).

Seems that FOGG failed to take into account the fact that the U.S. government's ban on any foreign nationals who are HIV-positive from entering the U.S. is still in force. And the Bush administration has no intention of lifting the ban.

That is leading to a boycott of the Chicago Gay Games in favor of the Montreal OutGames in protest against the U.S. ban on HIV-positive athletes.

-- Skeeter

 

You're a generation too late. The Gay Games have been around for almost a quarter-century. The first Games were held in San Francisco in 1982. I attended the opening ceremonies for those first Gay Games at San Francisco's Kezar Stadium (Which used to house the 49ers before they moved to Candlestick Park). like the Olympics, the Gay Games are held every four years, onthe same year as the World Cup soccer tournament:

1982 -- San Francisco
1986 -- San Francisco
1990 -- Vancouver
1994 -- New York
1998 -- Amsterdam
2002 -- Sydney

-- Skeeter