More than 10,000 athletes from 70 countries descended upon Cologne, Germany, for the opening of Gay Games VIII on July 31. The week-long amateur athletic competition concludes on Aug. 7.
While many saw the opening ceremonies as subdued, others saw them as a historic moment in LGBT history when openly gay German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwell lit the traditional torch. His simple, eloquent statement to the massive crowd seemed to say it all: “We do not ask for privilege, we ask for respect.”
Sports featured in this year’s Gay Games range from the traditional figure skating, track and field and swimming to more elaborate ones like touch rugby and ballroom dancing. In all, more than 30 sports will be featured during the games.
Unfortunately, not all athletes were able to compete openly. Many have adopted false identiies because of fears of prosecution upon their return home.
“We want to demonstrate that the exclusion of gays and lesbians, especially in the sporting world, has to end,” Thorsten Moeck, of the organization committee, told the British newspaper The Guardian. “Among the represented countries are plenty in which it’s still an absolute taboo to out yourself.”
While most participants come from Germany and the US, the list of countries represented also include Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico and Zimbabwe.
Moeck said for many, including Mexico’s gay soccer team, whose identities have been deliberately kept secret, it would be a “unique opportunity” to be surrounded by fellow gays and lesbians.
Eastern European sportsmen and women, from countries where discrimination is more or less systematic, were invited to this year’s games for free.
The Gay Games first started in San Francisco in 1982 and takes place every four years. Its founding father was the openly gay decathlete Tom Waddell, who died of AIDS in 1987.
