MAIN FEATURE

We had a gay old time
10 years ago, nyc showcased gay sports

By Cyd Zeigler Jr.
Friday, June 25, 2004

While New York City celebrates the 35th anniversary of Stonewall this weekend, a group of New Yorker athletes celebrated another milestone last weekend.

On Friday, June 18, 10 years to the day after the opening ceremonies kicked off Gay Games IV which was, at the time, the largest gay sports event in history, organizers and participants gathered at the Center’s Annex for an evening of sharing stories and reminiscing about that hot week in June when the Gay Games came to New York.

Harold S. Levine, director of marketing for Gay Games IV, had never been involved in the Gay Games before 1994. He was drawn to it as a wonderful way to showcase New York and the thriving community here.

As a compliment to that showcase, organizers were due the week of the Gay Games to pull off a coup with the cover of Time magazine. However, a washed-up ex-football player-turned-actor speeding down a Los Angeles freeway put the kibosh on that.

Many organizers were missing from the celebration, like Gay Games IV Director of Operations Roz Quarto and Executive Director Jay Hill. Still, many more, living in the area, embraced the chance to reunite with old friends. While often harried, the organizers gathered at the reunion remembered the event with great fondness.

“It was really fun,” Levine said. “It was people from very different backgrounds who had never done anything like this before.”

Levine took his experience with the Gay Games and launched his own marketing and consulting firm focusing on the gay market. He has since had a role in the 1996 display of the AIDS Quilt, the last time the entire quilt was shown together, and the 2000 Millenium March in Washington.

Kathleen Webster, now female co-president of the Federation of Gay Games, came from Philadelphia to attend the reunion. She remembered the New York installment as the event that jump-started her decade-long relationship with the organization.

“It was such a wonderful part of my life that I will never forget,” Webster said. She added that, not only did the event launch her role with the Gay Games, but it also started lasting friendships like the one she shares with Federation of Gay Games Secretary Charlie Carson.

For Carson, who is a swimmer with Team New York Aquatics and was at the reunion, the fondest memories came from the pool, where more Masters world and national records were set than at any Gay Games before or since. The 55 divers still represents the largest group to date. Greg Louganis officially ‘came out’ and enjoyed his exhibition performance the first night of diving so much he decided to do it all over again two nights later.

Ruth Gursky, former head of Team New York, has long cherished Greg Louganis’ bold step out of the closet at Gay Games IV; she called it the highlight of her week. As a born-and-bred New Yorker, the closing ceremonies were quite special as well.

“We had Yankee stadium, which means so much to the history of New York and baseball and the world,” she said. “It was so great. There were gay flags all over the place.”

Gursky participated in track and field and swimming events. Despite not winning any medals — “I am the worst swimmer, and I am the worst runner,” she said — she did get to hand out medals at the men’s and women’s physique competition, as her fundraising efforts for the Gay Games earned her “gold medal” status.

“And I kissed every single winner,” she said.

While winning certainly has its thrill, the people at the reunion resounded the sentiment that so many walk away from the Gay Games with: the wonder of participation. No one talked about all the medals they won or the records they broke. The most lasting memories of the Gay Games, for these organizers and participants, were what happened off the track or field and out of the pool.

Both Carson and Gursky remembered one very special event in the pool, however, that had nothing to do with times and records. The Pink Flamingos is an annual event at the International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics Championships that involves ornate costumes and synchronized swimming.

“We definitely hit an emotional peak during the Pink Flamingo performance mid-week when 200 Team New York Aquatics teammates circled the pool in angel wings before our first team president, Rick Reynolds, himself now deceased, read the names of all IGLA members lost to AIDS since the Gay Games began,” Carson remembered. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”

Carson also remembered an oft-maligned participant as particularly key to the organization of the event: former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

“Mayor Giuliani really made a difference in our securing venues such as Yankee Stadium that otherwise might not have been available,” Carson said. “The Mayor’s office’s subsequent economic impact statement of the combined Gay Games and Stonewall 25 celebration reaping millions of dollars in benefit got the attention of city governments around the world.”

The event was not all roses for the
organizers, however. As have each of the last four Gay Games, the event in New York experienced a shortfall — of about $300,000. Given the $10 million overall budget of the event, it represented a mere 3 percent of operating cost. However, some of the organizers were forced into bankruptcy and the Games were blamed in the press for mismanagement.

Levine said their only error was a lack of diligence with vendors. Many vendors would put people in the field on the spot and ask them to make spending decisions. While the organizing committee was expecting a surplus at the closing of the event, without a strong purchase order system, $1,000 in the budget became $1,100 in bills over the coming weeks.

Levine pointed out that it is these same issues — on a much larger scale — that bankrupts so many Olympic host organizations.

Kevin Boyer, spokesperson for Chicago 2006, which will host the next Gay Games, was in attendance Friday evening to learn from the past organizers to ensure they host the first Gay Games in the black in 20 years, and to hear the stories that have built the colorful ongoing history of the Gay Games.

“We’re very proud that we’re not the first Gay Games, but that we’re part of a legacy,” Boyer said in reference to Chicago 2006.

Despite the financial problems organizers faced after the Games, Carson said the event will forever have a positive legacy.

“Gay Games IV continues to be cited by participants as one of the best in terms of the way the sports were organized, and I think that’s a tribute to the logistical efforts of Jay Hill, Roz Quarto, the New York in ‘94 staff, and the countless sports volunteers,” Carson said.

While Chicago will aim to break the legacy of financial woes associated with the Gay Games, they can be sure that the participants, whether they succeed or not, will be remembering the friendships they made long after the final bill is paid — or not paid.

about us

© 2008 |  HX Media, LLC  | Privacy Policy