Athletics and Activism

Ann Northrop, a freelance journalist, is an AIDS and lesbian activist and a

member of the board of directors of Gay Games IV and Cultural Festival.

BY A N N N OR THRO P

EVERAL YEARS AGO, soon after I joined the board of directors of Gay Games IV and Cultural Festival, fellow board member Lee Hudson and I were discussing our reasons for devoting so much time to producing this event. Lee wrapped it up.

"I know there are going to be a lot of athletes running around doing a lot of sports things," she said, "but really, this is an eight-day demonstration!" As it turns out, it's even bigger than that.

Think about it. All year long, for all our outness and loudness and proudness and parades, we are generally seen as individuals trying to integrate ourselves into a larger, diverse population. But for these few days in June, the Gay Games define us as a coherent, diverse population of our own, asserting our right to celebrate ourselves-not ask for someone else's approval. It is the ultimate manifestation of self-esteem.

That's pretty abstract, so let's see how it plays out concretely. Some examples of the groundbreaking effect the Games are having:

• To begin with, in July 1993 we held an historic fund-raising dinner and dance honoring special guest Martina Navratilova at New York's Madison Square Garden. For the first time, and for a solid week, the marquee outside the Garden, on heavily traveled Seventh Avenue, advertised "A Lesbian and Gay Tribute...."

• Two New York City mayors, a Democrat and a Republican, have repeated-

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ly endorsed and supported the Games publicly, and have made their administrations available to the event.

Public parks, college gyms, the National Tennis Center (site of the U.S. Open), and a gorgeous new public swimming facility are among our 30-

some venues.

• Private facilities (even some New Jersey bowling lanes) have welcomed us, and our money, with open arms.

Corporate sponsors have set new records of support for the gay and lesbian community.

HAT ALL THIS means is a great leap forward in establishing our place in this world. Of course, I cringe at the to spend thought that we have two seconds justifying our existence. But the fact is that through the Games we have succeeded in making those who have paid us lip service for years actually follow through. Sometimes it's amazingly easy, which just makes us laugh happily. Sometimes it's harder, but that just makes our victories so much more satisfying. Sometimes we hit brick walls, and that is depressing. But even then we know that just presenting ourselves as normal, natural, and legitimate will pay off down the road, if not immediately.

More of the new clout the Games have brought us:

We have asked New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner to give us Yankee Stadium for our spectacular closing ceremonies, anticipating 65,000 cheering queers. It would be right in the middle of baseball season, on a weekend when the Yankees are out of town, so there are all sorts of

GAY GAMES IV

practical considerations about trampling the field, and so on. We may get it, we may not, and it will be expensive if we do. But the mere fact of the negotiation, and all the major political figures in New York who are supporting us, has placed us in a new category of power and influence among people who, no doubt, joke about us all the time behind our backs.

• When Magic Johnson revealed his HIV infection, we immediately positioned the Games with the press as the only event that openly and happily celebrated the participation of athletes with HIV and AIDS. We were quoted as experts, even in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

• When Miller Beer signed on to the Games as a corporate sponsor and designed an advertising campaign featuring Games participants, we made sure athletes with HIV or AIDS were included.

. When the U.S. Congress, in an orgy of hate and bigotry, passed a law barring people with HIV from entering this country, we decided to take them on directly. We knew that most infected people would continue to travel easily, not declaring their HIV status, and that only those visibly affected would be discriminated against. We went to the Health and Human Services Department and to the State and Justice departments and asked for a waiver. They listened.

E EVENTUALLY succeeded in getting the federal government to grant Gay Games participants and spectators a waiver to the HIV-exclusion rule. By raising the issue, and directly challenging the hideous stupidity of Congress, we have used the Games as an opportunity to address issues of HIV and AIDS.

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We played by their rules. We The Gay Games define us

didn't try to cheat. We didn't try to ignore the situation, as every other ma-

jor event or conference does. Did Ma-

jor League Baseball ask for a waiver for fans or players from Toronto who wanted to travel here for last year's World's Series in Philadelphia? Has the World Cup asked for a waiver for the hundreds of thousands of players and fans coming here from around the

as a coherent, diverse

population, asserting our

right to celebrate ourselves-

world this summer? Is anyone so naive not ask for someone else's

as to think that none of those people have HIV or AIDS?

Our honesty has provoked a response. Someone in the State Department, probably trying to sabotage us, leaked to the press the fact that the feds were about to grant us this waiver. That made national news-and produced a depressing but predictable reaction from some members of the public and from conservative members of Congress, who then threatened the Clinton administration with dire punishments if the waiver was granted.

We have now spent more time than we care to think about on radio call-in shows defending this waiver, offering us lots of chances to discuss the issues.

These are just a few examples of the expansion of the lesbian and gay agenda that we can credit directly to Gay Games IV.

We who are producing the Games day-to-day tell ourselves we're taking long vacations when this is over. In fact my recommendation to the community is that we all take a year off, and then start again with renewed energy.

But realistically I know we're not going to get any breather, because the Games and Stonewall 25 and everything around them are kicking open doors we can't even imagine, and the people who are fighting us are hysterical. Because they know we're winning.♥

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approval. It is the ultimate

manifestation of self-esteem.