Singer Tina Turner was the main draw at the opening ceremony in San Francisco for the first Gay Games in 1982, but city supervisor Doris Ward received perhaps the biggest reaction from the crowd. “She said, ‘I would like to invite you all to the very first Gay Olympics, ‘”, Recalls Jim Hahn, one of some 1,300 competitors in the inaugural event. “And the place has gone crazy.”
But the Gay Games I, which ran from August 28 to September 5, 1982, faced many challenges, including the US Olympic Committee’s lawsuit banning the event from using the name “Gay Olympics”. The lawsuit was a microcosm of the discrimination dealt with by the LGBT community, which continued to carve out a place for openly queer people in American society.
“There were the Rat Olympics, there were the Xerox Olympics, there were the Police Olympics. You could have the Olympics for anything, ”says Shamey Cramer, a swimmer who co-led the Los Angeles team in the first Games,“ but God forbid, you should be gay or lesbian.
The USOC succeeded in blocking official use of the term “Olympic,” but the lawsuit galvanized support for the Games, especially among the gay community.
Participants at today’s inaugural event remember the Gay Games I as a defining moment for gay athletes around the world. “When I enter the [Gay Games] opening ceremonies, ”says Hahn,“ I always have that sense of history that comes back. “
Former US Olympian helps organize gay games
Former US Olympian Dr Tom Waddell was one of the main organizers of the first Gay Games. A two-sports athlete in college, Waddell, who died of AIDS in 1987, was still locked up in 1968, when he placed sixth in the decathlon at the Mexico City Summer Olympics. Waddell advised American sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith in their public statements about their Black Power salute, one of the most notable events in the history of the sport.
Like many other LGBT athletes, Waddell wanted to make a similar and powerful statement with an event for gay athletes.
READ MORE: 8 Memorable Manifestations Of American Athletes
“You were either a drag queen or in the leather community, those were the stereotypes that were presented to the public at the time,” says Rick Thoman, a track athlete who participated in the first Gay Games. “They never thought we could be athletic and gay at the same time.”
A number of gay and lesbian sports leagues emerged in the 1970s as the LGBT community gradually entered mainstream society. Yet many outlets for gay athletes, namely the bowling and billiards leagues, were still linked to the bars that had served as havens for decades.
“The Games offer another place to ‘hang out’ besides a dark bar,” said Jill Ramsay, head of swimming and diving at the first Games. Bay Area Journalist, one of the country’s first gay newspapers, in 1982.
READ MORE: Harvey Milk, icon of the gay community
Like the campaigns of gay politician Harvey Milk, a well-known community organizer, the first Gay Games were a popular project. Ahead of the Games, a group of lesbian volunteers repaired Kezar Stadium, one of the main venues and former home of the San Francisco 49ers. Waddell used an ironing board as a makeshift registration table for the Games on a street corner in Castro, a hub of San Francisco’s gay community. Waddell said the first Gay Games were run on a modest budget: $ 220,000.
How are the first games going?
Shamey Cramer was instrumental in organizing the Gay Games after the inaugural event in 1982.
Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
At Gay Games I, teams were organized by city, each designing their own uniform. Age groups were not standardized and teams for relays and other team sports were often organized on an ad hoc basis.
Future games would be more organized, but these competitions have retained several crucial elements from the first Games: athletes of all levels and orientations are welcome, and winning is not considered as important as setting a personal best. Participants ranged from elite athletes to novices.
Charlie Carson, a swimmer who came from New York for the Gay Games I in 1982, remembers meeting a young Australian swimmer who had never competed against others. During the warm-up, Carson and others gave him advice on the intricacies of each shot to make sure he wouldn’t be disqualified.
READ MORE: Explore the history of the LGBTQ movement in America
In addition to boxing, basketball, swimming, and a number of other traditional Olympic sports, the Gay Games included billiards, bowling, and a physics competition held at the historic Castro Theater. For two weeks, the venues around San Francisco were hubs of activity, with restaurants, shops, and nightclubs in the Castro neighborhood offering specials for athletes.
Attendance was poor at first, participants say, but increased as the Games progressed. About 10,000 spectators attended the opening ceremony at Kezar Stadium. One participant estimates that between 6,000 and 7,000 fans attended the closing ceremony. Extensive coverage of the early Games was only found in the Journalist from the Bay Area.
Pioneer of a new tradition
Greg Louganis, one of the best divers in Olympic history, publicly revealed he was gay at the Gay Games in 1994.
Pascal Rondeau / ALLSPORT
Thanks to the efforts of Cramer, Hahn, Carson, Thoman and many others, the Gay Games have been held every four years since 1982, with recent editions attracting a comparable number of athletes to the Olympics and Paralympics. Carson remains proud of the impact of the Gay Games on the Olympics and the world of sport in general.
“We were not oblivious to the fact that what we were doing at the first Games was revolutionary,” he says.
Six years after the first Gay Games, horseman Robert Dover became the first openly gay athlete to compete in the modern Olympics. Olympic gold medalist Bruce Hayes came out publicly during his participation in the Gay Games III in 1990. Four years later, diver Greg Louganis stepped out at the opening ceremony of the Gay Games IV. According to Outdoor sports, there were at least 185 openly LGBT athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The Games also led to a boom in the formation of gay sports clubs across America. “People went back to their community, and gay sports came out of the woods,” says Thoman, who is still a member of an athletics club that formed following the Games.
“[The Games] gave me confidence to be who I really am, ”he adds. “To be able to be an athlete and be gay was just a huge burst of pride. ”
