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Greco-Romans: The
Golden Gate Wrestling team struts its stuff at New
York’s Games.
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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.”
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.
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