Celebrating The Sporting Life I did a lot more sports stuff this year than I have for a while and I was glad to get an invitation to the GLBT Historical Society's party to celebrate the most recent update to their current exhibit, "The Sporting Life." The newest additions to the exhibit which runs through December 14th 2006 was mostly ephemera from this summer's international LGBT sporting events, Gay Games VII and Canada's Out Games 1. The exhibit is curated by my pal Jim Provenzano and I was excited to see him after missing him a couple of times in Chicago last July. It seemed like most of the people were somehow affilliated with Team SF (Gay Games) or Equipe SF (Canadian Out Games). As a special treat for party goers, we got a tour of the archives

My pal Mark and the first Bingham Cup were well represented.

The Gay Olympic Games

It was cool to see medals from all of the Gay Games. They even had some of the original materials with the word "olympic" crossed out at the last minute because the homophobic IOC sued them to stop them from using the word.

I thought the exhibit could have done more to explain this controversy and how it almost stopped the games from happening at all. If there was something, I missed it.

Gay Games V in Amsterdam

I got so sentimental seeing all the red and gold materials for Gay Games V in Amsterdam. By far, it still remains the best gay event I've ever attended.

I realize they had financial scandal and controversy, but from an attendance stand-point it was really fun and I think it is still the largest Gay Games ever produced. The straight mayor of Amsterdam, Jacob Cohen competed in Golf and won a gold medal for his age division. Don't know if there are too many Mayors in America who would do that.

I'm not a super huge fan of water polo, but it was still cool seeing all of the water sport's ephemera and remembering some of the players I met at Gay Games VII in Chicago. It was weird to see all of the rowing stuff. I used to know a lot of rowers and for various reasons it seems they've drifted out of my life. It was a lot easier to follow the sport when I lived in London.

A Tour of The Archives

When these guys talk about "back in the day," they really mean it! It was fascinating to see some of the stuff our tour guide pulled out of the archives for us. I think it's cool that they're saving Sylvester's drag and old gay zines - they're really doing a great job of preserving an important part of American history and making it available to historians, scholars and interested members of general public.