Get
out and row in the Outgames
SOURCE
: Rowing News
Get
out and row in the Outgames (Version PDF, 538 Ko)
par Ben Storey, MD
Octobre 2005
IN A COUNTRY WHERE same-sex marriage has
just become a legal part of regular society, the Gay
Games are bound to be a good time. Montreal is the host
in 2006, so there could hardly be a better place to
take in this most inclusive and least known event on
the international games circuit. To be more accurate,
Montreal is actually hosting the Outgames after some
political struggles with the Gay Games people. Infighting
over the Outgames apparently. It’s not clear to
me what the underlying story is, but the Montreal Games
are going to be huge. Not on that team, you say?
Unlike the relatively exclusive World Master’s
Games, the religiously affi liated Maccabiah Games,
or even the highly organized Police and Firefi ghter
Games, you don’t actually have to be gay to take
part in the Gay Games. And you don’t have to wrestle
with pesky selection trials and arbitration in order
to make the team either.
Although it seems slightly paradoxical
to promote a separate ‘Gay’ or ‘Out’
Games as a path to mainstream integration, it is probably
still necessary to promote events which will desensitize
people who are disturbed by questions of sexual orientation.
People used to be disturbed at the sight of women’s
kneecaps, after all. And sure you can watch “Will
and Grace” in prime time television, but we—and
I would include Canada as well as the United States
in this generalization—are still a very long way
away from having a comfortable level of acceptance for
gay and lesbian people in everyday life.
In any case, rowing will be contested
by athletes at next year’s Games in Montreal and
you should consider going. Partly because it’s
a rowing regatta and partly because it’s probably
the right thing to do. What better way to support the
gay friends and crewmates you have or have had unconventional
wisdom than by participating in a regatta at an historic
Olympic rowing course? There is little doubt that they
would appreciate the support. Although the rowing community
as a whole is a relatively liberal thinking group, there
is no shortage of hardship and discrimination from homophobic
thinking everywhere you look.
Despite that something like three percent
of the population is homosexual, it’s hard to
come up with many professional athletes who are gay.
Martina Navratilova for one, but any others? It really
is an extremely disadvantaged population—to the
point where it may be preferable for people to not know.
Although certainly there is the fact that people’s
private lives are their private lives, we hear just
about everything else about their kids and dogs. It’s
not just a coincidence that sexual orientation is so
frequently guarded.
The only possible downside to this particular
endeavour is that the competition may be a little on
the weak end compared to other Games. Although I have
to say that the rowing clubs that are specifically geared
towards gay athletes seem to be very enthusiastic, it’s
not the highest caliber of rowing out there. This is
largely a question of numbers of course, but any competition
is basically what you make it. There are certainly many
very good gay rowers out there in college and club crews,
and perhaps this could provide an impetus to encourage
more participation from the heterosexual rowing population.
And who is going to complain about weak competition
anyway? Even though it is only the Gay Games, what grandchild
wouldn’t be proud to see Grandpa’s gold
medal 50 years down the road? You have to think about
the future. And really and truly, you would have to
be either extremely repressed or a die-hard baseball
fanatic in order to avoid enjoying Montreal in the summer.
The idea in general, of course, is to
support and embrace diversity in society and to celebrate
our differences and similarities through sport. Thinking
about this is kind of our duty as responsible citizens,
but it’s also a great opportunity to partake in
a unique event. And for those of you who still feel
a little uncomfortable, remember you can always enter
the straight four.
Ben Storey, MD, a former world champion
in the lightweight men’s pair, is a trained medical
doctor who has refocused much of his energy on table
hockey.
© Rowing News
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