Summer 1998
We also went to Mt. Pisgah and Asheville with the Killians and brother John just before our trip to Europe in August...
Article on Darryl's participation in the 1998 Games in Amsterdam:
All Aboard for Amsterdam!
Atlanta will be well-represented at the Gay Games in the Netherlands August 1-8
by DAVID GOLDMAN
The fifth Gay Games are still nine months away, but lots of Atlantans are already planning trips to Holland for the week-long August celebration.
More than 150 people have signed up so far with International Travel Center, according to Joop Petiet of the Marietta travel agency, which is making arrangements for the Atlanta Sports Association, a gay and lesbian sports alliance. Petiet, a Netherlands native who will accompany the group, said he has gotten "a very good response" from Georgia athletes and other community members as well as from people in Florida, Alabama and elsewhere.
"Pooling our resources to go over and represent Atlanta is very exciting," said Christopher Lee, a member of ASA and the Atlanta Rainbow Trout. "The idea of standing up on a block and swimming at the Gay Games gives me goosebumps. It's a total acceptance of who I am. I grew up swimming while I was still closeted. This brings the two parts of my life together," Lee said.
According to Lee, ASA has signed up approximately 18 swimmers, 20 tennis players, 18 soccer players, 12 runners, 30 volleyball players and 20 basketball players. As of the July 31 deadline, 6,587 athletes had pre-registered worldwide for the Games. Registration on an as-available basis will continue through April 30, 1998, according to the Games website.
One of those pre-registered is Darryl Gossett, a writer and editor with Emory University and a member of the Atlanta Team Tennis Association who recently played in the Peach International Tennis Championships here. Gossett is planning to make the trip with his partner, Jack Miller. "Any excuse to get back to Europe is good," said Gossett. Tennis matches at the Games will include players whose ability ranges from novice to professional, he said.
Like the Olympics, the Gay Games have a cultural component, and there, too, Atlanta will be well-represented. According to Nina Gooch of the Atlanta Freedom Marching Band, the 20 members scheduled to make the trip account for almost half of those from the United States now committed to perform with the Gay and Lesbian Bands of America. Gay bands from around the world will take part in the opening and closing ceremonies as well as other special events. Lavonne Casey of Rainbow Traveller said the package the agency has assembled for AFMB members is also available to individuals and other groups.
More than 2,200 vocalists from gay choirs are expected to attend the Games choir festival. David Puckett, managing artistic director of the Atlanta Gay Men's Chorus, predicted that his group will be one of the largest. Approximately 100 AGMC members will already be in Europe to perform in a special Paris concert with the French gay chorus Melo Men. "Hopefully, we'll have the same number in Amsterdam," Puckett said.
Marilou Mycko, publicity chairperson of the Atlanta Feminist Women's Chorus, said that while the chorus has no plans to go over as a group, individual members may participate.
Other cultural events will highlight the visual arts, theater, floral arrangement and other arts. Visitors can also help create and star in a lesbian and gay soap opera.
Gay Games details
All indications are that Amsterdam plans to roll out the red carpet for the fifth Gay Games. The official brochure opens with a welcoming letter from the city's mayor. The Games will be the largest international sports and cultural event ever held in the Netherlands, with 15,000 participants and 30,000 visitors expected to take part each day. On the Games' final day, more than 100 boats will cruise the city's most scenic canals in a spectacular boat parade.
Many events will take place in the Amsterdam ArenA. This futuristic facility, which opened last year, will hold 50,000 spectators during the opening and closing ceremonies and features a retractable roof for all-weather enjoyment.
Beyond Amsterdam, millions of people are expected to follow the Games via television, radio, print media and the Internet.
The 30 sports that make up the Games include some familiar from the Olympics -- track and field, swimming, softball and cycling -- as well as numerous interesting additions like bowling, contract bridge, chess, and dancing -- including wheelchair dancing.
The Games are open to all, according to official publications, "regardless of race, gender, physical ability or sexual preference." The Netherlands have no restrictions for visitors with HIV/AIDS.
The Gay Games governing body is the Federation of Gay Games. The Games were first held in San Francisco in 1982 and were the brainchild of gay American Olympian Tom Waddell, who died of AIDS in 1987. Held in New York in 1994 to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion, the last Gay Games drew 12,000 participants from 40 nations.
Tickets for all events will go on sale Dec. 1. Order forms will become available from the Games website on Nov. 15. Visitors passes -- which include entrance to non-final events, public transportation and opening and closing ceremonies -- will also go on sale Dec. 1. The website includes information on ordering Friendship Magazine, the Games' official publication.
All about Amsterdam
Amsterdam's long history of social liberalism makes it especially suited to host the Gay Games. The Netherlands legalized homosexuality in the 1970s, and the age of consent is 16. Prostitution is legal in its famous Walletjes district, which tourist materials proudly promote alongside the city's canals and museums.
The Amsterdam Gay Tourist Map distributed by the Netherlands Board of Tourism includes notices for "jack-off" parties and an "S&M group for women," and ads for bath houses and teenage escorts sit side-by-side with ads for diamond dealers and travel agents. Marijuana and hashish enjoyed "condoned" status and are sold openly in some coffeeshops.
The Netherlands' 1814 constitution established a hereditary constitutional monarchy, which remains the nation's form of government. Holland's horrible occupation by Nazi Germany -- 1940 to 1945 -- is memorialized in the Verzetsmuseum (museum of Dutch resistance) -- and in the Anne Frank House, where the young diarist and her family hid for three years in a doomed attempt to avoid the death camps.
The Amsterdam region has been inhabited for more than 2,000 years. Because much of the Netherlands lies below sea level, its residents were building earthen dikes to hold back sea water as early as 1000 A.D. In the 13th century, the windmill was invented to pump excess water away from farmlands. Today more than 3,400 miles of canals crisscross Holland.
Fifty miles of canals fan out through Amsterdam, whose 70 islands are connected by 1,000 bridges. In the 17th century the city became one of the world's richest, an economic powerhouse of trade and banking. Wealthy merchants built grand homes along its canals and commissioned portraits by artists like the great Rembrandt. Hundreds of the master's works are on view in the Museum Het Rembrandthuis, his home and studio for 20 years.
Visitors to the Gay Games will be among the last to have the opportunity to tour the city's Van Gogh Museum prior to its closing for six months to undergo a $15.5 million renovation and expansion. Built in 1973, it attracts more than one million visitors annually.
Contemplating an adventure in Amsterdam? Here are some sources for more information.
Toll free: (888) GAY-GAMES
(888) GOHOLLAND
Websites: www.dds.nl/~gaygames
www.goholland.com
For a free CD-ROM: e-mail Go2Holland@aol.com
(888) GOHOLLAND
Websites: www.dds.nl/~gaygames
www.goholland.com
For a free CD-ROM: e-mail Go2Holland@aol.com
1998: A very good year.
Jack
Jack
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