Friday, July 22, 2005

Why do we have Gay Games?

Chicago is hosting the 2006 Gay Games. The Republican Party of Chicago has, of course, disassociated itself from having anything to do with the event.

Now, I am extremely pro-homosexuality. Heck, I am pro-any-kind-of-sexuality. Apart from believing in the birthright of every human being to sleep with whomever he / she wants to (see my post here), I also think it reduces the competition among eligible males in search of a mate, thus leading to less bloodshed and bar fights.

However, be that as it may, I cannot seem to grasp the need for having gay games. Having "Gay Games", where only gay people can compete is kind of like having "Blonde Games" or "Games for Marlon Brando look-alikes". It just does not make sense to me. Is it that gay people are being kept away from regular sporting events like the Olympics and such, either as contestants and / or spectators? I don't think so, otherwise it would have raised a ruckus by now. Is it that gay men want to compete in events that ordinarily only women would be allowed to compete in? Like Women's synchronized swimming or Women's Tennis? And by having these "Gay Games", aren't gay people voluntarily segregating themselves from heterosexuals?

I just don't get it. Maybe someone can enlighten me on this.

3 comments:

Sourin Rao said...

Dude
Why would straight folks maybe wanna participate in gay variations of "thread the needle","three legged race",a spoon and "lemons" or for that matter the back stroke relay ? Let the gay folks have their fun and games, and the straight folks their figure skating and ice hockey.
Sourin

gawker said...

But as far as I could see, gay games have exactly the same sports regular games do.

Anonymous said...

All sorts of groups have their own Olympics, Special Olympics for genunine sports that keep being demonstation events, there's a native Olypics, the francophonie games. It may be a voluntary alternative competition, but I wouldn't say any of them are ghettoization any more than a different set of stock car races that run parallel and independantly covering a different set of constraints of geography or funding is a segregation in sports.