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Gay Games Amsterdam '98 A Huge Success
by Paul van Yperen

When Niek van der Spek, Director of Operations, spoke at the Closing Ceremony of Gay Games Amsterdam 1998 to a crowd of nearly 35,000 persons, she got a very warm applause. Gay Games was a huge success despite financial problems. 14,715 participants from 88 countries enjoyed an unforgettable week of culture, sports and friendship in Amsterdam during the fifth Gay Games. The Dutch press called it unanimously a wonderful week and the police mentioned an unusually low crime rate.

Niek van der Spek said: "Most important are the experiences of the participants: the woman from Vanatu, an island where only 3 women know each other's secret or the Zimbabwean soccer player and all others who in daily life fear to be out and open about their identity. They all shared for 8 days sports and culture, parties and celebration. The friendship they expressed, walking hand in hand in an open, accepting city, is what Gay Games is about. The City of Amsterdam was a perfect host. The international Gay and Lesbian community has shown its diversity and has been very visible. Visibility gives inspiration, breaks down stereotypes, leads to respect, gives us a place in this world and, in the end, will change laws."

Next to the nearly 15,000 participants there were 1,300 guest runners at the Marathon. Gay Games Amsterdam 1998 was in many aspects a breakthrough for the Gay and Lesbian movement. The participation of women was one of them: 42% of the participants were women. Another record was the number of people with "Special Needs" - 250 (people in wheelchairs or with hearing problems) who took part. Never before were there so many sign language interpretators. Never before were there wheelchair dancers together in a Gay and Lesbian dancing competition. 238 people from non-western countries took part as guests of the organizers.

Another breakthrough was that almost all sport tournaments were organized with the help of the regular sports leagues in Holland. The only exception was the ice skating event that was cancelled because of new regulations of the International Skating Union. The organizers [instead chose to have ice skating be] a training event, which became one of the emotional highlights of the Gay Games. Mr. Schelto Patijn, the Mayor of Amsterdam, and a huge crowd came to support the unlucky skaters, who gave an impressive show.

Although Gay Games doesn't present itself as a top sports event, there were some impressive records. Dutch Champion pole vaulting Monique de Wilt broke her own national pole-vaulting record on 7 August. De Wilt's previous record was 4.10 metres, and she broke this record, twice, achieving 4.16 metres. Swimmer Peter Prijdekker from Out To Swim, London, broke two European Master records 50 and 100 metres freestyle in his age category (50 -54 years). More than 100 "Meet records" or "Gay records" and national Master records were broken in Swimming and Track and Field.

There were 29 competition sports, 14 artists' workshops, two international marching bands and a choir festival in 56 different venues. All 32 choirs performed in the Concertgebouw. The participants, visitors and the inhabitants mingled in a very friendly atmosphere during the many free Gay Games events in the centre of the city. The six AmsterDam Nights drew over 75,000 spectators. The Open Air Film Program had more than 20,000 spectators. Many of the sports finals and theatre programs were sold out. In total, approximately 250,000 visitors attended Gay Games. The organizers expected 200,000 visitors.

The Opening Ceremony drew nearly 1 million Dutch television viewers, who gave it a high appreciation. Over 1,000 press representatives came to Amsterdam. Among them were television crews from unexpected countries like Argentina, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Hungary and Turkey. The British BBC even sent two television crews to cover the event. Next to that there were media representatives from Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, United States and many other countries. The event was organized by 3,042 volunteers led by 62 staff members.

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Big Response To A Few Phelpses

It seems that for Fred Phelps--when he's not in Kansas any more--his sparse anti-Gay pickets have become most effective as an organizing tool for a big Gay-friendly backlash. The latest cases in point were Duluth and Minneapolis, MN, where a series of pickets by some 15 Phelps family members from Topeka, KS generated a counter-demonstration by more than 1,000 local residents.

Phelps, who for years has been carrying out what he considers to be a "ministry" of hate-filled anti-Gay protests targeting everything from funerals of people with AIDS to any public official or church he feels is too Gay-friendly, had originally intended to visit Duluth in December. His intended target there was city planner Darrell Lewis, an openly Gay man who turned down a job offer from the city of Topeka because he didn't care to subject himself, his partner and their daughters to Phelps' attentions. Phelps decided to reschedule for warmer weather and larger crowds, but by this time Lewis had taken another job and moved to Pasadena, CA (where Phelps says he'll go later).

In recent times, Phelps has discovered he can generate almost as much publicity with an advance announcement of a visit that never happens as he can by actually carrying out a picket. In the Minnesota case, he confirmed to a reporter by phone in the week preceding that he actually had bought plane tickets, but while he did send his children, in-laws and grandchildren, he didn't make the trip himself. His son, Fred Junior, said the peripatetic patriarch was picketing in Alabama and elsewhere.

The Phelpses had a heavy schedule, from the Minnesota Department of Corrections in St. Paul (a prison warden had required diversity training for his staff) and Duluth City Hall (which used to employ Lewis) on July 24, to the Timber Producers Association's North Star Expo at Duluth's Convention Center on July 25, to five Minneapolis churches including the All God's Children congregation of the Gay-affirming Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches(UFMCC), the state's largest spiritual community with about 90% of its 1,683 members openly Lesbian or Gay.

Clergy and officials primarily urged the citizenry to ignore the Phelpses and stay away from them, very much aware of the picketers' past success in provoking uncharacteristically extreme reactions from others. Although "Stop Hate" ads appeared in newspapers (a joint effort by the city of Duluth, the Art of Peace Project, Violence Free Duluth and the Duluth News-Tribune) and as posters in windows, and white ribbons symbolizing the same message were tied here and there, by and large, ignore the Phelpses they did. In most instances, that wasn't hard--only three or four turned up at the Department of Corrections. At Duluth City Hall, about a dozen locals watched, some bearing signs against hate, while the Phelpses sang hymns. The final church picket on their schedule, at the Episcopal Cathedral Church of St. Mark, was cancelled altogether. Their first church picket, at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, brought them up against a group of four young people who had nothing to do with the church, who pelted the Phelpses with eggs, threw coffee on their van, jeered at them, and seized one of their signs before police intervened. Some 20 police were stationed in teams at each of the churches on the schedule. At the second stop, Central Lutheran, congregants passed the Phelpses as quickly as they could to enter their church. At Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, some 25 counter-demonstrators waved rainbow flags and chanted "stop the hate"; the church itself had posted a huge banner reading, "Hennepin: a United Methodist Hate Free Zone."

One mass "Minnesota Says No to Hate" counter-demonstration was planned, to be held on what Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton proclaimed "Say No to Hate Day," on the steps of All God's Children MCC, with an intention to "meet hate with love." The congregation even provided water and snacks for the 13 protesting Phelpses. The 1,000-plus people who turned out included local clergy en route to their own churches. Only 600 of the crowd were able to enter the church for a half-hour rally with Minnesota Attorney General Skip Humphrey, three other Gubernatorial candidates, state Senators and Representatives including openly Gay state Senator Allan Spear and openly Lesbian state Representative Karen Clark, and city and other government officials, and representatives from more than 100 organizations, including OutFront Minnesota and the national Human Rights Campaign. The rest remained on the steps, drowning out the Phelpses with their own singing. When the rally ended, about 500 people stayed to worship; even some of the police officers posted around the church joined in communion. After the service, there was not just a reception, but a peace and justice resource fair with booths from 30 organizations there to network.

The Phelps clan sparked opposition even from those who are disapproving of homosexuality, including Duluth Mayor Gary Doty and Nancy Anderson, co-founder and director of a ministry supporting Gays and Lesbians to remain celibate. Duluth may have a local ordinance against discrimination based on sexual orientation before the year is out, in large part because the Phelpses brought the issue to the fore. [NewsPlanet]

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The Religious Right's Trojan Horse

The objective for them (the religious right) is confusion, confrontation and conversion. All in the cloak of their version of love," says Marc Adams and Todd Tuttle, partners in a decade long relationship and former fundamentalist Baptists.

"Having been born into fundamentalist Christianity and a practitioner and fundamentalist recruiter for almost 20 years of my life," Adams illustrates, "I am very aware of their tactics and reasoning."

Tuttle, a former fundamentalist Baptist minister, takes it a step further. "The continued bombardment of the press and the United States with religiously biased anti-Gay messages makes it clear that they are still on the same course. If they can create confusion regarding our message among their own constituency and the moveable middle regarding homosexuality, bisexuality and transgendered issues, they have accomplished much. "The next step," Tuttle warns, "is for them to create confrontations with us and then continue to present the only response they believe in and that is conversion to the belief system they believe is the right kind of belief system."

In the United States, there are thousands of organizations connected together to form a network of religiously based political and non-political groups. When it comes to (alleged) reparative therapy, Exodus International is perhaps the best known of these groups. The claim of help for those who desire to change their homosexual behavior and the individuals they tout as success stories keep their industry alive. Their message gives hope to those individuals who have fallen prey to the fundamentalist/evangelical ideal that the so-called sin of homosexuality must be excommunicated.

Adams and Tuttle are all too familiar with dedication of this belief. "It wasn't that long ago that we were two of those persons seeking change," Tuttle says. "Believing that we needed to change drove us to the darkest points in our lives." "I was suicidal, despondent and terrified," Adams recalls. "If anyone ever had the faith and desire to change my behavior, I had it. But the reality is that while most anyone can change their behavior, no one can change homosexuality. However, no amount of researched information from the American Psychological Association or the American Medical Association is going to convince most of these fundamentalist/evangelical folks. And that is the precise reason behind their continued harassment of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered (GLBT) people."

"I remember a few years ago when I was an open fundamentalist Christian," Adams continues, "I spent a lot of my free time doing everything to recruit people into the fundamentalist Christian lifestyle, especially children and youth. I had been taught and I believed that if I did not bring the "lost" over to our side that their blood would be on my hands. There was plenty of motivation."

"However," Adams continues thoughtfully, "When it comes to Gay issues very little, if any, progress has been made to bring about change. It is easy to get sidetracked into thinking that we can somehow change the other side's stand. We forget that we are up against a belief system-a belief system that for most, is one for which they would give their lives. It's important that in our work to bring enlightenment and truth to oppressed GLBT people and their families we don't fall victims to the traps that the religious right has set for us."

Marc Adams and Todd Tuttle met while students at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in the mid 1980s. Aside from Adams' books (The Preacher's Son and Light, published by Window Books) and lecture tours, they are founders of HeartStrong, the first networking and support group for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered (GLBT) students at religious high schools, colleges and universities and their supporters.

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Mass Wedding To Be
A Highlight of
Millennium March On Washington

A mass celebration of same-sex marriage will be one of the highlights of the Millennium March on Washington for Equality in April of 2000, the first human rights march of the new millennium.

The Rev Troy D. Perry, founder and moderator of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC), will officiate at " The Wedding: Now More Than Ever." Perry conducted "The Wedding" for 2,600 couples at the 1993 March on Washington. That event stands as the largest same-sex wedding celebration in history.

"Based on early response, I anticipate that more than 5,000 couples will take part in 'The Wedding: Now More Than Ever,'" said Perry.

"Participants will not only be able to celebrate their love and commitment in a memorable, historic event, but we'll also make a powerful statement to the world, added Perry.

The wedding will take place in front of the Internal Revenue Service Bldg. in Washington, DC on Sat., Apr. 29, 2000. The event is open to all couples who wish to make publically their wedding vows, or wish to renew their wedding vows.

There will be a modest registration fee to participate in "The Wedding," and each couple will receive a personalized certificate of participation in the historic event.

For more information, contact UFMCC by E-mail at ufmcchq@aol.com, or write to UFMCC, 8704 Santa Monica Blvd., 2nd Floor, West Hollywood, CA 98869, or visit the UFMCC Web site at www.ufmcc.com.

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