1998 Gay Games, Amsterdam
In 1998 I had the fortunate opportunity to go to Amsterdam and participate in the Gay Games, this would be my first trip abroad and as someone told me while there after hearing this was my first trip to Europe “You’ll never be the same again” and I think he was right. This was my first trip to Amsterdam, I would go again in 2000 with my friend Tony,
To understand a bit about the Gay Games it’s an event anyone can attend. There is no qualification as it’s an event about inclusion. I know you’ll probably ask yourself then “What’s the big deal”, well it was a big deal there were 12,500 participants and all went to win and to be part of something bigger than ourselves. To share an experience with friends that is long-lasting.
In the Olympics, participants are organized by country, for the Gay Games, we were organized by Country/City and each ran it differently. For Team Chicago, we had to join the organization for a nominal fee and participate in the fundraisers, but this didn’t mean someone from Chicago couldn’t go on their own. I personally had a sponsor that paid for my travel who I was very grateful for.
The events were: Badminton, Ballroom Dancing, Basketball, Bodybuilding, Bowling, Bridge, Chess, Cycling, Diving, Equestrian, Handball, Ice Hockey, Judo, Kata, Marital Arts, Power Lifting, Rowing, Running Events, Soccer, Softball, Sports Climbing, Squash, Swimming, Table Tennis, Tennis, Track and Field, Volleyball, Water Polo, Weight Lifting, and Wrestling.
I participated in bowling. No, I didn’t place. My team placed 4th, but 4th gets you nothing except a lot of tears. There were 600 bowlers and I did make it in the top 10%, so there is that.
You may ask “If anyone can participate, how do you get judged?”, well I’ll tell you. If you are part of a sanctioned league like bowling you have to submit your average in your application. Then throughout the tournament, you’re personally averaged against everyone else at your level. As a team, they took our overall average and that’s where we were judged against.
If you were participating in a sport that you had no prior history with; and yes you could do that, then you were put in a non-averaged category, hope this makes sense.
My Team
From left to right: Mark, myself, Early, Tina, and Evan. Evan’s friends in Amsterdam opened their house to us during our stay there and it afforded us great bonding time, which I think is why we made it to 4th place.
Mark, Tina, and I bowled together for many years before this event and a few years after.
The pictures won’t be in any particular order except for what I call the ceremony pictures; opening and closing. They were easy to pick out, but the other photos, nope, no particular order. Also, they aren’t of great quality. I think I used disposable cameras; I did try to fix them once I scanned them, but you can only fix bad-quality photos so far. This was also before cell phones and digital cameras as we know them today.
I really didn’t know what to expect from the opening ceremony. I didn’t think it would be like the Olympics, but as it turned out, somewhat pretty close sort-of. The stadium sat 50,000 people and was pretty packed. We would walk into the cheering crowd, music, and a night of great entertainment and speeches.
As we waited outside before entering, we met people from around the world and a known thing to do was to exchange team pins and t-shirts. I have to say a snagged a few, also it was a great way to meet a cute guy or for them to meet you.
One musical number that stood out was during the closing ceremonies. The Weather Girls did their famous number It’s Raining Men. Picture it. A couple of hundred men all dressed in sailor outfits, dancing to their signing and during the song striping off their outfits until they were finally down to just shorts.
We all got a participation medal; the winners got additional medals that looked very different; like I said it was very competitive, thus the tears when we lost.
Where the Olympics cost billions, the Gay Games cost the host city 10s of millions, and like the Olympics, they are held around the world; if I am correct every 4 years. There is no olympic infrastructure built for the Gay Games, we all stayed in various hotels around the city. There is a place that is dedicated as the olympic park for the week. It was a great place to visit during your free time. There were vendors and other various entertainment. In Amsterdam’s Dom Square there were concerts every night; I have to say Amsterdam did a fantastic job hosting the Games; you could tell they were proud to be a host city. When Chicago hosted a few years later, you wouldn’t even have known the Games where there was; a big difference.
Locals would stop you in the street, and ask where you were from and how your events were going; we all felt very welcome.
Part of Olympic Park
During the week we were there it happened to be Amsterdam’s Gay Pride and what does a city of canals do; we’ll floats on boats.
Amsterdam is a fascinating city. Their motto should be “live and let live” as this is what they practice. It’s a city that feel like you stepped back in time, to the time of Anne Frank. It feels like a city that is practical. Recognizing men have to pee there are these circular stalls just on sidewalks throughout the city that you walk in and pee into a hole in the ground; sorry ladies you’re not known for just whipping it out and peeing on the side of a building.
The red light district was interesting. Tina and I went one night to look around. Lots of people walking around. Buildings had these large windows in the front and if a girl was available she would be sitting in the window. You wanted to look as it’s a fascinating aspect of human life, but then it felt weird to look.
Red brick sidewalks are everywhere and public bikes are there to take for a ride to get around the city. The food was definitely different, and there wasn’t a Starbucks on every corner; thank god. Pot is legally sold in what was known as Koffee Shops; of course, it’s legal here in the US now.
Amsterdam is still one of my favorite cities and for a long time wanted to move there; a missed opportunity I am sure; I think my husband is still waiting for me to show up!
I went back in 2000 with my Friend Tony and was reminded why I loved the city. We had nice dinners and the walks along the canals at night were romantic even for friends. I haven’t been back in 23 years, geez Time flies, but I suspect I’d like it as much today as I did back then.
Tina and I spent most of the week together; even rooming together. There were moments when I’d had liked to go out with the other guys, but our bowling schedule didn’t afford me to have too many late nights; she also didn’t have others to hang with beyond our team so we definitely experienced this together. I still have a knife I bought when we went to get cheese and crackers for our room. Every time I use it, it takes me back just a little bit.
I did get to a couple of other events during our off days, track to watch friends compete and figure skating. Most of the venues were outside the city and weren’t easy to get to; remember no Uber.
Thank you, Amsterdam for a wonderful event. You hosted 12,500 participants with what seemed to be ease. You welcomed us in and embraced us like family. I’m so happy I came across these photos to bring those memories back again.
