If you were to Google my name, the first hit would be a Connecticut College webpage article about the documentary I am a part of called Out For The Long Run. You will notice that the article begins, “Freshman Brenner Green can run a mile in under five minutes. He also happens to be gay.”
If this statement elicited some sort of shocking response from you, then you have just helped to prove my point: change the word “gay” in that second sentence to “straight” and notice the change in your reaction. When a straight athlete accomplishes an outstanding athletic feat, that’s awesome. When a gay athlete accomplishes the same feat, then a stereotype is broken. Gay athletes? Yes, gay athletes. Our culture defines athletics in such a heterosexual, male-dominated way that it has taken hundreds of years for something to finally happen in this year’s 2010 Olympic Winter games. One word: pride.
Although the 2010 Winter Olympics are coming to an end, PRIDE House, a venue available to gay, lesbian, bixsexual and transgender athletes, has just begun to be used for the first time in Olympic history. The two locations in Whistler and Vancouver, British Columbia house hip lounges where athletes can watch the games on TV monitors, enjoy cocktails and just have fun. Events in PRIDE House include movie nights, dances and “gay rap opera.”
With all the fun events of PRIDE House, it is important to recognize the significance of PRIDE House’s mission to welcome all athletes in celebration of diversity and inclusiveness through sport.
It is illegal in over 65 countries to be a homosexual, including India, Iran, Ukraine and Jamaica, which all compete in the Olympic games. In over seven countries, the crime of being gay is punishable by death. PRIDE House intends to provide a welcoming space where homosexual athletes, many of whom have been stripped of their human rights, can be themselves and find other people who accept them for their identities. As they say in Canada, how “kewl” is that?
