The Gay Games: The Play of Sexuality, Sport - Victoria University ...

Considering the degree of politicisation of the gay and lesbian movement in general,
there has been a paucity of scholarly mquiry into major sporting and cultural events
such as the Gay Games. This thesis appears to be the first to make use of the Gay
Games Archive to inform a social history of the Gay Games.'^ The Games Archive is
currentiy housed in the San Francisco Public Library within its Gay and Lesbian
Studies Centre.'^
An important reason for the dearth of research on homosexuality and sport, at least up
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until the 1990s, appears to have been the fear of homophobic stigma. Homophobia
is present in most aspects of our culture, and can be particularly vimlent in physical
education and sport. Many gays and lesbians are also fearful of speaking about their
lives, their communities and their histories. A history of the Gay Games can bring to
'^ Based on current research publications and theses specifically documenting the Gay Games.
" This library was chosen as the repository of the Gay Games Archive because San Francisco
was the original host of the Gay Games and the FGG. Its Gay and Lesbian Studies Centre was
established in the mid 1990s through over 2.5 million dollars in donations from 'the Gay and Lesbian
Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. See Tina Miller,' Archives of the Gay Games', research
paper written for her graduate archival studies with the San Jose University School of Library and
Information Science, FuUerton campus program, dated November 1995. This paper provides in-depth
description of the archives, its history, development, significance and contents. Miller gave the
researcher a copy of this paper whilst at CSU, San Marcos.
'* See Pat Griffm and James Genasci, 'Addressing Homophobia in Physical Education:
Responsibilities for Teachers and Researchers', in Michael Messner and Donald Sabo, Sport, Men and
the Gender Order. Critical Feminist Perspectives (Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics Books, 1990),
pp. 216-221 for a discussion of the impact of homophobia on the research culture within colleges and
universities of the US. Gill Clarke discusses this within the research climate of physical education and
sport within the UK in,' The research that dare not speak its name - doing controversial research in
physical education', in F.I. Bell and G.H. Van Gyn (eds). Proceedings for the lOth Commonwealth and
International Scientific Congress: Access to Active Living, 10-14 August 1994. Nancy Bailey presented
a paper on ' Organising the Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgendered and Allies Council (LGBTAC)
within the American Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD)
at the Intemational Queer Studies Conference Out From the Centre, held in Newcastle, Australia just
before the Sydney 2002 Gay Games (29-30 October, 2002). In this paper she described the
marginalisation and homophobic politics many gay and lesbian academics, teachers and student
experienced within the profession of physical education. She is one of the founding organisers and first
Chair of the LGBTAC - which was formed duriag 2001-2002. Other academics working on GLBTQ
issues within sport and physical education who attended this conference session also shared similar
stories of marginalisation, prejudice and the need to act and research with courage. These academics
were from North America, Australia, England and Germany. I was the chair of this conference session.