Gay Games VII gets underway

CHICAGO — The heat is on — and Gay Games VII is underway, too. As the Windy City wilts under an intense heat wave, nearly 12,000 athletes representing 65 countries will brave the blistering heat to compete in 30 sports through Saturday, July 22.
The festivities began July 15 with a mammoth opening ceremony at Soldier Field. The event marked the culmination of just under two year's work by organizers who originally awarded Montreal the Games. A split between the Federation of Gay Games and that city, which led to the formation of the first ever OutGames (to be held next month in Montreal), left organizers scrambling to prepare in Chicago.
Signs of the pressure to meet such a tight deadline have been evident to all those involved with the Games in recent months and persisted throughout the ceremony in Soldier Field, where crowd estimates were not released to the press. The Chicago Tribune reported that about 10,000 athletes filed onto the field and that "thunderous onlookers filled about a third of the stadium's seats." Indeed, ovations were handed out pretty evenly, whether the team consisted of over a thousand, such as the contingent from California, or a single athlete, such as the country of Uganda.
Filing onto the field took nearly an hour, and then spectators had to wait for the athletes to take their seats in the lower bowl before the ceremony began in earnest.
The main ceremony was a lengthy tribute to the vision of the Gay Games, and the spirit of founder Dr. Tom Waddell, that was broken up into four acts, including Exclusion, Oppression, Expression and Ignition. The ceremony featured a wide array of speakers and performers including Olympic champion Greg Louganis, comedienne Margaret Cho, singer Jody Watley and Star Trek's George Takei.
One of the most well received guests was actress Megan Mullally, who for eight years played Karen on NBC's "Will & Grace." Mullally, who will host her own talk show in the fall, had the honor of introducing Chicago Mayor Richard Daley to the crowd.
"Originally, we wrote this speech that was really funny," Mullally told the Tribune. "But it was a little too funny, and we had to strike a balance between reverent and irreverent."
Mullally delivered, and for his part, Mayor Daley was encouraging, too.
"You could not have chosen a better site for these games," the mayor told the crowd. "Our athletic facilities are second to none … but more importantly, gays and lesbians are welcome in Chicago."
The Gay Games runs through Saturday. For more information, visit http://www.gaygames.com.