History • Scholarships and the Gay Games Scholarships and the Gay Games For Gay Games VII, the Federation and Chicago Games Inc (CGI), host organization for the 2006 Games, are collaborating on a scholarship program that will both continue the work of the past programs and be the foundation for future Gay Games programs. Host organizations of past Gay Games have traditionally awarded scholarships to about 3% of Games’ participants. Following this tradition, CGI hopes to enable 400 individuals to participate in Gay Games VII. The Federation of Gay Games has set a target of providing scholarships for 50 people. VII. Roy M Coe Scholarship Fund Coe became involved with the Gay Games as Director of Communications for Gay Games II, San Francisco. During his travels and from international communications to promote the Games, Coe interviewed GGII athletic and cultural participants. The interviews, along with a history of the Gay Games, became a book “A Sense of Pride: The Story of Gay Games II.” In the participant stories, Roy captured the positive change that each person experienced as they sought to do their personal best at the Gay Games. As a participant in Gay Games II, Roy competed in the track and field events. He earned a silver medal in the men’s 4x100 relay. Roy understood the power of the Games. From his work as director of communications for Gay Games 11 to writing “A Sense of Pride,” from participating in track and field events to fundraising for cultural events at the Games, Roy worked tirelessly so that more people could feel the thrill of participation and the challenge of seeking one’s personal best. Team Chicago’s Sister City Program Team Chicago first encountered athletes from The Rainbow Project
(TRP), a lesbian sports organization of 150 members from Windhoek, Namibia,
at the Annual Meeting of the Federation of Gay Games. Its members
are not
able to
play safely in Windhoek because of homophobia. Two groups came forward to overcome obstacles that faced this soccer tournament. Female FGG delegates took up a collection to begin the funding of tournament development in Soweto/Johannesburg. Then Team Chicago offered to adopt the "Rainbow Warrior" team from Namibia as its "sister team." They want to raise funds that will allow 15 or so TRP members to travel from Windhoek to Johannesburg (a full day's travel) for a soccer tournament and be outfitted in uniforms that will “fly” the rainbow flag.Team Chicago formed a “sister city” relationship with Windhoek and has agreed to help outfit TRP so that its members could organize and attend an Inter-African soccer tournament in Johannesburg, South Africa. This tournament will give lesbians in Southern Africa a way to meet, compete, and develop organizational skills. The tournament will be held in the relative safety of the Soweto, part of Johannesburg, and will involve the TRP soccer team and two local (Soweto) teams. Under the “sister city” relationship,
we have agreed to fund transportation, food, and uniforms. Kekeletsu Khena wrote the following to Peg Grey: An interview of Leonie van Bommel, Roy Coe Scholarship recipient 11 November 1998—The first recipient of the Federation of Gay Games Roy Coe Scholarship was Leonie van Bommel, of Utrecht, Holland, in recognition of her work as the coordinator of the Outreach Program at Gay Games V Amsterdam. Leonie administered a program that distributed travel, housing and financial support for people from non-western countries so they could attend the Games in Amsterdam. Leonie received the scholarship to attend the annual meeting of the Federation of Gay Games, in Seattle, Washington, where she shared her expertise with the Federation. When Leonie first heard of the Games, it was through a vague story about “a guy who won a gold medal—but [the event] didn’t mean much.” The Games took on significance to her in 1997 when she was living in Cape Town, South Africa. A visiting friend told her about the outreach program being planned for the Gay Games. Leonie became interested because the concept of developing connections with non-western countries fit with her professional work. Leonie has a master’s degree in Colonial History and Development Studies from the University of Utrecht. While in Cape Town, she worked for a Dutch development agency and as a research assistant in social studies at the University of Cape Town. In the January of 1998, Leonie returned to The Netherlands. While searching for a job, an apartment and “settling back into Dutch society,” she walked into the Gay Games office to volunteer. She immediately became involved with the outreach program and found a semi-active working group. The group had reached a bottle neck in the process: they had successfully drawn on the expertise of international rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Stichting GO (Get Organized), a women’s organization in Amsterdam, to gather 500 applications for support, and more were coming in. However with the Games just months away decisions needed to be made since the program could only support 375 people. Executive Director, Marc Janssens asked Leonie to take over administration of the program. Her response was “Yes, I’d love to.” Leonie and her committee of volunteers began the work of selection and notification of recipients. The group set criteria for the process, worked out registration, travel, and housing details with each recipient, and worked with immigration services and embassies to ensure visas for recipients. When talking about this work, Leonie emphasized the important work of Teun de Weijer, who joined the program to fulfill an internship requirement for his studies at the Social Academy in Amsterdam. “Some decisions weren’t difficult, some were. Being the one to decide, you know there was a time pressure; being the one to make the decisions, you try to be fair. But you always wish to support everyone.” When asked to further describe her feelings about rejecting applications, she spoke about the reality of the process and the importance of avoiding sentimentality. Some of Leonie’s greatest memories of the Games occurred when outreach recipients came to the Friendship Village to check in. “Having done so much work communicating with outreach participants, seeing names go by on a [computer] screen, on applications, on letters, after the intense work to make all the arrangements, to [then] put a face to the name gave me warm feelings and to feel in return the warmth and happy faces, enthusiasm, they were glad to be at the [Games].” Leonie credits her volunteers with ensuring that the Outreach participants had positive experiences at the Gay Games. “We anticipated problems with hosts [housing] and daily allowances. [The volunteers] ran the desk the whole eight days with happy faces. They stayed relaxed and solved all sorts of problems right on the spot. They made the decisions so that everything worked out fine.” Though the Gay Games offered a positive experience in a safe environment, Leonie recounted a story about some participants from Zimbabwe, who returned home to negative reaction. “Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) is really trying hard to organize themselves. Four women soccer players [from that group] came to the Games as part of the outreach program. When they returned to Harare, the capital of the country, they were unofficially excluded from all soccer competitions. All four had played at a national level. One woman received threats and was beaten by her father. She was in such an awful situation that her Amsterdam hosts, a lesbian couple, and Mama Cash, a women’s fund, sent her an airline ticket to come back to Amsterdam. The woman is currently living there [in Amsterdam] and intends on going back to Zimbabwe; but I don’t know if she can go back safely.” Wishing to balance the negative of that story Leonie pointed out that from the experience working with the outreach participants, and from experiences in South Africa, she had a greater appreciation that many issues are universal. “A person may come from Zimbabwe, but we all deal with the same processes: How do I come out? How do I accept myself?” When asked about being a participant in an event of the Gay Games, she talked about intending to swim with a gay and lesbian team in Utrecht. She made no promises to whether she would swim in four years at Gay Games VI. In Holland, she pointed out, sports activities are not always based on competition. Leonie’s official work for the Gay Games V organization is over, so she will be looking for work again. Her career goal is to continue to work in the field of development of collaboration between western and non-western countries, focusing especially on gender and human rights. She intends to continue to work with the Gay Games through the Federation’s Outreach Committee. She spoke extensively about the Amsterdam’s Outreach Program at the Federation annual meeting. Leonie would like to see the Gay Games become more culturally diverse and the financial barriers lowered. “Putting on a large event, you need non-western involvement they are just as much a part of our gay and lesbian community as the US, Europeans, and Australians.” In talking about her experience with the outreach program, Leonie said, “The project was close to my heart as the most important part of the Games. It was the challenge I was waiting for, the one I needed in my life.” |