(Not Quite) 80 Gays Around the World - Recap

I haven’t continued the “(Not Quite) 80 Gays Around the World” series for a while. Before I continue, here’s a reminder to regular readers of the journey so far, and for those who are reading about my “80 Gays” series for the first time.

We began back in 2022 with –

1) Emperor Hadrian of Rome (76-138) on the 1,200th anniversary of the construction of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England which he ordered to be built. Continuing his tour of the empire after leaving Britain he met…

2) Antinous (c.111-c.130), a young Turkish lad who became his lover. The relationship lasted 8 years until Antinous’s death. In his grief Hadrian “created” a constellation in Antinous’s honour called Aquila. This represented Antinous as a new…

3) Ganymede, the boy lover of the Greek god Zeus. A modern retelling of the story of Ganymede and Zeus was written by…

4) Felice Picano (b.1944), a member of the Violet Quill Club, and group of gay writers who met in New York during 1980 and 1981. The most well-known of these today is…

5) Edmund White (b.1940), famous for writing “The Joy of Gay Sex”. His partner at the time, and another Violet Quill member, was…

6) Christopher Cox (1949-1990) who died of AIDS, as did another Violet Quill member…

7) George Whitmore (1945-1989). The Violet Quill Club came to an end after a meeting in which Whitmore read his story about a gay couple splitting up. It was the negative reaction to this story from fellow member…

8) Andrew Holleran (b.1944) that led to the collapse of the group. But, perhaps the most unexpected connection comes with the final two Violet Quill members,

9) Robert Ferro (1941-1988), and...

10) Michael Grumley (1942-1988). Together they set out to find Atlantis, which they chronicled in their book “Atlantis: The Autobiography of a Search”. On his own Grumley researched legendary hominids such as Bigfoot, a famous legendary cryptid which featured as a lonely, lesbian creature in a novel by…

11) Samantha Leigh Allen, which didn’t win a Ferro-Grumley Award for lgbt fiction, an award created in 1990 named after Robert and Michael, which gives the winner a 2-week residency at the Art Workshop International, founded by…

12) Bea Kreloff (1925-2016) and…

13) Edith Isaac Rose (1929-2018) who founded the Workshop in 1981. The Workshop runs several courses in art and literature and is based in Assisi, the Italian town made famous by…

14) St. Francis of Assisi (c.1187-1226), founder of the Franciscan Order of Friars. Although Roman Catholic, a faith not known for its progressive lgbt+ stance, the Franciscans appointed an openly gay friar to a position of high authority in 2022 with the appointment of…

15) Brother Markus Fuhrmann (b.1971) as Minister Provincial (similar to a senior bishop) of the Province of St. Elizabeth in Germany. Brother Markus had previously been a pastor in Cologne, a city famous for its cathedral which claims to house the remains of The Three Kings from the Christmas story. The traditional names of the kings are…

16) Caspar, …

17) Melchior, and…

18) Balhasar. The kings are famous for presenting gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus at His Nativity. Balthasar is traditionally said to have presented myrrh, an aromatic resin from the tree of the same name. The tree itself was named after the mother of the Greek mythological character…

19) Adonis.

And there I left it. Without wanting to sound like a broken record and repeat myself, research for the Paris Olympics took over so much of my time that I didn’t have time to finish researching the rest of the “80 Gays”.

Now I am able to, but there’s another month or two to wait until after I publish the backlog of other articles that have built up. Rest assured, the series will return in January 2025. Among the links to look forward to are those that connect “Its Raining Men” to Flower Power, and puppetry to Benjamin Britten.

Parisian Olympic Review

NOTE: The information below is accurate on the date of publication. Further research may reveal information which changes or replaces some of the details. Check by selecting “Olympics” in the tag list for updates.

Let me apologise again for the delay in publishing this review of Paris 2024. There has been an immense number of athletes to add to the list and it has taken longer than planned to update it. This article is rather long, so if you just want to see the updated list skip to the end.

ORGANISING COMMITTEES – Paris was awarded the Olympics in 2017 in the first dual-award, with Los Angeles being awarded the 2028 Olympics at the same time. I haven’t had a good look at the Paris Olympic Bid Committee, but the Los Angeles Bid Committee contained lgbt Winter Olympian and International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Angela Ruggiero as its Chief Strategy Officer. It also included advisory members including Greg Louganis.

Within a year of being awarded, the IOC Athlete’s Commission for Paris began its work. The commission is made up of Olympic athletes, either elected or appointed, who advise the IOC and Paris organising committee on issues that effect athletes. They also have a voice in other IOC meetings. The Athlete’s Commission for Paris included two French lgbt Olympians, fencer Astrid Guyart and triathlete Jessica Harrison. Astrid was also a member of the French Olympic Committee’s own Athlete’s Commission.

QUALIFICATION – Different sports have different criteria and time spans for Olympic qualification. Technically, qualification for the tennis began in 2020 before the Tokyo Olympics, because in order to be eligible for Paris 2024 tennis players had to participate in at least two Davis Cup or Billie Jean King Cup tournaments from 2020. This meant that lgbt+ players such as Nadia Podoroska, Demi Schuurs and Greet Minnen, and others, were the first to compete in a Paris 2024 qualification event.

In addition to the lgbt Olympians who competed in Paris, there were another 169 lgbt athletes who competed in qualification events or were named in Olympic ranking lists. Almost half of these were Olympians from past games who didn’t make it to Paris.

CEREMONIES – On 23rd September 2022 the gay actor and director Thomas Jolly was announced as the Artistic Director of the Olympic and Paralympic Games opening and closing ceremonies. Although the concept of the opening ceremony taking place on the River Seine was made before his appointment, Jolly created the many tableaux that were acted out along the banks. The whole idea was a bold concept and, as such, worked logistically, though lacked the intimacy of a stadium setting and probably won’t be repeated (the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games made the best use of a river in an opening ceremony). The first water-based Olympic opening ceremony was at the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympics.

Of the tableaux created by Thomas Jolly, the fashion catwalk and drag queens didn’t go down very well with some observers. Jolly received a lot of abuse in the press and from what is becoming the curse of modern society, social media. To put it in historical context, there have been drag queens in previous Olympic ceremonies (most memorably Sydney 2000).

GENDER PARITY? – At the end of 2022 the IOC lifted their ban on male competitors in artistic swimming. This isn’t as progressive as first sounds, because male swimmers were restricted to just 2 per team, and banned from solo and duet contests. Unfortunately, no known male lgbt synchro swimmer was selected for Paris, so we were denied the chance to see the likes of Renaud Barral and Fabiano Ferreira become lgbt pioneers in Olympic synchronised swimming.

Claiming gender parity is invalid if it isn’t applied in every sport. Men are still banned from artistic gymnastics. There is no Olympic female Greco-Roman wrestling competition. They’re not banned, there aren’t enough at an international elite level to merit a competition.

PRIDE HOUSE – This is the latest in a series of venues established at major international sporting events since the 2020 Vancouver Winter Olympics. It provides an inclusive, safe social space for lgbt athletes and public. Pride Houses for future summer and winter Olympics are being prepared.

The Paris Pride House was officially launched on 17th May 2023. Among its many Ambassadors were top lgbt sports heroes like Matthew Mitcham, Greg Louganis, Kate Richardson-Walsh and Lauren Rowles.

TORCH RELAY – The torch relay provides a physical link to the ancient Olympics. The 2024 relay began on 16th April at Olympia, Greece, site of the ancient games. I’ve written before about the lgbt connections this site has.

There were a few lgbt torch bearers. Among those on the Greek leg was Ioannes Melissanidis, a 1996 Olympic gymnastics champion. Ioannes was a torch bearer at the 2004 Athens opening ceremony. He is also the lgbt Olympian who has taken part in more torch relays than any other. This was his 8th.

Later that same day was the handover ceremony from the Greek Olympic Committee to the Paris Organising Committee in the Panathenaic Stadium, Athens. Among the torch bearers was bisexual French figure skater with Greek heritage, Gabriella Papadakis.

My favourite part of the relay was when Sandra Forgues carried the torch on 19th May. Sandra is the 1996 Olympic champion in C2 (2-man canoe slalom) with Frank Adisson. Sandra is one of the more recent transgender Olympians, transitioning in 2018. She is also a Paris Pride House Ambassador. For the relay she reunited with Adisson after 20 years and they took to the water again to canoe down the River Adour in Bagneres-de-Bigorre. A short video of the highlights of that day can be seen here. Sandra and Frank can be seen receiving the torch in their canoe 46 seconds into the video. Frank is seated in front, Sandra in the back. Sandra is then briefly seen carrying the torch under an archway of oars.

Towards the end you’ll see the Celebration Cauldron being lit. This is a tradition in which every day of the relay ends with the lighting of such a cauldron. Not shown is the cauldron lighter receiving the flame from French lgbt basketball Olympian Céline Dumerc, though she is one of those lined up behind her. There were several other lgbt Olympians who lit Celebration Cauldrons, such as Amandine Buchard in Verdun, Jérémy Stravius in Amiens, and Astrid Guyart in Vernon.

GENDER CONTROVERSIES – The controversy which attracted the most attention was the presence of 2 female boxers. I won’t go into the long and complicate twists of this case, so here are the basics. In 2023 the IOC suspended the International Boxing Association (IBA – led and sponsored by Russia) for irregularities in its finances and governance. Many nations left the IBA and others boycotted the 2023 IBA World Championships. During the Olympics the IBA claimed 2 female boxers had failed gender tests at those championships. Their claim that the tests were verified by the World Anti-Doping Agency was proven false. The IBA refuse to reveal which gender tests they used against international protocol (or even prove they exist). The IOC’s tests, and tests taken since Paris, have proven the boxers are both women.

Two female Zambian footballers were also accused of having failed gender tests. While it is true that both players have hyperandrogenism the IOC followed standard international regulations and accepted them into the female tournament.

THE OLYMPIANS – As Outsports reported, there were 199 lgbt+ Olympians in Paris, including 14 alternate athletes. The subject of alternates is confusing. It can be best explained by something that occurred in Paris.

Nico Keenan was selected as an alternate for Argentina’s huckey team. He originally attended the Olympics as a spectator but on Day 5 he was called up to play in the match against India because Argentina didn’t have a full squad. In doing so, Nico became eligible for an Olympic Participation medal (and possibly an Olympic Diploma for finishing in 8th place – I’m not sure if the IOC award diplomas for 8th place in hockey), which he wouldn’t have got as an alternate.

Also originally selected as an alternate and ending up on the full Olympic team was Sharn Freier (Australia, football).

At the opening ceremony there were 5 lgbt Olympians carrying their team flags – Tom Daley (GB), Cindy Ngamba (Refugee team), Michelle-Lee Ahye (Trinidad and Tobago – I’ll write about this flag’s lgbt history in October), Nesthy Petecio (Philippines), and Yulimar Rojas (Venezuela). Yulimar presented an unusual, but not unique, situation. She had qualified for Paris but was injured before her team was selected, but was chosen as flag bearer because she was the reigning Olympic triple jump champion.

At the closing ceremony, Lara Vadlau (Austria) and Ana Patricia Silva Ramos (Brazil) carried their flags, both having become Olympic champions at the games.

There were 76 athletes making their Olympic debut in Paris. Most of them had competed in qualification events for previous Olympics. Of the returning Olympians Carl Hester (GB, equestrian dressage) was making his 7th appearance, equalling the record achieved by the retired Brazilian footballer Maraildes “Formiga” Mota. Two Olympians were making their 6th appearance – Diana Taurasi (USA, basketball) and Tom Daley (GB, diving). They equal Robert Dover’s (USA, equestrian dressage) Olympic appearances. The British media kept referring to Paris as being Tom’s 5th games, but I include the 2010 Youth Olympics which was his 2nd.

Going back to Carl Hester (b.1967), in Rio and Tokyo he was the oldest lgbt competitor. Although he was the oldest medal winner (bronze) in Paris he wasn’t the oldest lgbt competitor this time round. Spanish dressage rider Juan Antonio Jiménez (b.1959) was the oldest. He returned to the Olympics after 20 years having last competed in Athens 2004. This is the biggest gap between appearances for an lgbt Olympian, though he has competed in qualification events in between.

The youngest lgbt Paris Olympian was 19-year-old Linda Caicedo (Colombia, football). She was also the youngest lgbt athlete to compete in a Paris 2024 qualification event. The youngest lgbt medallist in Paris was 20-year-old Evy Leifbarth (USA, bronze, canoe slalom).

Four Olympians won multiple medals. Winning gold and silver were María Perez (Spain, race walk), Sha’Carri Richardson (USA, track athletics), and Lauren Scruggs (USA, fencing). Winning gold and bronze was Amandine Buchard (France, judo). Interestingly, all of their gold medals were won in team events.

In total, 65 members of Team LGBTQ won medals in 43 medal events. This is a record for an “active” Olympic Games. Tokyo 2020 and Rio 2016 have higher medal counts due to medals being added as Olympians at those games came out afterwards. Both Rio and Tokyo had lower medal counts at the close of their games (does that make sense?). As more lgbt Paris Olympians are identified in the future the 2024 medal count is certain to rise.

When it comes to position on the overall medal table, you can look at it two ways – the official way, or the American way. The USA count the total number of medals won regardless of which colour they are (this method allows for nations who, for example, win only 12 bronze medals being placed higher than a nation who win just 11 gold medals). Being an Olympic champion means nothing in this method. So, instead of Team LGBTQ ending up 7th in the overall medal table, the US places us in 3rd place.

There are so many more facts and figures, such as the Olympian who has overtaken the great Ian Thorpe’s medal count to top the Summer Olympic all-time medal table. That can be left for another time, as I’m sure you want to see the new lgbt Olympian list. So here it is.