Carrying the flag at Whistler’s WinterPride photo: RainbowTourism

For the first time in Olympic history, gay athletes will have their own meeting place at the winter games.

GayWhistler – the group that sponsors WinterPride, the annual gay party at the Whistler/Blackcomb ski resort – announced Friday that it will set up a special clubhouse called Pride House in partnership with the Pan Pacific Whistler Village hotel, according to Vancouver Sun.

"It is really important to have a safe space for out athletes, coaches, fans, and allies to come and hang out, share their stories, trade pins and have fun," said Dean Nelson, an organizer planning Pride House and one of the founders of WinterPride.

The free facility will be open to gay athletes, their families, friends, and fans. It will offer a lounge, television screens and meeting areas, the Sun reports.

‘Pride House’ planned for gay and lesbian athletes at Vancouver Winter Olympics [contd.]

Whether any athletes will actually take advantage of the facility remains to be seen, since there was, famously, only one out gay athlete at the larger summer games last year, diving champion Matthew Mitcham.

But Nelson told the Sun that Pride House could become a catalyst, making gay and lesbian athletes more comfortable about being out at the Vancouver games.

"We're hoping we can be a catalyst and change that perception, that you can be your authentic self," Nelson said.

An Olympics historian and a professor at the University of Western Ontario told the Sun that the mere existence of the facility is a significant advance “for a traditionally conservative festival like the Olympic Games.”

Professor Robert Walmsley said, “The (International Olympic Committee) has been skirting around the issue of sexuality since it began.”

He explained that because the Olympics are built around the traditional societal model of strong men and feminine women, the games have not been a friendly place for gay men and lesbians in the past.

“It has been an uncomfortable issue for the IOC since the 1920s. That's because sport is one of those forms of culture that has produced a gender binary for western and eastern civilizations,” Walmsley said. “When you start to blur the lines of sexuality people in the past have got the hair on their neck up.”

An example of the official discomfort with non-traditional gender roles arose last week when Canada’s governing board for figure skating called for a campaign to butch up their sport ahead of the 2010 games, ABC News (US) reports.

The group said it hopes to showcase the strength and athleticism that goes into skating, as a way to attract TV viewers who would usually watch baseball, football, or hockey.

As part of the campaign, Canadian skater Jeremy Ten insisted, “It’s just as tough as football. We aren't tackling each other, but we are hitting the ice pretty hard. We’re hitting the boards; we’re scraping our shins and cutting ourselves.”

The reason for the attempted change in the sport’s presentation hasn’t been lost on gay advocacy groups, according to ABC.

"Stereotypically, figure skating is kind of gay,” said Cyd Zeigler, co-founder of OutSports.com. “Gay men tend to be more attracted to figure skating than the average straight male in the United States.”

Zeigler said that gay skaters are particularly offended by the Canadian group’s rebranding plans, which include simpler costumes for male skaters. “They see it as a slap in the face,” according to Zeigler.

Source: Gay athletes get 'safe space' at Olympics | Vancouver Sun
Figure Skating Gets Macho Makeover | ABC News (US)

olympics, vancouver, prov_bc