VIII Gay Games - Cologne 2010

I was in Cologne last weekend to attend the Opening Ceremony of the VIII Gay Games, the Olympic Games for members of the LGBT community (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender). The slogan was: "Be part of it". Besides, I took advantage of the situation to visit a city through which I briefly passed 7 years and a half ago, hardly a few hours to see the Cathedral and the Roman-Germanic Museum. I had always wanted to see the opening of the Olympic Games and, although this was not exactly the same, it didn't disappoint me at all and it had that common feeling of unity between all the participants which the usual Olympic Games obviously lacks. It has been a very interesting and enriching experience.

Apart from the ceremony itself -which I liked and didn't find it long despite the 3 hours, although sometimes it was a bit tasteless- it was beautiful to see a stadium with so many people who were either applauding their freedom to be LGBT or supporting others' freedom to be. Almost 10,000 participants from I-don't-know-how-many countries paraded. Some of them were surprisingly present and thus they were especially cheered: countries from SE Asia, Central and South América, Eastern Europe, the poorest Africa and even some Muslim. Sportsmen and women for whom coming here involves not only a massive financial and logistic effort, but also some of them put their own lives in risk to be able to participate secretly in the biggest sport LGBT event of the world. They were also noisily cheered those countries where the rights of the LGBT community in terms of same-sex marriage are the same as those for straight marriage. In short, a great party where we all were united under the same flag IIIIII.

As well as the ceremony and the impressive after-party, it was also great to meet some acquaintances and even some people I have been in contact with online for a while. Especially interesting was to be honoured by the fact of meeting Kile, with whom I am on the photo. Kile is live history of the Gay Games. He has participated in all the Gay Games -except once- and he has been the director and creative producer of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of those in New York 1994 and Chicago 2006! In summary, a true lesson and database with whom it is a real privilege and pleasure to chat and spend some time. On this link you can see a small example of his impressive job in the Opening Ceremony of the VII Gay Games in Chicago 2006.

The experience in this event has been great. The truth is that I didn't even know it existed up to a few months ago, when I moved to Frankfurt and some friends told me: "And you are not going to see them? This year they will be in Cologne!". I checked the chances I had to go, it got my attention, I saw they take place only once every four years, the next one will be in Cleveland and thought that it would be a pity to miss this opportunity. Besides, I have been able to see a bit more of the city, which was very involved with the celebrations, by the way. In short, a great weekend attending a party for the respect to everybody and the sport, where the really important thing is to participate: "Be part of it".