Team Sydney
Supports GLISA, OutGames
Sydney - Team Sydney is
pleased to announce that it has submitted its membership
application for GLISA. The board of Team Sydney feel that
membership of both the Federation of Gay Games and GLISA is
very much in line with our goals and objectives and
complements us in fulfilling our mandate to promote sporting
opportunities for our members in Sydney.
The goal of the Federation of
Gay Games is to promote a dynamic and vibrant four year
event; an event that has grown over the years to a truly
global celebration of sports and culture. Sydney is proud to
have hosted the latest edition of these Games. It was a
wonderful experience for us and for the world and we are
delighted that we have carried the torch that was lit by a
single man, Dr. Tom Waddell, in 1982 in San Francisco.
Team Sydney has been a committed
member of the Federation of Gay Games for over 12 years, but
is very concerned with the aggressive approach that the
Federation, and particularly individual Federation
Directors, are taking to this present situation.
GLISA is targeted at promoting
and supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender sport
by providing a host of services complemented by a series of
regular continental events and an international event every
four years. It is bringing together the GLBT sports world in
a fair, democratic and transparent manner and is promoting a
business model that is financially viable and sustainable in
the long term. While it is true that GLISA was founded by a
few dedicated individuals from the global GLBT sports
community, this group has taken its vision to the world and
have, within a few months, convinced sports federations and
clubs around the world to join them in that vision.
Team Sydney will be proud to be
one of these members and we believe that, just as it took a
brave Tom Waddell to go against the well-intentioned advice
of nay-sayers in 1982 and created the Gay Games, the group
who created GLISA, despite the resistance of some, has set
up an organisation that will bring further benefits and a
lasting positive effect to the global GLBT sporting
community.
The actions some FGG Director
Organizations are taking to this situation are further
deepening international divisions within our community. This
is not necessary. We do not feel that this should be about
the survival of one or the other organisation because of the
financial strength of a particular geographic region. Such a
suggestion is divisive, belligerent and elitist and runs
against one of the most basic principles upon which this
movement was built: inclusion. Any Director Organization of
the FGG who issues such statements is clearly in breach of
the most elementary principles they have committed
themselves to support.
Team Sydney feels that both
organizations can exist and prosper given the size of the
international GLBT sporting community and the differences in
the mission and the services of the FGG and GLISA. Team
Sydney encourages other FGG Director Organizations to review
what GLISA has to offer and make their own decisions
regarding their memberships.
Further, Team Sydney applauds those parties
who are presently calling for reconciliation within the GLBT
movement and offers our support. We invite other sport
federations, teams and clubs to likewise support the
reconciliation effort. Whatever comes out of the
discussions, any lessening of the present division can only
be advantageous to the GLBT sports movement.
