For those of you who are miffed that Cleveland got it, you have your gay ghettos to sulk in. We have enough obstacles here, but this is a moment for gays in this city that hasn’t begun to sink in. It’s hugely positive. The organizers busted their asses. They worked beyond hard. They achieved something that is a solid base for expanding the gay face of this city and region. How many of you will willingly go to Florida, but then trash-talk this? Stop being a stereotypical faggot and see this as an achievement for gays in every corner of the US, those who don’t have the luxury of taking rights and liberties for granted (I’m especially talking to you in Hillcrest, WeHo, Silverlake, and the entire city of SF). How ’bout you help build us up and mark another city on the map as truly gay-friendly? You snub us, then you’re part of the problem. We want you here. Help us step up instead of being another factor keeping us back. We did get this far without outside help, so don’t be so quick to put us down.

I’m stunned. Happy, HELL YEAH, but stunned. The people who worked on this bid achieved something huge. First, this may be a big sports market, but it’s not known as Gay Central by any means (unless you’re Amish and come from Holmes County, or Middlefield). We’re in the middle of a local gov’t scandal–last week it came out that the contractor which oversees commercial property assessments may be involved in a huge and growing bribery and corruption scandal. We’ve seen one failure after another for 40 years, and it seems like we don’t have the will to clean up the many messes that are of our own making–entrenched racism, collapse of the inner city, endless fragmentation of government and public services, public corruption, pro sports teams that can’t win even with massive public subsidies–but somehow this worked.

How? The organizers of Cleveland’s bid for the Gay Games got their shit together before they did anything. No turf battles, no contest of egos, none of the usual things here. Gay Cleveland isn’t like the gay establishment in LA, or NYC, or Toronto or Chicago–we barely exist. Somehow these people assembled their presentation, built a strong case, and rallied support from across the region. We actually did it. None of the “comeback” bullshit (we’re just as battered and decayed as Detroit), none of the Potemkin-village fantasy of “revival” when our problems are as bad as parts of East Germany. It was a practical and realistic bid. No, we’re not DC and we’re not Boston. We’re a hard city and could eat either one with our attitude–except we don’t have the confidence to follow through. But this is different, not least because it’s a huge achievement, and it’s a GAY achievement in a city and region still kinda squeamish about gayness (we still have bars where you have to be buzzed in, speakeasy-style). The sports bid was the easy part; most people don’t realize that the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Museum of Art have global standing, and we have a local arts scene that’s surprisingly strong given the weakness of our local economy.

We did it. We got it right. We proved that Cleveland doesen’t have to equal loser, and it was gays who proved that. This is an opportunity that very few cities like ours will get–not so much the big public spectacle, but the window for gays to assert themselves as major players. That’s where the bulk of my gratitude lies, and I sure as hell hope that’s the legacy these games leave in Cleveland (and the rest of Northeast Ohio). Rockin’!