A number of great things were being born when the opening ceremonies of Gay Games I brought thousands of celebrating gay and lesbian athletes to San Francisco's Kezar Stadium 28 years ago this week.
One was the liberating concept of a quadrennial sports and cultural festival highlighting the physical strength and emotional vibrancy of the lesbian and gay community. That concept has endured: Games of the eighth Gay Don't-Call-It-"Olympiad" in Cologne, Germany, which ended a few weeks ago on Aug. 7, attracted more than 10,000 athletes from 70 countries.
Another was the three-decade arc of historic irony that carried Vaughn Walker from being a U.S. Olympic Committee lawyer suing the Gay Olympics to drive the trademarked O-word out of its name (and placing an impoverishing lien on the home of the Games' co-founder Tom Waddell) to being the U.S. District Judge who overturned California's anti-gay marriage Prop. 8 on Aug. 4.
And a third great thing being born as Gay Games I filled San Francisco with an international rainbow of athletes and loved ones was the concept of Jessica Waddell Lewinstein, the daughter of Tom Waddell -- a Stanford-trained physician and 1968 U.S. Olympic decathlete -- and Sara Lewinstein, a Gay Games co-founder and outstanding athlete. Jessica came into the world a year later, in 1983.
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