by ANDREA ZANIN

Get ready, Montreal… the Outgames cometh. From July 26 to August 5, our fair city will be taken over by hordes of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people here to play, network and party in the biggest sporting and cultural event to hit Montreal since the 1976 Olympics.

The Outgames expect 16,000 participants from 120 countries, along with 250,000 visitors coming to watch. And just to keep it all convenient, all events are taking place within 20 minutes of the Village—at no time will any gay athlete be more than 7.5 kilometres away from a drag-queen bar (phew!).

“Gays in sports are still in one of the last closets, even in modern societies,” says Mark Tewksbury, former Olympian swimmer and Outgames spokesperson par excellence. “Unless you come from the world of sports, you don’t realize how backwards that culture can still be. What makes the Outgames different is that it is really, really gay. Of course it’s open to all—there’s no gay test at the door!”

“The Olympics generally get 8,500 athletes, but we’ve got over 12,000 athletes registered,” says André Lessard, the City of Montreal’s Outgames coordinator. “Events are happening on 40 sites in nine different boroughs. We’re using the Olympic site from ’76 and many more facilities as well. And for the first time, we’re bringing three elements together: sports, culture and human rights. This has never been done before.”

All “athletes” welcome

“We’re not trying to be the gay Olympics,” says Tewksbury. “It’s not about high performance and elitism, it’s about mass participation.”

Events are open to everyone, from seasoned athletes to recreational players; there are no minimum athletic standards to qualify for participation. In fact, according to Tewksbury, “Some sports were chosen on purpose to make sure members of the community were able to participate who maybe weren’t as physically able—bridge, pool, for example.” Other sports not requiring elite athletic ability include bowling and table tennis.

The Outgames’ official statement indicates that the Games welcome everyone, “regardless of their sexual orientation, age, gender, race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, physical challenge, political beliefs, physical ability, athletic/artistic skills or HIV/health status.” That being said, competitive athletes will be happy to learn that the bulk of the Outgames’ events are sanctioned by traditional sports organizations.

“If you break a record at the Outgames, it stands, it’s legit,” says Tewksbury. Not only that, but, “Our opening ceremony is 30 years to the day from the closing ceremonies of the ‘76 Olympics. A bit of woo-woo karma there!”

The Outgames HQ will be Viger Square, where nightly parties, each with a different theme, will go down. Opening night is Cabaret Night, with visitors urged to break out their sequins, heels and feather boas.

Opening and closing ceremonies will take place at the Big O, with k.d. lang headlining a star-studded line-up including Martha (“It’s Raining Men”) Walsh and the Cirque du Soleil. That’s Saturday, July 29, at 7:30 p.m. Tix range from $55–$150. Closing ceremonies (Saturday, Aug. 5, 4 p.m., $35–$100) will feature mega-star Liza Minelli, Tracy Young and Marjo.

Points for sheer gayness

Now, down to the nitty gritty… what do gays play?

First of all, the Outgames sports program features competitions in 35 different disciplines, including a long list of standards—basketball, karate, golf, rowing, soccer, triathlon and beach volleyball, to name a few—as well as a number of particularly queer additions: aerobics (which make the cut for the outfits alone), softball (dyke sport extraordinaire!), figure skating (not exactly standard for July sports competitions, but hey, it’s way gay), wrestling (no baby oil, they promise), physique (bodybuilding, really) and handball (not to be confused with handballing). Near the end of the Games, the Outsplash! water performance competition will take place, pitting a dozen multidisciplinary teams, 30–60 members each, against one another in a fierce battle whose judging criteria include pride, diversity and—ahem—flamboyance.

“All the traditional sports are there,” says Tewksbury. “But there are also sports like synchronized swimming, ballroom dancing and figure skating, which are traditionally done with mixed couples. We offer same-sex couple competition. Not only is it really beautiful, but they move the sport forward—two men or two women, when they move their bodies together, can do different things than a male-female couple can do.”

Slaves, bears and cheerleaders

The culture program includes six activities—considerably fewer than the number of sports, but what they lack in number they make up for in sheer queerness.

The leather contest is definitely not to be missed, with competitions for Mr. and Ms. Leather and Slave; the event will be emceed by famed San Francisco-based kinkster Midori and Bo Ladashevska, Montreal’s current Mr. Leather. Then we have the Bears competition, with gold, silver and bronze medals in the Bear, Cub and Chaser categories. (For those not in the know, bears are a gay subculture that values masculinity in its larger, hairier form.)

And of course there’s the slightly less titillating but no less interesting square dancing, choral groups and bands, cheerleading, and country & Western dancing—the latter with events hosted by Montreal’s own gay line dancing joint, Club Bolo.

Rights around the world

The Outgames LGBT human rights conference, “The Right to Be Different,” takes place from July 26–29, and will culminate in the writing of the Montreal Declaration, to be presented to the UN and national governments with the aim of mobilizing support for LGBT rights.

“Right now we forget that there’re dozens of places you can be executed simply for being gay or lesbian,” Tewksbury says. “At the UN, the International Lesbian and Gay Association was recently denied even observer status with other NGOs. The Montreal Declaration is another way to get the message to international institutions who are really closed to the advancement of LGBT issues.”

The conference runs from Wednesday, July 26 to Saturday, July 29, at Palais des Congrès, and will include some 200 workshops on everything from rights to globalization to HIV to issues facing queers of colour. There are still some places left to register, but the regular package fee is a whopping $525, with a $250 “companion package.”

Condom squad on alert

In preparation for the onslaught, safer-sex organization Action Séro Zéro has partnered with the Outgames and the Clinique du Quartier Latin to work on HIV and STI prevention and health promotion activities especially for the Games.

“We’ve been preparing for months,” says Robert Rousseau, executive director of Séro Zéro (www.sero-zero.qc.ca). “When there are huge numbers of people coming to town, we need to spread our message and do our work differently. We wanted to follow the itinerary of a typical visitor—foreign or from elsewhere in the province—and pinpoint the different places that person might visit, with messages adapted to each place. Bars, boutiques, restaurants, saunas, after-hour clubs—these are the places we’ll be targeting.”

The organization has created a trilingual brochure (English, French and Spanish), hired on five extra hands and created a 60-volunteer Condom Squad to distribute information and rubbers all over the Outgames sites. Their Techno Squad will even be projecting safer-sex messages onto dancers as they perform at parties and clubs.

For more information on venues, prices, parties or to register for the conference, log onto www.montreal2006.org.