Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Pride House to make a statement in Vancouver 2010 nightlife


The Pride House will make its debut in the Vancouver Olympic village as a safe place for gay athletes to gather and socialize. Traditionally, during each Olympics, various clubs and places for social gatherings are designed specifically for the Olympic Village (The Russian House, The Dutch House, etc etc). This will be the first year that a "house" that caters to the LGBT community will be present. The house will welcome everyone: gay, straight, young, or old. Those in support of the club, including Gay Whistler and the Gay and Lesbian International Sports Association, fear that many athletes (gay, straight, open or not) will avoid the house and it's social nightlife due to the negative stigma that still surrounds homosexual athletes. The Pride House, however, will hopefully be a platform for change and presents a great opportunity to help reverse the negative stigma. Sports, and especially the Olympics, have historically been a great stage for making social statements and progressing important movements. Tommie Smith and John Carlos went down in history for their Black Power salute at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and broke major headway for the Civil Rights movement. Perhaps the Pride House is a sign that change is in the air for the 2010 Olympics as well.

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