THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 15, 1994 TAG: 9406150616
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
DATELINE: 940615 LENGTH: Medium
When it comes to gays and athletics, the heterosexual world is easily surprised, to put it mildly.
{REST} ``Gays are sissies. That's the image,'' says Dirk Selland of Virginia Beach. ``The fact is, we're as athletic as the guy next door.''
Selland, 25, a Navy lieutenant junior grade, came out the day after Bill Clinton's inauguration.
Selland played baseball and soccer in high school. He covered sports for the North Carolina State campus radio station. Today, tennis, not sexual politics, is his favorite game.
The cultural aspect of the non-exclusive Games does not excite Selland nearly as much as the opportunity to try out his groundstrokes at Flushing Meadows, site of the U.S. Open.
``The Games are perfect for me,'' he says. ``They'll help me get away from the pressure I've been feeling on my job dealing with `Don't ask, don't tell.' But I've been psyching myself up. I'd love to win.''
David John Moscone says he is attending the Games ``as a person. Sex has nothing to do with it.''
Moscone, 34, who owns David John Hair Design in Ghent, is entered in a body-building category that goes by the name ``physique.''
``No steroids, ever,'' he proclaims.
``Just competing on such a grand scale as this is such a thrill,'' he says. ``I'm there strictly for the sport. Not for Gay Pride.''
By holding the Games in New York, the organizers have turned up the heat on both sides of the sexual debate.
``Those who are against (the Games),'' says Moscone, ``need to seek counseling for their self-image. If people are worried about what's happening to sports in our country, what about Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding? What went on with them was such a goof. They made our country look so silly.''
Breaking down the myths about gays and lesbians is one of the Games' goals. As Beth of Virginia Beach, another bodybuilder bound for New York, says, ``When you mention gay people, the first and only thing the general population thinks about is the bedroom.
``We're not all banner-waving queers,'' she adds. ``We're doing this to be seen as decent human beings. That's why I'm going up there.''
Team Hampton Roads will join athletes from 35 countries who are competing in 31 sports ranging from badminton at Queens College to golf in the Bronx to in-line skating in Brooklyn to same-sex pairs figure skating on Coney Island.
The Games are a chance for a misunderstood minority to celebrate itself in a mainstream setting. What could be more mainstream America than Yankee Stadium, site of the closing ceremonies?
``That,'' says Selland, ``is a coup.''
So, in a smaller way, is a project started by Jim Ballou, a 30-year-old Norfolk bartender. In February, he began publishing ``The Front Runners,'' a newsletter for local gay and lesbians who like to pound the pavement.
Ballou didn't begin road racing because he wanted to contradict stereotypes of homosexuals and athletes. But in his own way, he has. In New York, he'll be running in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, as well as the marathon. The Games are an opportunity, he believes ``for people looking in to say, `These people don't look gay.' ''
For Ballou, the effeminate gay male is a cartoon character unrelated to his own experience.
``It's an act sometimes with some people,'' he says. ``I don't think you need to scream what you are.''
Though the media always cater to the screamers, Ballou hopes coverage of the Games will show the heterosexual community ``how many well-adjusted gay people there are out there.''
So let the Games begin. Let America be surprised.
by CNB