The team Rehoboth golfers traveled to Chicago last week for the Gay Games. We got reports from the front! The Gal golfers included a team of four: Deb Ward, Barbara Thompson, Anita Pettit and Diane Brikbeck. Also playing, in another foursome was Evie Simmons. Marie Murray went to Chicago to accompany the golfers and as a volunteer basketball referee.

Anita: Imagine a bunch of crazy lesbians, starting the day at 3:30 a.m. in Philadelphia, arriving in Chicago, registering, rushing to the South side of Chicago, (yes we sang "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown"), playing a practice round in 110 degree heat index (no carts available!) then rushing to shower and get to Soldier Field by 5 p.m.—then standing around in 90+ degrees for four hours for the procession.

Marie: We gathered outside the stadium under signs with either our country or state. Our smallest state did not have the smallest number of participants. Wyoming had one person.

Deb: For me the Games represents a journey.... It started as a suggestion to Barb and Anita that we should try (to compete). Personally, I achieved so much more—incredible friendships with my team mates and their partners! I know this will be more important than any medals we might win.

Evie: (who brought her Segway with her) I’m having a great time Segway’n around! The best part was being with everyone before going into the stadium. There were the bible thumpers on bull horns telling us we were all sinners, etc., etc. Some Florida queens in feathers gave them quite a show!

Anita: It all seemed so exhausting, until we walked onto the field. Overwhelming excitement! After all the countries entered, the lights went out and each participant had a colored light stick, arranged so our rows represented the rainbow flag—awestruck was the mood!

Evie: Running (on my Segway) out onto the field was great. Hearing the cheering crowds was just incredible. Seeing all the athletes on the field, I never knew there were so many gay people in the world!

Marie: I kinda felt like a rock star. The rainbow of lights covered all of Soldier field.We were Orange—did you see us?

Anita: Sunday was a scorcher, with practice golf, dehydration, exhaustion, but lots of laughs.

We golfed Monday and Tuesday—at a city course—with challenges other than golf.

Streets run right through the course, with blaring stereos and screeching tires; kids walked through the course, dared you to hit at them and, as they walked past your ball in the fairway, made a trick move to make the ball disappear into their pockets—then deny, deny, deny…

We don’t expect Team Rehoboth to bring home the gold… but we sure showed them we know how to have fun.

Evie: I golfed with some nicewomen from Chicago. It was extremely hot—I thought I might turn into one big electrolyte from all the Gatorade. On Tuesday people (if you can call them that) threw beer bottles at the golfers on the course.The police are treating it as a hate crime.

We went to the Ballroom Dancing program. The women were great but the men were fabulous. They wore tuxes or hot tight outfits. The Latin dancing sizzled!

Mark Thompson from Rehoboth came in with a great time in the triathlon. He beat the goal he had set for himself by 12 minutes. Great, Mark!

Marie: As a basketball referee, I bragged about being inside while the golfers endured the heat. Well,I arrived at the gym—a very old building with no air conditioning! They brought in fans that just blew warm air around—now I know why they call it windy city. Within 10 minutes sweat was pouring down my legs...and I was just watching! For breakfast I had Gatorade instead of coffee.

I refereed three games on Sunday— one being the 50+ women’s division which plays only using half court and only three players on each team. One basketball violation gives the ball to the other team if you stay in the key for more than three seconds. Before the game, this team said "we are old, so don’t expect us to move quickly—if we fall down in the key, it takes us more than three seconds to even stand up so please don’t call a violation if we fall down."

In one game, it was the Lez Be Friends versus Boom Shakers. Lez Be Friends wore dark blue tops and Boom Shakers wore light blue jerseys. I couldn’t call both teams "Blue " so a Boom Shaker said "our jerseys are reversible— the other side is white, do you want us to switch?" When I said "Yes," the entire team of 16+ players stripped off their shirts to reveal 16 sports bras in many sizes and colors. The crowd, from all the laughing, was delighted, and, it it took several minutes to compose ourselves to start the game.

Riding the "L" we met some guys who had competed in Martial Arts. I joked with one athlete and found out that his partner was there to support him. Of course, I said we always need more "athletic supporters" and the guy answered: "Well, with him behind me—I always win." We all busted out laughing.

Deb: Today I watched my girl as she "Ref’d" basketball. I am so proud of her...she was reffing on the center court for the Men’s Open Games. To have a woman ref in the top level of the Men’s Open games...that’s not typical and to me (granted, I am biased...) it speaks volumes about the quality she contributed to the Games.

Anita: When we watched Marie ref, water polo was in the same building. I learned a lot about water polo. I also got to see good looking men and women from all over the world in Speedo bathing suits. Woo-Hoo!!!

Friday night’s Melissa Etheridge concert had thousands of athletes in the theater. At closing ceremonies, Cindy Lauper performed in a rainbow colored gown and sang "True Colors." The drill teams and cheerleaders stole the show.

Deb: It is really quite incredible to walk the streets of Chicago and see so many Gay and Lesbian athletes blanket the city. We truly took over the town.

Anita: I can’t say enough about the beautiful city of Chicago—very welcoming—and on every bus or train, we saw athletes wearing their credentials.

Evie: Went to dinner at Tomboy’s—a woman owned restaurant with great food and music. We realized how lucky we are to have such fabulous choices in Rehoboth-we don’t have to drive to a major city for gay culture.

Anita: Every athlete tries to exchange pins with other athletes— we had great Rehoboth pins with a dolphin on it, and ours were in demand. I exchanged with Chicago, Atlanta, Finland, Dallas, and San Francisco. Some athletes had a pin from every team that entered. It was truly unforgettable. In four years the Games will be in Cologne, Germany. Pack your bags now!

Photos by Maureen Keenan, Rich Williams, and Judy Rolfe.

Rich Williams, Lisa Laurie (tennis) received a gold medal in mixed doubles, A division. Rich tied for fifth place in a field of 102 in A Men’s singles losing in three sets to the top seed in the quarterfinals.

Doug Graham (physique masters, ages 50-59) received a silver medal.

Bill McManus (cycling) placed seventh in his age division.

Troy Roberts, Jim Nolan, Guy Abernathey (bowling) all advanced to the social singles preliminary round.

Anita Pettit (golf) placed fifth in her division.

Mark Thompson (triathalon) placed sixth in his age group.

The Golf Team all achieved a personal best.