As you may know, there were a few incidents of hate crimes during the Would Outgames week in Copenhagen. I do not know the reasons for these acts and I am sad that it happened when we were supposed to have a joyful and happy week together. I guess some people do not accept other people to be different and that could potentially be the reason for acting this strongly. I would like to know if you have experienced any homophobia or discrimination while being part of the Outgames and perhaps tell me your suggestions on how it would be possible to remove LGBT persons from being a taboo in public settings.
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I travelled from USA to Copenhagen a week before the outgames, so I saw the invasion of people and it was a happy feeling for me. We were everywhere with our brown “Freedom to Love” bags. The people of Copenhagen welcomed us with open arms. Everyone was helpful. The city and the people are beautiful. I was there for the queer tango festival and it was well organized. I felt very comfortable and had no experiences of homophobia. A guy had yelled (out of frustration) “queers go home” at a place that was congested with people. There were no stares or nasty looks. I had one funny instance, where a man I had been dancing with, brought his wife over to talk to me about tango. And, I recall a man who had a big smile on his face when I walked over to ask him to dance. I didn’t care about sexuality, it was just a connection made for the dance. I had a wonderful time with many good experiences and many fond, happy memories.
As a gay male tango dancer in New York, I sometimes get stares, questions, or rude comments when I am dancing passionately with another man but , too, I get many accepting comments. I think for the homophobes, we can never change their feelings because I don’t think they understand why they are afraid.
As I was one of the free helper and safety guard (do not how to call it) my shift was when all the foodball fans where in town. It is often ignorance or not knowing how to deal with people that are different and the combination of that with a couple of beers – not good ;-(
Personally I have to admite that I felt never safer in CPH then this week then people actually smilled at me when they saw at had something gay flag on. Some people started talking to me an asking me thinks what this is about and liked the idea. I have experinced worse things in Germany but also in Irland or UK but again – ignorance does not exist only for gay people but also for people from other religions, skin colour and countries.
Reports of homophobia seemed exaggerated to me. My previous GG/Outgames experience was Sydney where the city seemed to carry on without noticing us too much, Montreal which had a fabulous party night life and a very welcoming city. But Copenhagen was something else. The opening was free and open to everyone, the city museum had a special display, the metro even had a daring picture display, the Cathedral was decked out in rainbow colours and had special services for 4 nights including a mass gay commitment ceremony. In the Grondal Centre alot of the non-outgames kick boxers were getting admiring stares and didn’t seem to mind too much. Scandinavians drink a fair bit and if there were some homophobic slurs I think it was the excess of alcohol. Your average Danes were just fantastic.