The Gay Games are coming to Evanston.
Northwestern University has agreed to host several sports for the quadrennial event, to be based in Chicago next summer.
“I think it means great exposure,” Ald. Steven Bernstein said. “Anytime you bring people to the community, it’s a plus. They see how wonderful it is, they make mental notes and they come back.”
The City Council approved the event earlier this month, said Bernstein, head of the Human Relations Committee, which reviewed the plans.
Events will be held in Welsh-Ryan Arena, the Sports Pavilion and Aquatic Center, and outdoor tennis courts, said Alan Cubbage, the school’s vice president for university relations. Sports will include tennis, squash, racquetball, diving, water polo and wrestling, he said.
Games organizers approached Northwestern about using the facilities, and the school was happy to help, Cubbage said. “It’s essentially a rental,” he said. “We’re just providing a venue.”
The Gay Games, which are open to anyone, have sparked ire; some groups have threatened boycotts against sponsors of the Chicago Games. Bernstein, though, does not foresee any difficulties for Evanston.
“I’m sure in 2005 there are still people who are offended by different lifestyles, and I think that’s regrettable,” he said. “[But] Evanston is a very progressive community, very understanding of other people’s needs or wants. … I don’t expect that there are going to be any problems.”
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Police Department has become the first major law-enforcement sponsor of the Chicago Games and will allow officers to march in uniform during the opening ceremony, the department announced Thursday.
The Los Angeles department also will recruit officers at the Games, the first time it has recruited outside Southern California in four years and the first time in recent memory that it has recruited in Chicago, said Officer Michael Jolicoeur, who oversees the department’s gay and lesbian recruitment.
“There are two messages. No.1, we are hiring,” he said. “And they can be whoever they are, no matter what that is.”
At least 12 Los Angeles officers have signed up to compete in the Games and plan on wearing their police uniforms during the event’s opening ceremony, scheduled for July 15 at Soldier Field, Jolicoeur said.
The ability to march in official uniforms was approved by Police Chief William Bratton, Jolicoeur said.
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