Word: clevelandism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Cleveland's bid beat Boston's and Washington's. For a city still suffering from the foreclosure crisis, massive population flight and 40 years of industrial decline, besting larger and more famously gay-friendly cities represents a major coup. The games will attract between 50,000 and 70,000 people to athletic events in Cleveland and Akron, according to the federation's estimates, and inject over $60 million into the local economy. "We hit the mother lode," says Doug Anderson, founder of the Cleveland Synergy Foundation, which led the effort to attract the games. "I think we'll have great...
...Chicago and President Obama compete for the Olympics. Cleveland - yes, Cleveland! - just won the Gay Games. Citing the city's world-class athletic facilities, hotels and public transportation, the Gay Games Federation announced that Cleveland will host the games in 2014. An abundance of enthusiasm, some Midwestern pluck and a boisterous night on Lake Erie didn't hurt. "It was obvious that these guys worked very hard on this for over a year," says Darl Schaaff, who led the site-selection committee for the federation. "The level of community support was just amazing...
...over 16,000 gay and straight amateur athletes from around the world. (The event was originally called the Gay Olympics until the International Olympic Committee asked the Gay Games Federation to cease and desist.) Athletes compete in more than 30 sports, from track and field to table tennis. The Cleveland games will be the first to include a gay rodeo. (See a pictorial history of gay liberation...
Perhaps most important is the opportunity to recast the region's image, local leaders say. In the national psyche, Cleveland remains a blue collar factory town in a conservative farm state, neither of which are particularly innovative or gay-friendly. "We've never really gone to the heartland," says Schaaff, who lives in Anchorage, Alaska. "Here was an opportunity to boldly go to a place that is perhaps not recognizable throughout the world as a gay center, but where real change is starting to happen...
...Cleveland instituted a registry for domestic partners in May. The Ohio house of representatives passed a bill on Sept. 15 that would make it illegal to discriminate against gay people in housing and in the workplace. The same day, Cleveland's city council passed a law guaranteeing the Gay Games $2 million in cash and in-kind contributions. "The city of Cleveland is prepared to roll out the welcome mat to the LGBT athletes, their families and spectators from around the world," Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson said in a press release...