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US Decathlete Tom Waddell at 1968
Olympic Games in Mexico City |
After Lech Walesa' recent homophobic outburst (the latest of at least three in the last 2.5 decades) San Francisco supervisor
Jane Kim
said today that she is considering introducing legislation at next
week's board meeting to change the name of the former Ivy Street, now renamed for Walesa, to honor instead Dr. Tom Waddell, a gay US decathlete who placed 6th at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, who publicly defended the two black, 200-meter track and field athletes who
famously gave black power salutes on the winner's platforms, who founded the Gay Games (originally called the Gay Olympics until the US Olympic Committee sued it over the Olympic trademark even though it had previously allowed other infringements by events such as the Rat Olympics). Waddell
had a child with a lesbian friend, was half of the first gay couple to appear on the cover of People Magazine and died of AIDS-related complications in 1987.
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