ABSTRACT
Gay Games IV had it all: international media profile, commercialisation, sponsorship breakthrough, professionalisation, community diversity and global involvement. The Games were organised to be the biggest, glitziest, most visible, most professionally organised, most legitimising Games held so far. Organisers deliberately set out to make the most of what many consider to be the media, commercial, cultural and fashion centre of the world – New York City. An estimated million gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, straight and transgender people from around the world attended these Games, and the 25-year celebration of the Stonewall riot that had been taken up internationally as the watershed event marking gay liberation. This made for very diverse and international participation (Outrage 1994: 20).
