On Saturday, February 3, International FrontRunners and the Federation of Gay Games held the kickoff of their quadrennial International Rainbow Memorial Run, which raises awareness both of the Gay Games and AIDS – a debilitating illness and an empowering event whose histories are interwoven in the defining moments of our community.

reprinted with permission from the Bay Area Reporter

If We Remember, Nothing Is Lost

Previous Tom Waddell Award winners Gene Dermody, left, Brent Nicholson Earle, and Sara Waddell Lewinstein, attended the International Rainbow Memorial Run in San Francisco, which ended at United Nations Plaza. Photo: Eduardo Guardarramas

By Roger Brigham

The memorial run always begins in San Francisco – birthplace of the Gay Games and a crucial battleground for so much of the fight against AIDS – but has substantially changed with evolving circumstances through the years. Tom Waddell Award-winner Brent Nicholson Earle first organized it in 1990 as a relay run to Vancouver – the first time the Gay Games were held outside of San Francisco. Four years later it was a rollerblade relay across the country to New York City, host of Gay Games IV.

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