How Gay Are We: Boy George Rocks the White Party

The crowd waved glow sticks, spun flags and threw up inflatable beach balls as dancers grooved with glow-in-the-dark Hula-Hoops to the high-energy beats of internationally known disc jockey, Marc Vedo, and Cleveland-based Evan Evolution at the Gay Games White Party. Despite a torrential downpour, hundreds dressed in head-to-toe white filled Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica Monday night. Host Veranda L'Ni, who also hosts Twist Social Club's Drag Bingo, announced $1 for every White Party ticket would be donated to a new LGBT fund at the Cleveland Foundation in memory of John Katsaros, longtime gay activist and former owner of Twist who died in February.

Boy George, the former Culture Club frontman who just released his first full-length album in more than 18 years, took control of the LED-lit DJ booth, mixing cult classic's such as the Eurythmic's "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)." Partygoers included Mary Zaller, director of development for the Gay Games, Jennifer Downey, owner of Ambiance, and Gay Games executive director, Tom Nobbe. "I was talking to some ladies who are here from the United Kingdom and they said, 'I hope it's alright to say but I'm thinking that Cleveland is the San Francisco of the Midwest,"said Nobbe earlier in the evening. "We've been telling our region for the last two years that the Gay Games are coming, and they are stepping up and welcoming everybody and that is what this is all about."