Aspen– Forty years ago, Gay Ski Week began with a bar argument about dancing and liberal politics. A group of local guys including Jon Busch, David Hoch, Tom Duesterberg, and Russell Anderson, along with others from the national ski clubs, decided to meet officially every January. They were invited to parties hosted by different ski clubs annually, eventually becoming a tradition. The local’s contribution started out as a welcoming party, but it soon became world renowned.

One party led to another, and soon, costume skiing contests and hot tub extravaganzas began. Even though one may think of Gay Ski Week as discos and pool parties, it’s really about politics and civil rights.

According to the Gay Ski Week website, In 1977, local Jon Busch got in trouble in a bar for dancing with a man. Even in liberal Aspen, gay rights had not made much of an inroad. But, in 1979, Busch and some other local men pushed and secured gay rights protection in Aspen; the first in the state with Boulder and Denver, following suit. All was well until Amendment 2 struck Colorado in 1992, which “revoked and repealed all existing gay rights legislation such as Aspen’s and prevented any further gay rights legislation from being passed either at the local or state level,” (gayskiweek.com). This engaged a national response, activating not only Aspen-ites, Coloradans, but gay people across the country to fight right wing efforts blocking gay rights in Colorado and around the United States. What started as the efforts of local men dancing together in bars turned into a landmark civil rights case. The Supreme Court overturned all laws that criminalized homosexual sex, and set us on the path to full citizenship. Jon Busch and his fellow locals and progressive men had succeeded, and had something true to celebrate as well.

Gay Ski week now offers more than just seven days of skiing and snowboarding. It has daily lunches on and off the mountain, film events, daily apres ski at happy hour, nightly dinners at select restaurants around town, late night dance parties, fashion, boutique & gallery walks, comedy shows, mountaintop parties and indoor pool parties. For lodging, lift tickets, event passes and information you can call 866-564-8398.