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Apparently, though, other members of the mainstream press didn't find it at all fascinating, impressive, or newsworthy, that over three-hundred corporations decided to sponsor Gay Games VII, including Walgreens, Orbitz, Absolut Vodka, American Airlines, Ernst & Young, Gatorade, Nike, Best Buy, Kraft, Aon, CAN, Chipotle, Merrill Lynch, and Motorola.

Sadly, some rightwing Christian groups paid more attention to the games than did the mainstream press.

LifeSiteNews.com (part of the Campaign Life Coalition) reported in with a John Jalsevac story on how, despite rumors to the contrary, Chicago's Cardinal Francis George denied allegations by the gay-activist Rainbow Sash Movement that the archdiocese and he were in any way supportive of the 2006 Gay Games.

AgapePress.com reported on the Illinois Family Institute (IFI) plan to launch a “Love and Truth Offensive” to tell Gay Games participants Christ could save them. Meanwhile, Alan Keyes' website RenewAmerica wondered when there would be a special games for adulterers or pedophiles, while Doug Powers of World Net Daily also penned a sarcastic anti-gay column.

Other more positive mentions were Georgia's Macon Telegraph reporting about the novelty and spectator-popularity of same-sex couples competing in pairs figure skating.

Kentucky's Lexington Herald-Leader ran a thoughtful article on what participating in the games meant to its foreign competitors.

Kaisernetwork.org came out with The Chicago Tribune's examination of HIV-positive Game VII athletes.

There appeared, in Missouri's Kansas City Star, Miriah Meyer's truly inspirational Chicago Tribune piece about athletes, including Olympic medal-winner Greg Louganis, who battled the obstacle of being HIV-positive to participate in the Games.

Closing ceremonies took place Saturday at Chicago's Wrigley Field and provided numerous opportunities for mainstream media coverage. Chicago's Mayor participated, as did singer Cyndi Lauper, decked out as a rainbow-hued Statue of Liberty.

There was the usual prep-rally coverage by the on-site Chicago Sun-Times, Tribune, and CBS2.

SI.com gave a more than respectable summing up.

BBC News' headline was “Flamboyant Finale for Gay Games” while the U.K.'s Guardian Unlimited ran an article by Ros Krasny piece, “Swifter, Higher, Fabulous: Gay Games aren't a Drag.”

When AfterElton.com contacted sports desks at various newspapers around the country about their lack of coverage, most declined to respond. The Boston Herald's Joe Thomas confused Gay Games with Day Games. When corrected, he seemed genuinely apologetic: “I didn't even know any Gay Games were going on.”

Nor, apparently did many of his colleagues.

“There are many national, international, and local mass-participation events that we would like to cover,” the Denver Post's Senior Editorial Assistant P. Hoffman told AfterElton. “Unfortunately, we have limited space in our sports section. We regret that over the years we have not been able to cover even the Goodwill Games, etc.”

Kevin Boyer, who manages public relations for Games VII , isn't sure he can agree with an assessment that there was a lack of mainstream coverage.

“We had something like 440 TV segments over the mid-game weekend and coverage in most major dailies at some point,” says Boyer.

Most of the TV segments likely occurred in the Chicago area, although Boyer couldn't provide a tally including that information.

A Denver Channel 7 “weather” segment did show how athletes in the Chicago Games (no mention of the Gay Games) were adversely affected by the unseasonable heat. Indeed, the only widespread national mention of the games occurred in an article about the heat wave baking most of the nation.

As for national television news coverage by ABC, NBC, or CBS there apparently was none.

Clearly, the Gay Games are not on par with other major athletic events such as the Olympics, the Superbowl, or the NBA finals. Nonetheless, they are a significant occasion especially being noteworthy for defying stereotypes concerning the athletic prowess of gay men.

Indeed, when Walgreens, Kraft, and Merrill Lynch deem the games worthy of their time and attention it's even more puzzling that the media couldn't be bothered.

Whether it was lack of manpower, fear of viewer backlash, or simply indifference, last week most mainstream media outlets fumbled an opportunity to cover a story well worth telling.

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