Gay Games

The Gay Games are a series of multi-sport and culture events occurring every four years, as one of the largest sporting events in the world.

Understand

History

The Gay Games is a worldwide sport and cultural event that promotes acceptance of sexual diversity, featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) athletes, artists and other individuals.

GayOlympicGames, 1982 San Francisco

Founded as the Gay Olympics, it was started in the United States in San Francisco, California, in 1982, as the brainchild of Olympic decathlete (Mexico City 1968) and medical doctor Tom Waddell, Brenda Young, and others, whose goals were to promote the spirit of inclusion and participation, as well as to promote the pursuit of personal growth in a sporting event. Waddell wanted to recreate the Olympics' power to bring people of various different backgrounds together through the international language of sport, and the organizers of the first event strived to accommodate differences and achieve gender parity.

They Games expanded the sport options both in terms of disciplines and ability to perform in same-sex pairs, as well as mixed team. The games are open to all who wish to participate, without regard to sexual orientation, and there are no qualifying standards. Idea of non-national, but rather the flexible city team representation was one of the key innovations in the first instance of the event, as competitors come from many countries, including those where homosexuality remains illegal and hidden.

Tom Waddell, intended them to be called the "Gay Olympics", but a lawsuit filed less than three weeks before 1982's inaugural Gay Olympics forced the name change. This forced volunteers to suspend the sales of buttons and t-shirts in order to remove the terms "Olympic" and "Olympiad" from medals, souvenirs, t-shirts, signs, and programs.

Gay Games, 1994 New York City

The 1994 Gay Games, held in June in New York City to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the modern start of the LGBT movement in the United States, "overtook the Olympics in size" with 10,864 athletes compared to 9,356 at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and 10,318 at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Host Cities

Although the Games are usually said to be hosted in a particular city, in practice the events often take place in various cities around the host city. Sailing events also often have to be held in alternative locations if the host city is not a coastal city. In rare cases, certain events may also take place outside the host country as do the Olympics Games also.

• 1982 and 1986 in San Francisco, United States
• 1990 in Vancouver, Canada
• 1994 in New York City, United States
• 1998 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• 2002 in Sydney, Australia
• 2006 in Chicago, United States
• 2010 in Cologne, Germany
• 2014 in Cleveland and Akron, United States
• 2018 in Paris, France
• 2023 in Hong Kong, China – Guadalajara, Mexico (delayed and distributed due to Covid-19 pandemic)

Upcoming Games

• 2026 in Valencia, Spain

Organization

The FGG (Federation of Gay Games) is the independent organization that licences and supports organizing of the Gay Games. They work with international and national sports federations, as well as LGBT+ sports organizations to set the rules for the competitions in GayGames, and with their member organizations to select which city will host the next Games. Local organizers usually establish a dedicated non-profit but professionalized or semi-profesionalized organization to manage and coordinate the event with the city, sport federations, partners, sponsors and the communities involved.

Getting tickets

Accessibility of tickets varies greatly. Opening and closing ceremonies are fairly desired, as are finals and medal ceremonies of some sports, while tickets to minor events can in some cases be obtained at entrance for free or the event is not ticketed at all.

Talk

The official languages of the Games, and the FGG is English. To some extent, ceremonies are conducted in other languages as well as a primary language of the host city/region. Realistically, English is the most widely used language, with much information, signage, and announcements only in English (as well as the host country's language, if different).

Sign language is not standardized, and organizers may use the host nation's most common sign language, a sign language lingua franca, or International Sign (which is really just a pidgin form of communication rather than a full language).

Sleep

Availability of travel accommodation has varied a lot between games. As a general rule: The smaller the city, the bigger the price-gouging. Organizers try to facilitate discounted accommodation with partners, sponsors and subsidized/free accommodation for some of the participants in hosted housing of local supporters.

GayGames-related exhibitions and cultural events

There are museums related to the sports, that open dedicated exhibitions about Gay Games when they are hosted like in Amsterdam and Cologne during GayGames. Many other cultural institutions and organization adapt their programs to LGBT+ sport participants and fans for the week of the Games or longer. Most often exceptional concerts and performances, as well as parties are programmed with both international participants and local professionals and enthusiasts.

Others

Besides the Games, there are also other multi-sport events that are organised loosely based on the format of the Games, albeit on a smaller scale. These typically focus on specific regions, and often feature less of a cultural, sometimes more of a political and academic programs like conferences, seminars and alike.

EuroGames

The EuroGames is an annual EGLSF (European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation) licenced event for athletes with focus on European countries. Although the sports are largely the same as the Games, with less North-american and more regional sports, modifications are made to fit the long weekend forma rather than a full week.

IGLA Championship

The IGLA Championships is an annual IGLA (International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics) licenced event for athletes with focus on aquatic sports, sometimes integrated with Gay Games or (former) World OutGames, sometimes with EuroGames, but also often independent.

Gay Winter-sports Festival

Gay Winter-sports Festival held annually in Whistler, British Columbia hosts mostly North American winter sports enthusiasts