• 2006

Gay Games

The Gay Games are a sporting and cultural event hosted by the gay and lesbian community. They were started in San Francisco in 1982, the brainchild of Dr. Tom Waddell, whose goals were to promote the spirit of inclusion and participation, and the pursuit of personal best into a sporting event:

The purpose of the Federation of Gay Games (FGG) is to foster and augment the self-respect of lesbians and gay men throughout the world and to engender respect and understanding from the nongay world, primarily through an organized international participatory athletic and cultural event held every four years, and commonly known as the Gay Games.

The Gay Games are open to all who wish to participate, without regard to sexual orientation. There are no qualifying standards to compete in the Gay Games.

The Gay Games bring together athletes and artists from all over the world, many from countries where homosexuality remains illegal and hidden.

Gay Games VI in Sydney, Australia, was the largest sporting event in history, with over 14,000 participants taking part in over 30 sports and cultural events.

List of Gay Games

Name	Location	Opening	Participants
Gay Games I - Challenge '82	San Francisco	August 28, 1982	1 600
Gay Games II - Triumph '86	San Francisco	August 9, 1986	3 500
Gay Games III - Celebration '90	Vancouver	August 4, 1990	9 500
Gay Games IV - Unity '94	New York	June 18, 1994	11 000
Gay Games V - Friendship '98	Amsterdam	August 1, 1998	14 700
Gay Games VI - Under New Skies	Sydney	November 2, 2002]]	12 000
Gay Games VII	Chicago	TBD, 2006

The seventh edition was supposed to take place in Montreal in 2006, but the FGG removed their sanction after it and Montréal 2006 were unable to agree on the size of the games. Montréal 2006 announced its intentions to continue a Games without the sanction of the FGG; the official Gay Games for 2006 have been awarded to Chicago.

External link

• Federation of Gay Games