Organizers of Gay Games 11, the quadrennial international LGBTQ sports event scheduled to take place in Hong Kong in November 2023, announced on Feb. 14 that they have named Guadalajara, Mexico, as the “presumptive” co-host city for the global multi-sport event.

In a joint statement, the Federation of Gay Games, the organization that sponsors the Gay Games, and Gay Games 11 Hong Kong, the host organization in charge of carrying out the 2023 event for the first time in Asia, said pandemic-related travel restrictions that are expected to continue into next year prompted them to consider holding the event in two co-host cities.

“In these unprecedented times, we have to be agile and adaptable to a constantly changing environment,” said Lisa Lam, co-chair of Gay Games Hong Kong, in the statement. “Faced with continued challenges brought on by the COVID pandemic, with the desire to ensure more participants can join the games regardless of their locations, GGHK recently proposed the concept of a co-host event to the FGG (Federation of Gay Games),” Lam said.

Sean Fitzpatrick, co-president of the Federation of Gay Games, said in the statement that the Federation of Gay Games was supportive of this dual city proposal.

“We are energized by this opportunity to organize the first Gay Games in Asia and in Latin America both in November 2023,” he said. With the Gay Games a little less than two years away, Fitzpatrick said “we are embarking on a mountain of feasibility studies and planning to be undertaken in collaboration between the Federation of Gay Games, Hong Kong and Guadalajara” to be able to hold a co-hosted Gay Games.

The joint statement does not say how organizers would divide the Gay Games sporting  competition among two cities. At the time Hong Kong won its bid to host the Gay Games its organizers said there would be 36 sports such as swimming, soccer, volleyball and other specific sports represented at the Hong Kong games.

Guadalajara was named the first runner-up city ahead of D.C., the second runner up city, in the Federation of Gay Games’ competition in 2017 to select the host city for what was expected to be the 2022 Gay Games.

Last September, just under four years after the Federation of Gay Games announced in October 2017 that Hong Kong won the bid to host the Gay Games, the Federation of Gay Games and Hong Kong organizers announced the postponement of the games for one year, to November 2023, due to anticipated pandemic-related restrictions in Hong Kong and in international travel.

At the time the postponement was announced, Gay Games Hong Kong organizers also acknowledged that opposition to the event had surfaced among some officials with the local Hong Kong government believed to be aligned with China. The Federation of Gay Games has also said it would be monitoring the aftereffects of the turmoil in Hong Kong that erupted in 2019 by pro-democracy activists who strongly opposed China’s efforts to exert control of local Hong Kong affairs.

As recently as last month, Gay Games Hong Kong organizers said plans were moving forward smoothly for the games to take place as planned in Hong Kong.

Brent Minor, executive director of the D.C. LGBTQ sports organization Team D.C., which played the lead role in D.C.’s unsuccessful bid to host the Gay Games, said he believes the Federation of Gay Games, and Hong Kong organizers made the right decision to select Guadalajara as a presumptive co-host city for the 2023 Gay Games.

But Minor said that while Gay Games organizers have cited COVID-19 restrictions as their reason for reaching out to Guadalajara to be a co-host city, he has heard from LGBTQ sports organizations in the U.S. and abroad that they have expressed a reluctance to participate in the Gay Games in Hong Kong because of the political turmoil and reports of human rights abuses imposed by China.

“I think that’s why you’re seeing this decision being made,” said Minor, referring to the effort to select Guadalajara as a co-host. “I think COVID is part of it, but I don’t think it’s all of it. I think it would be naïve to think that. I think the other situation in Hong Kong is China has cast a larger and larger shadow,” he said.

“It’s just that the situation on the ground there has changed dramatically,” Minor said. “And many people have questions about safety, questions about their ability to express themselves,” he said. “You don’t want to go to the Gay Games if you can’t hold your boyfriend’s hand.”

Minor and others have said while they hope the situation in Hong Kong improves, it is possible that the entire Gay Games could be moved to Guadalajara if conditions worsen in Hong Kong.

In their Feb. 14 joint statement, the Federation of Gay Games and the Gay Games 11 Hong Kong organization also announced that Dennis Philipse, the founder and co-chair of the Hong Kong Gay Games organizing committee who played a key role in Hong Kong’s bid to host the Games, has resigned from his leadership position.

The statement says Philipse will continue to support the Gay Games’ mission as a member of an advisory committee. It says Nigel Lee, another Gay Games organizer, will serve as acting co-chair until a new co-chair based in Hong Kong is selected.

“Under the theme ‘Unity in Diversity’ the games will feature a wide variety of sporting events, opening and closing ceremonies, a festival village and arts and culture events,” the statement says.