Sports
Guadalajara to co-host 2023 Gay Games with Hong Kong
Announcement cites pandemic-related restrictions
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.
Sports
Attitude! French ice dancers nail ‘Vogue’ routine
Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry strike a pose in memorable Olympics performance
Madonna’s presence is being felt at the Olympic Games in Italy.
Guillaume Cizeron and his rhythm ice dancing partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry of France performed a flawless skate to Madonna’s “Vogue” and “Rescue Me” on Monday.
The duo scored an impressive 90.18 for their effort, the best score of the night.
“We’ve been working hard the whole season to get over 90, so it was nice to see the score on the screen,” Fournier Beaudry told Olympics.com. “But first of all, just coming out off the ice, we were very happy about what we delivered and the pleasure we had out there. With the energy of the crowd, it was really amazing.”
Watch the routine on YouTube here.
Italy
Olympics Pride House ‘really important for the community’
Italy lags behind other European countries in terms of LGBTQ rights
The four Italian advocacy groups behind the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics’ Pride House hope to use the games to highlight the lack of LGBTQ rights in their country.
Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano organized the Pride House that is located in Milan’s MEET Digital Culture Center. The Washington Blade on Feb. 5 interviewed Pride House Project Manager Joseph Naklé.
Naklé in 2020 founded Peacox Basket Milano, Italy’s only LGBTQ basketball team. He also carried the Olympic torch through Milan shortly before he spoke with the Blade. (“Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie last month participated in the torch relay in Feltre, a town in Italy’s Veneto region.)
Naklé said the promotion of LGBTQ rights in Italy is “actually our main objective.”
ILGA-Europe in its Rainbow Map 2025 notes same-sex couples lack full marriage rights in Italy, and the country’s hate crimes law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. Italy does ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, but the country’s nondiscrimination laws do not include gender identity.
ILGA-Europe has made the following recommendations “in order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Italy.”
• Marriage equality for same-sex couples
• Depathologization of trans identities
• Automatic co-parent recognition available for all couples
“We are not really known to be the most openly LGBT-friendly country,” Naklé told the Blade. “That’s why it (Pride House) was really important for the community.”
“We want to use the Olympic games — because there is a big media attention — and we want to use this media attention to raise the voice,” he added.
Naklé noted Pride House will host “talks and roundtables every night” during the games that will focus on a variety of topics that include transgender and nonbinary people in sports and AI. Another will focus on what Naklé described to the Blade as “the importance of political movements now to fight for our rights, especially in places such as Italy or the U.S. where we are going backwards, and not forwards.”
Seven LGBTQ Olympians — Italian swimmer Alex Di Giorgio, Canadian ice dancers Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver, Canadian figure skater Eric Radford, Spanish figure skater Javier Raya, Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson, and Irish field hockey and cricket player Nikki Symmons — are scheduled to participate in Pride House’s Out and Proud event on Feb. 14.
Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood representatives are expected to speak at Pride House on Feb. 21.
The event will include a screening of Mariano Furlani’s documentary about Pride House and LGBTQ inclusion in sports. The MiX International LGBTQ+ Film and Queer Culture Festival will screen later this year in Milan. Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood is also planning to show the film during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Naklé also noted Pride House has launched an initiative that allows LGBTQ sports teams to partner with teams whose members are either migrants from African and Islamic countries or people with disabilities.
“The objective is to show that sports is the bridge between these communities,” he said.
Bisexual US skier wins gold
Naklé spoke with the Blade a day before the games opened. The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will close on Feb. 22.
More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are competing in the games.
Breezy Johnson, an American alpine skier who identifies as bisexual, on Sunday won a gold medal in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, on the same day helped the U.S. win a gold medal in team figure skating.
Glenn said she received threats on social media after she told reporters during a pre-Olympics press conference that LGBTQ Americans are having a “hard time” with the Trump-Vance administration in the White House. The Associated Press notes Glenn wore a Pride pin on her jacket during Sunday’s medal ceremony.
“I was disappointed because I’ve never had so many people wish me harm before, just for being me and speaking about being decent — human rights and decency,” said Glenn, according to the AP. “So that was really disappointing, and I do think it kind of lowered that excitement for this.”
Puerto Rico
Bad Bunny shares Super Bowl stage with Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga
Puerto Rican activist celebrates half time show
Bad Bunny on Sunday shared the stage with Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl halftime show in Santa Clara, Calif.
Martin came out as gay in 2010. Gaga, who headlined the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, is bisexual. Bad Bunny has championed LGBTQ rights in his native Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
“Not only was a sophisticated political statement, but it was a celebration of who we are as Puerto Ricans,” Pedro Julio Serrano, president of the LGBTQ+ Federation of Puerto Rico, told the Washington Blade on Monday. “That includes us as LGBTQ+ people by including a ground-breaking superstar and legend, Ricky Martin singing an anti-colonial anthem and showcasing Young Miko, an up-and-coming star at La Casita. And, of course, having queer icon Lady Gaga sing salsa was the cherry on the top.”
La Casita is a house that Bad Bunny included in his residency in San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, last year. He recreated it during the halftime show.
“His performance brought us together as Puerto Ricans, as Latin Americans, as Americans (from the Americas) and as human beings,” said Serrano. “He embraced his own words by showcasing, through his performance, that the ‘only thing more powerful than hate is love.’”
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