World Outgames
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The World Outgames are a sporting and cultural event hosted by the gay community. With over 12,000 participants, the 1st World Outgames, held in 2006, was the largest international event to be held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada since the 1976 Summer Olympiad. Unfortunately, these first Outgames were not as successful as the organizers had hoped and ended up with a deficit of 5.3 million. Many suppliers were left unpaid after the various governments refused to cover the debt. Here is a link to a story by Montreal's The Gazette about this sitution.
The Outgames are open to all who wish to participate, without regard to sexual orientation. There are no qualifying standards to compete in the games. The Outgames bring together athletes and artists from all over the world, many from countries where homosexuality remains illegal and hidden.
The organization, as well as officials from the City of Montreal, the Province of Quebec and the Government of Canada welcomed 10,248 athletes to participate in games from 29 July to 5 August, alongside about 1,500 participants for an international Conference on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) human rights, including Workers Out. Workers Out is the third international gathering of LGBT trade unionists.and more than 800 for the cultural component of the programme. Approximately 5,200 volunteers worked at the events.
The Outgames are not to be confused with the Gay Games. The seventh edition of the Gay Games was supposed to take place in Montreal in 2006, but the Federation of Gay Games (FGG) removed their sanction after it and Montreal 2006 were unable to agree on the size of the games. The official Gay Games for 2006 have been awarded to Chicago, with just over 12,000 participants. Montreal 2006 announced its intentions to continue organizing the games without the sanction of the FGG; this plan developed into the first edition of the World Outgames, sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association, the city of Montreal, the Province of Quebec, the Government of Canada, GlaxoSmithKline, Air Canada, Labatt Brewing Company, Bell Canada, as well as dozens of other national and international business and media organisations.
The second World Outgames will take place in Copenhagen in 2009, after Berlin refused to stage it amid the concerns of running another deficit and expensive bail-outs by taxpayers, just like what happened in Montreal.
