The XI Gay Games 2023, also known as Gay Games 11, GGHK2023, GGGDL2023 and Hong Kong - Guadalajara Gay Games 2023, were an international

multi-sport event A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of intern ...

and cultural gathering organised by, but not limited to

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

, and

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

(

LGBTQ+ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The group i ...

) athletes, artists and musicians, known as

Gay Games The Gay Games is a worldwide sport and cultural event that promotes acceptance of sexual diversity, featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) athletes, artists and other individuals. Founded as the Gay Olympics, it was s ...

.The History of LGBT Participation in the Olympics
It was held from November 3 to November 11, 2023, in both

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Originally planned to take place from 11 to 19 November 2022, it was eventually rescheduled as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong The COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong is part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Hong Kong on ...

Bidding process

was announced as the host city of the 11th Gay Games, at a gala event at the Hotel de Ville in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, on October 30, 2017. They won with a clear majority of votes, in the first round of voting by the delegates of the Federation of Gay Games. It is the first time that the

will be held in Asia. The "longlist" of cities interested in bidding to host Gay Games XI in 2022 was announced in April 2016. An unprecedented seventeen cities were interested in bidding. On 30 June 2016, the Federation of Gay Games announced that eleven cities had submitted their Letter Of Intent to formally bid. Anaheim, Atlanta, Des Moines, Madison, Minneapolis and San Antonio decided not to pursue their option to bid. On July 31, 2016, nine cities submitted their second registration fee to remain in the bid process. Both

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

and

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

dropped out at this stage, stating an intention to bid for Gay Games XII in 2026. On November 30, 2016, Bid Books were submitted by eight candidate cities with

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

dropping out at this stage. A shortlist of three Candidate Cities was announced on March 1, 2017.

, Hong Kong and

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

, hosted site visits before the final decision on the host city was made in Paris on Monday 30 October. On 14 February 2022, Guadalajara was added as the co-host of this games.

Postponement and co-hosting

In September 2021, the organisers announced that the 2022 Gay Games would be postponed one year, to November 2023, due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and Hong Kong's strict travel quarantine protocols. Due to the uncertain situation in Hong Kong, in February 2022, after 7 years (of which the last 2 years full-time) in volunteer capacity, Dennis Philipse stepped down from his role as leader to focus on his professional life. The decision was also made to co-host the Gay Games 11 event between Hong Kong and Guadalajara (Mexico), as Guadalajara was the 2nd winner running up. The two cities held nearly half of the sports competitions of the games.

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony was originally scheduled for 11 November 2022, before being postponed to 3 November 2023. It was held in Hong Kong at the

Queen Elizabeth Stadium The Queen Elizabeth Stadium is an indoor sport facility on the Morrison Hill in Wan Chai, on the Hong Kong Island of Hong Kong. First opened in 1980, it has a 3,500-seat arena, gymnasia, squash and badminton courts, and a multi-purpose hall. ...

in the

Wan Chai Wan Chai (Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: 灣仔) is located in the western part of Wan Chai District on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It is bounded by Canal Road, Hong Kong, Canal Road to the east, Arsenal St ...

area. A March-in parade was held, with the GGHK Hosting Committee leading the march, followed by the board of the Federation of Gay Games, representatives of the city of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

which hosted the first Gay Games, athletes from participating nations, and representatives of Hong Kong. A

lion dance Lion dance ( zh, s=舞狮, t=舞獅, p=wǔshī, c=, first=t) is a form of traditional dance in Culture of China, Chinese culture and other Asian countries in which performers mimic a Asiatic lion, lion's movements in a lion costume to bring good l ...

was also held with an intro short film. The following speakers spoke: * FGG Co-president Joanie Evans spoke on behalf of the FGG, * Convenor of the Executive Council

Regina Ip Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee (; ' Lau; born 24 August 1950) is a politician in Hong Kong. She is currently the Convenor of the Executive Council of Hong Kong, Executive Council (ExCo) and a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo), as w ...

on behalf of the Hong Kong SAR government * Co-chair Alan Lang speaking on behalf of the GGHK Hosting Committee * Pablo Macedo Riva, Consul General for Mexico in Hong Kong and Macau * FGG Vice President of Programming Yann Schneider to bestow the FGG Tom Waddell Award to Roger Brigham of

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

USA and Emy Ritt of

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. * GGHK Director of Badminton Donald Tim to officiate the Officials Oath * GGHK Director of Football Avery Fung to officiate the Athletes Oath Musical performances were also performed on stage.

Events and venues

The games featured 22 sport together with arts & culture events throughout Hong Kong. In June 2023, The

Hong Kong Free Press Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) is a free, non-profit news website based in Hong Kong. It was co-founded in 2015 by Tom Grundy, who believed that the territory's Freedom of the press, press freedom was in decline, to provide an independent alternativ ...

reported that track and field events, field hockey and Rugby 7s were to be removed from the programme after low registration numbers.

Sports

Guadalajara

Hong Kong

Participating nations

Controversies

National Security Law enforcement

In 2021, the

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

ese delegation announced that they will not send their athletes to the 2022 Gay Games for fear that members of the team could be arrested under the

Hong Kong national security law Hong Kong national security legislation may refer to one of the following laws/bills: Laws in force * Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 2020 national law of C ...

, enacted in 2020. In June 2023, 5 prominent Hong Kong human rights activists call for the Gay Games to be canceled citing concerns for safety of LGBT participants after a crack down on protests under the

. The activists criticised the organisers of the event saying "the GGHK leadership team has betrayed the values and principles of the Gay Games, which purport to celebrate inclusion and promote human rights. Instead, they have aligned themselves with pro-authoritarian figures responsible for widespread persecution against the people of Hong Kong.". In October 2023, seven Hong Kong lawmakers said they thought that the Gay Games may infringe on the national security law and called for the 2023 Gay Games to be banned in Hong Kong.

References

External links

Federation of Gay Games
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gay Games XI 2023

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

2023 in multi-sport events 2023 in Hong Kong 2023 in Mexico LGBTQ events in China LGBTQ history in Mexico Multi-sport events in Hong Kong Multi-sport events in Mexico LGBTQ in Hong Kong Sports events postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic LGBTQ events in Mexico