Gay Games

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The Gay Games is a worldwide sport and cultural event that promotes acceptance of sexual diversity, featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) athletes, artists and other individuals.

Founded as the Gay Olympics, it was started in the United States in San Francisco, California, in 1982, as the brainchild of Olympic decathlete (Mexico City 1968) and medical doctor Tom Waddell, Brenda Young,^[1] and others,^[2] whose goals were to promote the spirit of inclusion and participation, as well as to promote the pursuit of personal growth in a sporting event. Waddell wanted to recreate the Olympics' power to bring people of various different backgrounds together through the international language of sport, and the organizers of the first event strived to accommodate differences and achieve gender parity.^[3]

It retains similarities with the Olympic Games, including the Gay Games flame which is lit at the opening ceremony.^[4] The games are open to all who wish to participate, without regard to sexual orientation, and there are no qualifying standards. Competitors come from many countries, including those where homosexuality remains illegal and hidden.

The 1994 Gay Games, held in June in New York City to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the modern start of the LGBT movement in the United States, "overtook the Olympics in size" with 10,864 athletes compared to 9,356 at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and 10,318 at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.^[2]