Honk Kong Chosen Over D.C. To Host 2022 Gay Games

Washington, D.C. has lost its bid to host the 2022 Gay Games to Hong Kong, it was announced on Monday.

2022 Gay Games Host City News

The international Gay Games are hosted every four years to celebrate LGBT athletes and this year are expected to attract as many as 15,000 athletes.

The announcement was made during a press conference in Paris during the annual General Assembly of the Federation of Gay Games, the U.S.-based group that organizes the competition.

Guadalajara, Mexico had also made a bid to host the Gay Games. The Federation visited the three finalists cities in June and July.

“Thanks to everyone who worked so hard on the DC bid for 2022,” the D.C. Gay Games committee tweeted after the announcement. “While we’re disappointed, we’re proud of the work we did.”

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and  23 city representatives flew to Paris this past weekend to make their hosting pitch.

Paris is hosting the games in 2018. They are scheduled to begin Aug. 4 and end Aug. 12. The competition will reportedly involve 36 sports, 14 cultural events, an academic conference and participants from 70 countries.

The FGG’s decision Monday came eight years after it rejected bids from D.C. and Boston in 2009 to host the 2014 Gay Games and selected Cleveland instead. Cleveland was chosen because it and its surrounding jurisdictions in Ohio were less advanced in LGBT rights than Boston and D.C. Though this may sound counterintuitive, FGG officials said they were hoping to increase LGBT rights in cities where such progress was most needed.

Part of the reason for which D.C. was not selected as host city for the 2022 Gay Games may have been related to opposition to President Donald Trump, whose administration has several members who are anti-LGBT and have thus rolled back many of the rights of members of this community. Over the summer, Trump announced transgender people would be banned from serving in the military, citing excessive costs as justification.

Minor said the D.C. Gay Games Bid Committee raised money from private sources, including corporate sponsors, to pay the travel expenses for the D.C. contingent’s trip to Paris.

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 29: Washington, DC mayor Muriel Bowser speaks while ANOC President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah looks on at the the XX ANOC General Assembly 2015 at the Hilton Hotel on October 29, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Larry French/Getty Images for ANOC)