The Federation of Gay Games Committee will announce their decision from Johannesburg, S.A. on Oct. 27. The four cities in contention are: Atlanta - Chicago - L.A. - Montreal.

Who's gonna get the nod? Any political manoeuvering going on that can be brought to light?

(My obvious bias is revealed directly under the ever-gay Smiley.)

Please god, not LA!! lol!!

Let's go, Atlanta!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd be happy with any of them. I wouldn't have to travel way around to the far ends of the earth.

It's funny - I live in LA, and I hope it's not LA, too. How odd is it that Outsports has been contacted by the Montreal, Chicago and Atlanta bids, but not the LA committee - despite us BEING IN LA.

Charlie, I don't think you have much to worry about.

As a Canadian, I think Montreal would be an awesome place to hold it. Tons of culture, a European attitude and great people. Plus, it would not be really close for me to attend. (im in toronto)

I would have to agree with Canadalaw27, to have these games in Montreal would be awesome. :cool:

I think it would be great to give the games to Montréal. I wonder if the U.S. government's policy of denying entry to any non-citizen who is HIV+ (whether athletes or spectators) will factor into the decision. Canada has no such policy. I read that this is one of the selling points that Montréal is using against the other candidate cities in lobbying for the games.

The Gay Games are such a wonderful experience that it takes a whole lot to screw it up. Unfortunately, the process is so flawed that it is always touch-and-go whether the Games will collapse, starting with the bidding.
Cities hire go-getters to bring in the green, but these people are only around for the takeoff, not the landing. Recruiting enough organizational junkies to make a bid credible, or merely semi-coherent, is their main job. Once the bidding is over, bu-bye!

It's too bad FOGG itself doesn't have an organizational component which rotate through sites, relying on existing local sports organizations to run their own competitions. It's all going to fall on those local organizations in the end, anyway. They are the ones who are going to have to fight the collapsing central organization in order to pull off their competitions.

Living in a city that lives on hype and fumes gives one a perspective on this sort of organizational dysfunction - lol!

LACharlie

See now, I think that's kind of interesting. Why not L.A.? when I went to log in on the poll, I put my red cents in for L.A. because I thought the weather would be more pleasing. is it because it f-cks up the city operations too much? I seem to remember an old friend who lived in Northridge commenting on this once. Montreal would be cool.

Montreal would be VERY cool. And though they are not in the running, how about Las Vegas! What a hoot that would be!

As far as Cyd not wanting LA to host-I lived in Manhattan when NYC hosted in 1994. It was great fun! Felt like a host in some small way. With LA, though, the problem may be all the venues soooo spread out. In NY, you could get to most venues by subway. Maybe that is Cyd's resistance. Or maybe Cyd just needs an excuse to travel from LA!

No, Cyd just thinks L.A. would be a bad city to host a community-based event. It's too spread out. Plus, for Jim and me to live in L.A. and to never have heard of or heard from the L.A. organizers tells me something not-so-good about their efforts. They just recently, in the last couple of months, started contacting local gay sports groups for their help.

The entire effort just smacks of people who don't take gay sports, or the Gay Games, too seriously (though the guy organizing the LA bid says he helped start the Gay Games in the early 80's).

BTW - so far in the poll:

Chicago 45%
Montreal 36%
Atlanta 16%
Los Angeles 2%

There has surely been some multiple voting, but Chicago and Montreal being so far ahead, and L.A. dead last with no support, doesn't surprise me.

CONGRATS TO MONTREAL!

Montreal to Host Gay Games VII 2006

My favorite North American city. Chicago would have been nice, but hell, any excuse to travel to Montreal is fine with me.

I'm sooo glad Montreal got 2006. It's still back in North America, but it's a much more cosmopolitan and sex-positive city.

Plus, few of the posts considered the burdens of financially-strapped foreigners. LA would be all about rental cars, an added expense. It's also got a bid, like Atlanta's and Chicago's, that was sprawled all over the city. Montreal's, like Sydney's includes a former Olympic village, so that's great. Less time on trains and buses, like the confusion of Amsterdam.

I was also surprised by the LA proposal; PR people with little connection to the sports community.

Plus, hopefully it won't still be a problem, but foreign visits to the US by gay people are sometimes a problem, and with the possible post-war restrictions, it could get worse by 2006, when the INS may finally get its act together by actually keeping track of foreign visits.