Paris Pride made sports inclusion a top priority, a month ahead of the city hosting the Gay Games. The focus on sports was timely, as the World Cup is taking place and the much-anticipated 10th Gay Games will take place in Paris in just about a month.
The City of Love will host the Gay Games Aug. 4-12 in what will be the best-attended quadrennial LGBTQ sporting event in over a decade. Currently the Paris Gay Games have over 10,000 registrants across all of the event’s sports and festivities.
In addition, France has made it to the quarterfinals of the World Cup, electrifying the nation around soccer.
Yet some people, within the LGBTQ community and some of our fiercest enemies, were vocal or violent against the event.
“Discrimination about sport is really unfair and it’s a fight, but we think there are more important things the day of the Pride March,” lesbian feminist Gabrielle told RFI.
Given the power of sports — especially in a country currently gripped by the World Cup and hosting the Game Games — I couldn’t disagree more.
In addition to people like Gabriel complaining about sports, other anti-LGBTQ forces surfaced in and around Paris to demonstrate their opposition to everything LGBTQ.
Outsports will be in Paris at the Gay Games covering the opening ceremony and various sporting events around the Games.
