Editing Gay Games (section)

== Major issues ==
=== Lawsuit over 'Gay Olympics' name{{anchor | Naming controversy}} ===
[[Tom Waddell]], the former Olympian who helped found the games, intended them to be called the "Gay Olympics", but a lawsuit filed less than three weeks before 1982's inaugural Gay Olympics forced the name change.<ref name="sfbg">{{cite news |first=Savannah |last=Blackwell |url=http://www.sfbg.com/News/35/49/49olysb2.html |title=Crushing the Gay Olympics: The USOC's homophobic past |publisher=[[San Francisco Bay Guardian]] |date=September 5, 2001 |access-date=January 4, 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060527003250/http://www.sfbg.com/News/35/49/49olysb2.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = May 27, 2006}}</ref>  This forced volunteers to suspend the sales of buttons and t-shirts in order to remove the terms "Olympic" and "Olympiad" from medals, souvenirs, t-shirts, signs, and programs, which would cost the organization an estimated loss between $15,000 and $30,000.<ref name="edited by Rita Liberti and Maureen M. Smith"/>

Event organizers were sued by the [[International Olympic Committee]] (IOC) under the U.S. [[Amateur Sports Act of 1978]], which gave the [[United States Olympic Committee]] (USOC) exclusive rights to the word ''Olympic'' in the United States. Defendants of the lawsuit contended that the law was capriciously applied and that if the [[Special Olympics]] were not similarly prohibited, the Gay Olympics should not be either.<ref name="joeclark">{{cite news |first=Joe |last=Clark |url=http://www.joeclark.org/glory.html |title=Glory of the Gay Games |year=1994 |access-date=January 4, 2006}}</ref>

Others, like Daniel Bell, cite the IOC's long history of protecting the Olympics brand as evidence that the lawsuit against the "Gay Olympics" was not motivated by discrimination against gays. Since 1910 the IOC has taken action, including lawsuits and expulsion from the IOC, to stop certain organizations from using the word "Olympics."<ref name="danbell">{{Cite web|author=Bell, Daniel |year=1998 |url=http://www.internationalgames.net/topics/gayolympics.htm  |title=Why Can't the Gay Games Be the Gay Olympics? |access-date=June 12, 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060307090517/http://www.internationalgames.net/topics/gayolympics.htm |archive-date = March 7, 2006}}</ref>  Annual "California Police Olympics" were held for 22 years, from 1967 through 1989, after which, the word Olympics was no longer used for the event<!-- run by the California Police Athletic Federation, called, since 2012, the "United States Police and Fire Championships"-->.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://uspfc.org/about-us/history |title=History |access-date=2012-12-25 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130508160710/http://uspfc.org/about-us/history |archive-date=May 8, 2013 |df=mdy }}</ref> The Supreme Court ruled for the USOC in ''[[San Francisco Arts & Athletics, Inc. v. United States Olympic Committee]]''.

A 2009 documentary film, ''Claiming the Title: Gay Olympics on Trial'', was created in the United States and was previewed at several film festivals.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.claimingthetitle.com/Claiming_The_Title/Home.html|title=Home|publisher=Acquarius Media|access-date=June 7, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110528113047/http://claimingthetitle.com/Claiming_The_Title/Home.html|archive-date=May 28, 2011|df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref>{{IMDb title|qid=Q115627211|title=Claiming the Title}}</ref> The subject was also included in a 2005 film by David Sector, ''Take the Flame! Gay Games: Grace Grit & Glory''.<ref>{{IMDb title|qid=Q115627233|title=Take the Flame! Gay Games: Grace Grit & Glory}}</ref>

In the years since the lawsuit, the Olympics and the Gay Games have set aside their initial hostilities and worked cooperatively together, successfully lobbying to have HIV travel restrictions waived for the 1994 Gay Games in New York and the [[1996 Summer Olympics]] in Atlanta.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Brigham |first1=Roger |title=Invading the Comfort Zone |url=https://www.ebar.com/story.php?ch=columns&sc=sports&sc2=&id=234642&invading_the_comfort_zone |access-date=30 March 2023 |publisher=Bay Area Reporter |date=17 June 2009}}</ref>

=== Plans to launch Gay Winter Games in Fall 1986 ===
Plans to launch a complementary Gay Winter Games, scheduled for February 1986 in [[Minneapolis–Saint Paul|Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota]], collapsed, due to a lack of sufficient funding and logistical problems. {{Citation needed|date=April 2015}} There have been no subsequent attempts to launch a Gay Winter Games since, although [[Whistler, British Columbia]], hosts an annual gay winter-sports festival.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Noel|first1=Alyssa|title=Whistler Pride and Ski Festival wraps up another year |url=http://www.whistlerquestion.com/entertainment/arts/whistler-pride-and-ski-festival-wraps-up-another-year-1.1750331|access-date=11 April 2015|work=Question|date=February 2, 2015}}</ref>

=== Schism in LGBT sports communities over Gay Games&nbsp;VII ===<!-- This section is linked from 2 places: 1. Gay_Games#2006_Gay_Games_Chicago 2.  2006_Gay_Games#Originally_awarded_to_Montr.C3.A9al.2C_Canada -->
{{More citations needed|section|date=November 2018}}
In 2001, the bidding organization from Montreal, Quebec, won the right to negotiate with the FGG for a licensing agreement to host the 2006 Gay Games, but after two years of failed negotiations Montreal broke off talks at the 2003 FGG annual meeting in Chicago. There were three main points of contention, over which neither party could agree:

* The size of the event
* The size of the budget{{spaced ndash}} especially the planned break-even participation point
* Financial transparency

In a weakening global economy following international terrorist attacks, including the [[September 11 attacks]], the FGG wanted Montreal to be able to plan for a successful Gay Games even if participation did not meet Montreal's optimistic projection of 24,000 participants, twice the level of participation of the previous Gay Games in 2002. Due to financial problems in previous events, the FGG also asked for transparency into Montreal 2006's financial activities. After Montreal refused to continue talks, the FGG held a second round of bidding in which Chicago and Los Angeles bidders, who had put forth well-received bids to host the 2006 games in the first round along with Montreal and Atlanta, chose to bid. Ultimately, the FGG awarded Gay Games VII to Chicago Games, Inc.

The Montreal organizing committee nevertheless decided to proceed to hold an athletic and cultural event without the sanction of the FGG; this plan developed into the [[2006 World Outgames|first edition]] of the [[World Outgames]], and the creation of its licensing body, the [[Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association]].

Due to limited personal and organizational resources, many individual and team participants were forced to choose between [[Gay Games VII|Gay Games Chicago]] and [[2006 World Outgames|World Outgames Montreal]], a situation exacerbated by the two events being a week apart. The closing ceremony of Gay Games Chicago on July 22, 2006, was only seven days before the opening ceremony of World Outgames Montreal on July 29, 2006. This meant that those who competed or performed in Chicago would have little recovery time before Montreal. The split resulted in a lower quality of athletic competition at both events because neither could claim the whole field of competitors. Team and individual sports were hurt alike.

Few teams were able to field complete squads for both events. In wrestling, 100 wrestlers competed in Chicago (comparable to previous Gay Games), but only 22 competed in Montreal, by far the lowest number for any major international tournament. There were some advantages to the games being so close together time wise and location wise.  For some overseas participants who had to travel far, the convenience of the two events being only a week apart and not far from each other enabled them to attend both. Many did not attend at all. After Chicago drew 9,112 sport and cultural participants, of which 7,929 were from the US.  Montreal drew 10,248 athletes, 1,516 Conference Attendees and 835 people to the cultural component of the games reflecting more than 111 countries{{spaced ndash}} more 60% of the organization's original projections."

Since 2006, the need for a secondary global multisport event has been the subject of much debate, especially after the final financial figures for 2006 were released. In 2012, a round of negotiations between the FGG and GLISA ended after a mutually agreed deadline.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.glisa.org/glisa-fgg-agreement-not-reached/ |title=GLISA / FGG Agreement not reached - GLISA |access-date=2014-08-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151122071856/http://www.glisa.org/glisa-fgg-agreement-not-reached/ |archive-date=November 22, 2015 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> The board of GLISA unanimously agree to the proposal set forth by the negotiation teams, however the FGG board did not reciprocate. The 7th Chicago Gay Games concluded with a net zero debt, while the Montreal World Outgames concluded with 5.3 million Canadian dollars in debt.<ref>{{Cite web |title=StackPath |url=https://xtramagazine.com/power/outgames-millions-in-debt-20066 |access-date=2022-03-22 |website=xtramagazine.com|date=December 5, 2006 }}</ref>

=== Media impact of AIDS on the Gay Games ===
Before and during the time of the 1986 Gay Games there was mass media about Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome ([[HIV/AIDS|AIDS]]) and how it was affecting the gay community.<ref name=":1" /> With the number of [[LGBTQ]] members at the Gay Games the founder Waddell took this time to try and break the stereotype of the AIDS with a show of athleticism the Gay Games had to offer.<ref name=":0" /> This also was a time that volunteers would provide safe sex materials along with condoms to educate the public.<ref name=":1" />