2023 Gay Games

The XI Gay Games 2023, also known as Gay Games 11, GGHK2023, GGGDL2023 and Hong Kong - Guadalajara Gay Games 2023, were an international multi-sport event and cultural gathering organised by, but not limited to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ+) athletes, artists and musicians, known as Gay Games. It was held from November 3 to November 11, 2023, in both Hong Kong and Guadalajara, Mexico.

Originally planned to take place from 11 to 19 November 2022, it was eventually rescheduled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong.

Bidding process
In 2014 Dennis Philipse (a Dutch national, and longtime Hong Kong resident) founded the community group OUT in HK to build an active community in Hong Kong. He remembered the Gay Games from 1998 in Amsterdam, and dreamt about bringing the Gay Games for the first time in its 40-year history to Asia. Link to TED talk by Dennis Philipse here In 2014 he reached out to the Federation of Gay Games, to join the bidding process, and built the GGHK volunteer organisation from scratch. The bidding process included submitting a 300-page bid book proposal. And after being short-listed against Washington D.C. and Guadalajara (Mexico) in March 2017, all short-listed cities organised a 4-day site visit inspection for the inspectors in May 2017. In October 2017 each short-listed city had to do their final presentations in Paris, followed by the voting and winner announcement.

Hong Kong was announced as the host city of the 11th Gay Games, at a gala event at the Hotel de Ville in Paris, on October 30, 2017. They won with a clear majority of votes, in the first round of voting by the delegates of the Federation of Gay Games. It is the first time that the Gay Games will be held in Asia.

The "longlist" of cities interested in bidding to host Gay Games XI in 2022 was announced in April 2016. An unprecedented seventeen cities were interested in bidding. On 30 June 2016, the Federation of Gay Games announced that eleven cities had submitted their Letter Of Intent to formally bid. Anaheim, Atlanta, Des Moines, Madison, Minneapolis and San Antonio decided not to pursue their option to bid. On July 31, 2016, nine cities submitted their second registration fee to remain in the bid process. Both Cape Town and Tel Aviv dropped out at this stage, stating an intention to bid for Gay Games XII in 2026. On November 30, 2016, Bid Books were submitted by eight candidate cities with Los Angeles dropping out at this stage.

A shortlist of three Candidate Cities was announced on March 1, 2017. Guadalajara, Hong Kong and Washington, DC, hosted site visits before the final decision on the host city was made in Paris on Monday 30 October.

On 14 February 2022, Guadalajara was added as the co-host of this games.

Postponement and co-hosting
In September 2021, the organisers announced that the 2022 Gay Games would be postponed one year, to November 2023, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and Hong Kong's strict travel quarantine protocols.

Due to the uncertain situation in Hong Kong, in February 2021, after 7 years (of which the last 2 years full-time) in volunteer capacity, Dennis Philipse stepped down from his role as leader to focus on his professional life. The decision was also made to co-host the Gay Games 11 event between Hong Kong and Guadalajara (Mexico), as Guadalajara was the 2nd winner running up. The two cities held nearly half of the sports competitions of the games.

Opening ceremony
The opening ceremony was originally scheduled for 11 November 2022, before being postponed to 3 November 2023. It was held in Hong Kong at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium in the Wan Chai area. A March-in parade was held, with the GGHK Hosting Committee leading the march, followed by the board of the Federation of Gay Games, representatives of the city of San Francisco which hosted the first Gay Games, athletes from participating nations, and representatives of Hong Kong. A lion dance was also held with an intro short film. The following speakers spoke:


 * FGG Co-President Joanie Evans spoke on behalf of the FGG,
 * Convenor of the Executive Council Regina Ip on behalf of the Hong Kong SAR government
 * Co-Chair Alan Lang speaking on behalf of the GGHK Hosting Committee
 * Pablo Macedo Riva, Consul General for Mexico in Hong Kong and Macau, speaking on behalf of the
 * FGG Vice President of Programming Yann Schneider to bestow the FGG Tom Waddell Award to Roger Brigham of Oakland, California USA and Emy Ritt of Paris, France.
 * GGHK Director of Badminton Donald Tim to officiate the Officials Oath
 * GGHK Director of Football Avery Fung to officiate the Athletes Oath

Musical performances were also performed on stage.

Events and venues
The games featured 22 sport together with arts & culture events throughout Hong Kong.

In June 2023, The Hong Kong Free Press reported that track and field events, field hockey and Rugby 7s were to be removed from the programme after low registration numbers.

Guadalajara
• Athletics

• Athletics 5k-10k

• Athletics Marathon and Half

• Badminton

• Basketball

• Beach Volleyball

• Bowling

• Cheerleading

• Dance Sport

• Diving

• Dodgeball

• Figure Skating

• Football Elevens

• Football Sevens

• Golf

• Powerlifting

• Softball

• Swimming

• Tennis

• Volleyball

• Water Polo

• Wrestling

Hong Kong
• Trial Running

• Tennis

• Table Tennis

• Swimming

• Squash

• Rowing

• Road Race 10k

• Road Race 5k

• Open Water Swimming

• Martial Arts

• Marathon Half

• Marathon Full

• Mahjong

• Football (Soccer)

• Fencing

• Dragon Boat

• Dodgeball

• Badminton

Participating nations
• Australia

• Austria

• Barbados

• Cambodia

• Canada

• Chinese Taipei

• Denmark

• France

• Germany

• Great Britain

• Greece

• India

• Ireland

• Japan

• Kazakhstan

• Kenya

• Malaysia

• Netherlands

• New Zealand

• Nigeria

• Norway

• Philippines

• Serbia

• Singapore

• South Africa

• South Korea

• Spain

• Switzerland

• Trinidad and Tobago

• USA

National Security Law enforcement
In 2021, the Taiwanese delegation announced that they will not send their athletes to the 2022 Gay Games for fear that members of the team could be arrested under the Hong Kong national security law, enacted in 2020.

In June 2023, 5 prominent Hong Kong human rights activists call for Gay Games to be canceled citing concerns for safety of LGBT participants after a crack down on protests under the Hong Kong national security law. The activists criticised the organisers of the event saying "the GGHK leadership team has betrayed the values and principles of the Gay Games, which purport to celebrate inclusion and promote human rights. Instead, they have aligned themselves with pro-authoritarian figures responsible for widespread persecution against the people of Hong Kong.".

In November 2023, a group of lawmakers said that the Gay Games may infringe on the national security law and called for the 2023 Gay Games to be banned in Hong Kong.