While the Olympic Games in Tokyo had to be postponed for a year, Tokyo insisted on opening at least the Olympic Pride House to the public. So instead of opening at the same time as the Olympics, the Pride House opened on 11th October, the International Coming Out Day.

Pride Houses are a temporary place where queer athletes*, volunteers and visitors* to the Olympic Games, Paralympics or other international sporting events in the host city can meet. In 2010, the first Pride House was realised in Canada as part of an Olympic Games project to raise awareness of the rights of lesbians, gays, trans*, bisexuals and other queers in the closed, often conservative world of sport, to combat stigma and raise awareness of discrimination.

Pride House Tokyo becomes Japan’s first LGBTIQ* centre

The Pride House in Tokyo is based on similar pop-up facilities that were set up in the past during the Olympic Games. However, this centre in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo will not be dismantled after the Olympics, but will remain. As Japan’s first permanent LGBTIQ* information centre, “Pride House Tokyo” will educate the public about sexual diversity and provide shelter for those who suffer harassment or discrimination. The text of the official opening statement of the Consortium:

“Pride House Tokyo aims to raise awareness of LGBTQ issues by creating spaces for entertaining guests, hosting events and producing diverse content, while taking advantage of the opportunities presented during the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo”.

The history of the Pride Houses

Vancouver 2010
During the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Pride Houses in Vancouver and Whistler served as venues for events for queer athletes*, their coaches*, families and supporters. The first Pride Houses at Olympic Games were born. Their aim was to reach the large number of people who pay attention to the Olympic Games in order to raise awareness of queer rights.

London 2012
It was planned to establish a Pride House in Clapham Common for the entire duration of the 2012 Olympic Games. However, this project had to be cancelled due to a lack of sponsors. Instead, Pride House events took place in the CA House in Limehouse Basin. Until the closing ceremony, events were also held at other locations.

Sochi 2014
The attempt to set up a Pride House during the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi was put down in advance. The Ministry of Justice refused to approve the registration of the NGO that was to plan the Pride House. A court later upheld the ban, arguing that the objectives of Pride House were “contrary to the foundations of public morals and the state’s policy on family motherhood and child protection”.

Rio de Janeiro 2016
Latin America’s first Pride House focused not only on a cultural programme with exhibitions, lectures, workshops and discussion groups on homophobia in sport, but also on the still highest LGBTIQ* murder rate in the world. To counter this problem, the government of Rio de Janeiro launched a large-scale anti-discrimination campaign during the FIFA World Cup in Brazil with “Discriminação é gol contra”. It aimed to raise awareness of all forms of discrimination and to promote a culture of respect.

PyeongChang 2018
After local organisers had received neither funding from the South Korean government nor sufficient private donations, the Canadian Olympic Committee signed an agreement with Pride House International to host a Pride House during the PyeongChang Olympic Games. A corner of the Canada Olympic House was converted into an Open Access Pride House for the duration of the Games.

Other Pride Houses have been set up during the Men’s World Cup of Men/Women’s Football World Cup (2014 in Sao Paulo, 2015 in Vancouver), the Parapan American Games (2015 in Toronto), the Commonwealth Games (2014 in Glasgow, 2018 in Gold Coast), the European Men’s/European Women’s Football Championship (2012 in Poland, 2016 in France, 2017 in the Netherlands) and the World Cup of Homeless Football (2016 in Glasgow).

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