About 15,000 athletes are eagerly awaiting the World Out Games, which will make Miami the capital of gay sports at the end of May.

Since Miami was awarded the fourth World Out Games in March 2013, North America’s southernmost gay mecca is looking forward to an event that will “bring together more athletes than the London 2012 Olympic Games, and with 450 sporting events will offer four times as many events as the Winter Olympic Games in Sotchi”. The organisers have set themselves this ambitious aim. The gay basketball players Derrick Gordon and Jason Collins, who are ambassadors for the World Out Games, are to help this. The Wold Out Games were awarded three trophies for their marketing campaign at the American Business Awards. The rest: A sheer superlative. With 15,000 participants, the games are expected to attract more athletes than any previous event, the number of sportsn for the contest has been increased to 30 with the addition of Netball and Domino. The opening will take place in Marlins Park Stadium, which can accommodate more than 36,000 spectators and was recently the stage for Beyoncé.

Sports and human rights

Besides the sports side, there is also a political side to the games. Before the contests start, a human rights conference will take place at which gender issues relating to LGBTI in sport and society will be discussed. Here, the first Out Games in the USA have an additional superlative in terms of significance: Neither in Montréal, Copenhagen or Antwerp demanding human rights was as relevant as at the Miami Games, which are the first major international homo event in the USA under the presidency of Donald Trump.

World Out Games Miami
26th May until  4th June, 2017

Text: Christian Lütjens

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