Cape Town set to bid for Gay Games 2022

It’s been revealed that Cape Town is one of the cities planning to bid to host the 2022 Gay Games.

The Federation of Gay Games (FGG) announced that 17 cities on three continents have expressed an interest in holding the event.

These include Anaheim, Atlanta, Austin, Cape Town, Dallas, Denver, Des Moines, Guadalajara (Mexico), Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Madison, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Francisco, Tel Aviv, and Washington, DC.

“The FGG has never received so many expressions of interest, and these requests for information go well beyond a simple expression of intent,” said David Killian, the FGG Officer of Site Selection.

“Bidding is long, demanding, and has a cost that any interested party needs to take into account. After a review of the responses, we consider that all bidders are able to continue the bidding process,” he said.

Only three of the 17 cities will make it to the site selection meeting in late 2017 in Paris, where the final 2022 presumptive host will be announced.

Mambaonline understands that the Cape Town bid is being headed by MCQP Director Ian McMahon. He is currently overseas and was not available for comment.

We have also been told that South Africa’s Minister of Tourism Derek Hanekom expressed his support for the bid while attending the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association’s conference in Cape Town in April.

In 2005, Johannesburg mounted a well-received bid for the 2010 Gay Games, but narrowly lost out to Cologne, Germany. In 2014, Survivor South Africa’s Zavion Kotze brought home an astonishing 12 medals at the Cleveland Gay Games.

If Cape Town wins the bid, it will be the first time the event will be held in Africa. Held every four years, the Games are the world’s largest LGBT sporting and cultural event. Paris will host the next edition of the Gay Games in 2018.