World OutGames 2017 in Miami: the Plan and What Happened

01What was planned

Miami Beach was chosen to host World OutGames 2017, the fourth edition of an international LGBTQ+ event licensed by GLISA, the Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association. It would have been the first edition held in the United States. The event website described a ten-day programme of more than 450 events in three areas: sport, culture and human rights.

The sports programme listed more than twenty disciplines, from badminton and beach volleyball to swimming, track and field and water polo. The cultural strand included architecture tours, dance, film, music and poetry, and the human-rights strand was a three-day conference at the Loews Hotel on Collins Avenue.

02The size of the plan

The forecasts were large. Wikipedia’s account of the event records an expectation of more than 15,000 participants and around 145,000 paid and free spectators over the ten days, with a predicted economic impact for the Miami area of $120 million. Windy City Times noted that promotional videos had spoken of 15,000 participants.

Local backing was listed too. According to Wikipedia, the Games had the support of the Florida Sports Foundation, the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, the City of Miami Beach and the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority.

The event pages show where things were meant to happen. A Festival Village was planned for Lummus Park on the oceanfront, with two entertainment stages, a women’s space, a family area and food stalls, free to enter every day from 26 May to 4 June, plus smaller village hubs at sports venues around Greater Miami. The opening ceremony was set for Saturday 27 May at 7 pm at the Fillmore Miami Beach on Washington Avenue, with Kristine W, David Hernandez and Tito Puente Jr. and his band on the bill.

Taking part was not cheap. The official fees page set a general registration fee of $250, with separate entry fees for each sport and for the conference.

03World OutGames 2017: the cancellation

On 26 May 2017, the day before the planned opening ceremony of World OutGames 2017, the organisers’ board of directors told participants that, because of financial challenges, they had to cancel the opening and closing ceremonies and the sports programme. Aquatics, country-western dance and soccer were the exceptions. The Human Rights Conference and the cultural programmes were to continue as planned. PinkNews reported that the statement was posted on Facebook and that it apologised to those affected.

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Many athletes learned of the decision after they had already travelled to Miami Beach. Press reports at the time said that far fewer people had registered than the organisers had forecast: fewer than 2,000, according to Windy City Times, against the 15,000 mentioned in promotional material.

The reaction was angry. Windy City Times collected messages from participants in Hong Kong, Toronto and Australia, one of whom said she had spent $6,000 on a trip planned over two years. PinkNews quoted athletes who had paid their fees in advance. Cyd Zeigler, co-founder of Outsports, told Windy City Times: “This is the official end of the OutGames.”

04What athletes did next

Some sport went ahead anyway. The International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics Association and the International Gay and Lesbian Football Association ran swimming and soccer as part of their own annual championships, which Wikipedia gives as the reason those events survived. Windy City Times mentioned a Chicago diver who was entered in the aquatics events.

Elsewhere, athletes improvised. Wikipedia’s account says that competitions in track and field, basketball, tennis, volleyball and bodybuilding took place with help from the local LGBTQ community, the City of Miami Beach and other municipalities, but without support from the Miami organisers or GLISA. A Facebook group called “2017 World OutGames Alternative” was set up, Windy City Times reported, and one New York participant suggested beach volleyball, sand soccer and frisbee instead. The road races, cycling and triathlon did not happen; Wikipedia states that the production companies hired to stage them had not been paid.

05What followed in Miami

The City of Miami Beach announced that the Miami Beach Police Department and the state attorney’s office had opened an investigation into possible misappropriation of funds. PinkNews named the city spokesperson who made the announcement; Windy City Times attributed the news to the Miami Herald. Wikipedia describes the inquiry as concerning possible fraud and embezzlement and still lists its results as awaited. This page does not go beyond what those sources report.

The World OutGames organisation was later dissolved, and no fifth edition has been held. GLISA, the licensing body, had already cancelled the 2016 North American and Asia-Pacific Outgames, and its website went offline in October 2017, according to Wikipedia.

The pages on this site cover the parts of the World OutGames 2017 programme that are documented on the event website and in press coverage: the Human Rights Conference, the soccer tournament, Pulse Points and the gender identification policy.

06Frequently asked questions