Games Berlin resumes its efforts to bring Outgames 2009 to the German capital. They had been suspended as Berlin mayor Wowereit had withdrawn all support. Berlin's LGBT sports club Vorspiel does not support the new bid.
updated Dec 11, 2004. qs/mz.
Two months ago, the mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit had informed the boards of Games Berlin and Vorspiel, the city's biggest gay and lesbian sporting group, that he withdraws all support for pending bids to host a major gay and lesbian sporting event in Berlin (read the related story). Games Berlin had called upon the Federation of Gay Games and GLISA, the organisation behind the Outgames, to reunite. While GLISA accepted Berlin's invitation reunion talks, the FGG rejected it and announced an own conference on the future of GLBT sports (read the related story).
"We are disappointed about the rejection of the negotiation proposals and we have lost hope that the FGG is seriously interested in moving towards unity," says Games Berlin Co-Director Dagmar Timm, Co-Executive Director of Games Berlin. "All offers for talks were rejected, the site selection process for Gay Games 2010 is continuing as if nothing happened and the FGG doesn't even mention the name GLISA in any of their letters or releases. The FGG is obviously trying to buy time and create facts."
On a meeting on December 2, the members of Games Berlin decided with 16 votes against four to resume the efforts to bring Outgames 2009 to Germany. They want to "gather the local, national and international support necessary to reactivate the Outgames bid which is currently on hold." No information has been released on how they plan to get this support and whether there have been talks with city officials.
Dirk Alex of Berlin's biggest gay and lesbian sports organisation Vorspiel is very critical of this development: "The resumption of the bid is very short-sighted regarding the planned talks between FGG and GLISA next year", Alex says, "and it puts a bid for reunified games in jeopardy."
Vorspiel is a member of the FGG, and Vorspiel representative Martyn Pickup is member of the FGG board of directors. Vorspiel supported a Berlin bid for Gay Games.
Dirk Alex is sure that the City of Berlin won't support the new bid: "In a notice dated November 11, the municipial sports administration has again emphasized that the city will only support reunified games. The City of Berlin will neither support a bid for Outgames 2009 nor Gay Games 2010." A major sporting event is hardly possible without municipial support.
A Games Berlin press release contributed to this article.