The International Gay & Lesbian Aquatics Association (known as IGLA) is the international governing body for predominantly LGBT+ aquatics clubs, representing the sports of swimming, diving, artistic swimming, water polo, and open water swimming.Gay News Network, "Eurogames Stockholm to host 2015 International Lesbian and Gay World Aquatic Championships, by Cec Busby, 20 June 2014
/ref>Curve, "Make your next stop Stockholm", by Lisa Tedesco, 16 July 2014
/ref> Member clubs are from 16 countries, with the majority of clubs in the United States and Canada. Past presidents of the association have included Scott Kohanowski (of Team New York Aquatics) and Gareth Johnson (of

Out to Swim Out To Swim is a British aquatics sport club offering swimming, water polo and artistic swimming club for predominantly LGBTQ+ people and allied members. The club was founded by AGM when the name was agreed in March 1992. In 2006 "Out to swim B ...

London). IGLA is one of the key organisations involved in the licensing of the

Gay Games The Gay Games is a worldwide sport and cultural event that promotes acceptance of sexual diversity, featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) athletes, artists and other individuals. Founded as the Gay Olympics, it was starte ...

, which are held every four years. In years in which the Gay Games are not held, IGLA holds an international competition open to its member clubs. The organization is a part of the larger movement of a niche travel industry, LGBTQ sports tourism.

History

The IGLA name was chosen in 1987 to keep the community spirit of competition going from the recently held

Gay Olympics The Gay Games is a worldwide sport and cultural event that promotes acceptance of sexual diversity, featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) athletes, artists and other individuals. Founded as the Gay Olympics, it was starte ...

that was started in San Francisco by

Tom Waddell Tom Waddell (born Thomas Flubacher; November 1, 1937 – July 11, 1987) was an American physician, decathlete who competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics, and founder of the Gay Olympics (later known as the '' Gay Games''). Early life Waddell was b ...

. The Gay Olympics was later forced to change its name to Gay Games but the event itself was successful in allowing LGBT athletes from around the world to compete in Olympic, exhibition and art events. To carry on the international aspect for the LGBT aquatics community the International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics was named to hold a yearly international championship event. By Gay Games III, IGLA was officially a part of the Games organizing.

Championships

The host cities for the championships have been: * 1987: IGLA I, San Diego, California * 1988: IGLA II, San Diego, California * 1989: IGLA III, Vancouver, British Columbia ** 1990: Held in conjunction with Gay Games III, Vancouver, British Columbia * 1991: IGLA IV, Los Angeles, California * 1992: IGLA V, Seattle, Washington * 1993: IGLA VI, Chicago, Illinois ** 1994: Held in conjunction with Gay Games IV,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

* 1995: IGLA VII, Montreal,

Québec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

* 1996: IGLA VIII, Washington, D.C. * 1997: IGLA IX, San Diego, California ** 1998: Held in conjunction with Gay Games V, Amsterdam, Netherlands * 1999: IGLA X, Atlanta, Georgia * 2000: IGLA XI, Paris, France * 2001: IGLA XII, Toronto, Ontario ** 2002: Held in conjunction with

Gay Games VI The Gay Games is a worldwide sport and cultural event that promotes acceptance of sexual diversity, featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) athletes, artists and other individuals. Founded as the Gay Olympics, it was star ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia * 2003: IGLA XIII, San Francisco, California * 2004: IGLA XIV, Fort Lauderdale, Florida * 2005: IGLA XV, Atlanta, Georgia ** 2006: Held in conjunction with

Gay Games VII The 2006 Gay Games (Gay Games VII), colloquially called the Chicago Gaymes, was part of a family of international sports and cultural festivals called Gay Games, sanctioned by the Federation of Gay Games and organized by the gay, lesbian, bis ...

, Chicago, Illinois * 2007: IGLA XVI, Paris, France * 2008: IGLA XVII, Washington, D.C. * 2009: IGLA XVIII, Copenhagen, Denmark ** 2010: Held in conjunction with Gay Games VIII, Cologne, Germany * 2011: IGLA XIX, Honolulu, Hawaii * 2012: IGLA XX, Reykjavík, Iceland * 2013: IGLA XXI, Seattle, Washington ** 2014: Held in conjunction with Gay Games IX, Cleveland, Ohio * 2015: IGLA XXII,

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, Sweden * 2016: Edmonton, Alberta * 2017: IGLA 30th Anniversary - Miami ** 2018: Held in conjunction with Gay Games X, Paris, France * 2019: IGLA XXXI, New York City * 2020: IGLA XXXII, Melbourne,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

* 2021: IGLA XXXIII, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States - ''Cancelled due to Covid-19'' * 2022: IGLA XXXIV,

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land a ...

* 2023: IGLA XXXV,

London, United Kingdom London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

- Scheduled for the 25th - 30th of June

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.igla.org/
IGLA Water Polo
International LGBT sports organizations