Pride House is a dedicated temporary location which plays host to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
) athletes, volunteers and visitors attending the Olympics, Paralympics or other international sporting event in the host city. The first was organized for the
Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics
)''
, nations = 82
, athletes = 2,626
, events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines)
, opening = February 12, 2010
, closing = February 28, 2010
, opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean
, cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...
.
Pride House Presence at Multi-Sport Games
Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010
The Vancouver location of Pride House was housed within
Qmunity
Qmunity (officially Qmunity, BC's Queer, Trans, and Two-Spirit Resource Centre Society), formerly known as the Centre, is an LGBT community centre located on Bute Street in the Davie Village neighbourhood of the West End of Vancouver, British ...
center.
During the
2010 Winter Olympics
)''
, nations = 82
, athletes = 2,626
, events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines)
, opening = February 12, 2010
, closing = February 28, 2010
, opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean
, cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...
, the Vancouver and
Whistler Pride Houses served as venues for LGBT sportspeople, coaches, visitors and their friends, families and supporters, and became the first Pride Houses at an Olympics.
Although both Pride Houses offered information and support services to LGBT athletes and attendees, the Whistler location in Pan Pacific Village Centre had a "celebratory theme", while the Vancouver venue emphasised education about Vancouver's
LGBT community
The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay men, gay, bisexuality, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a comm ...
and, for non-Canadian athletes, information about immigration to and
asylum
Asylum may refer to:
Types of asylum
* Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome
* Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute
* Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea
...
in Canada, including "legal resources" from
Egale Canada
Egale Canada (formerly Equality for Gays And Lesbians Everywhere) is an advocacy organization founded in 1986 by Les McAfee to advance equality for Canadian lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and their families, across Canada. ...
and the
(IGLA).
Notable visitors to Pride House Vancouver included
openly gay
Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.
Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...
Canadian Olympic swimmers
Mark Tewksbury
Mark Roger Tewksbury, (born February 7, 1968) is a Canadian former competitive swimmer. He is best known for winning the gold medal in the 100-metre backstroke at the 1992 Summer Olympics. He also hosted the first season of ''How It's Made'', ...
and
Marion Lay
Marion Beverly Lay, (born November 26, 1948) is a former competitive swimmer who represented Canada in the 1964 Summer Olympics and 1968 Summer Olympics. Swimming the anchor leg for Canada's third-place team in the women's 4x100-metre frees ...
, Vancouver mayor
Gregor Robertson and
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert ( ; born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program ''The Colbert Report'' from 2005 to ...
, an American
political satirist
Political satire is satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where Political discourse analysis, political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing ...
and TV personality.
London Olympics 2012
An initial project for a Pride House at the 2012 Olympics would have taken place at
Clapham Common
Clapham Common is a large triangular urban park in Clapham, south London, England. Originally common land for the parishes of Battersea and Clapham, it was converted to parkland under the terms of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1878. It is of gr ...
for all 17 days of the event. On 24 April 2012 it was reported that this project of the Pride House Foundation was cancelled due to lack of sponsors.
The following individuals were listed as ambassadors for Pride House:
*
Gareth Thomas
*
Ben Cohen
*
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...
*
David Furnish
David James Furnish (born 25 October 1962) is a Canadian filmmaker and former advertising executive. He is married to English singer, pianist and composer Sir Elton John.
Early life and education
David Furnish was born in Toronto, Ontario, th ...
*
Dan Savage
Daniel Keenan Savage (born October 7, 1964) is an American author, media pundit, journalist, and LGBT community activist. He writes ''Savage Love'', an internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column. In 2010, Savage and his husba ...
*
John Amaechi
John Uzoma Ekwugha Amaechi , Order of the British Empire, OBE (; born 26 November 1970) is a British-American psychologist, consultant and former professional basketball player. He played college basketball at Vanderbilt Commodores men's baske ...
OBE
*
Claire Harvey
*
Peter Tatchell
Peter Gary Tatchell (born 25 January 1952) is a British human rights campaigner, originally from Australia, best known for his work with LGBT social movements.
Tatchell was selected as the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for Bermondsey ...
*
Suran Dickson
*
Richard Beaven
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...
*
Blake Skjellerup
Blake Skjellerup (born 13 June 1985 in Christchurch, New Zealand) is a short track speed skater who competed for New Zealand at the 2010 Winter Olympics; finishing sixteenth.
Sporting career
Skjellerup began speed skating at the age of 10 in Ch ...
On 12 July 2012, a new project for a Pride House at the 2012 Olympics was announced. The event took place from 3–7 August at CA House on Limehouse Basin, with activities in other venues up until 12 August, the day of closing ceremony. This new project was managed by Pride Sports UK with financial support from the European Gay and Lesbian Sports Federation and the
Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association
The Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association (GLISA) was an international gay and lesbian, culture and human rights association. Their last update was issued in March 2016, and the website has been offline since October 2017. The focus of ...
. Other organisations involved included
Federation of 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 star ...
, the LGBT Consortium, and Pride House Foundation.
Sochi Winter Olympics 2014 attempt
An attempt to obtain a Pride House at the
2014 Winter Olympics
, ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'')
, nations = 88
, events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines)
, athletes = 2,873
, opening = 7 February 2014
, closing = 23 February 2014
, opened_by = President Vladimir Putin
, cauldron =
, stadium = Fisht Olympic ...
in Sochi, Russia was struck down by the Ministry of Justice, which refused to approve the registration of the NGO set up to organize the Pride House. The ban was upheld by
Krasnodar Krai
Krasnodar Krai (russian: Краснода́рский край, r=Krasnodarsky kray, p=krəsnɐˈdarskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), located in the North Caucasus region in Southern Russia and administratively a part of t ...
Judge
Svetlana Mordovina on the basis of the Pride House inciting "propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientation which can undermine the security of the Russian society and the state, provoke social-religious hatred, which is the feature of the extremist character of the activity".
As it became clear that no Pride House could take place in Sochi, a number of leading LGBT sports organisations got together to promote the idea of cities elsewhere hosting their own Pride Houses during the Sochi Olympics. Pride House Toronto, which was being planned for the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, was already very advanced with its plans for a series of events during the Sochi Olympics highlighting the anti-LGBT laws and LGBT rights in general. In addition to Pride House Toronto, a group led by Pride Sports UK hosted other Pride Houses of which Manchester was be the largest. Vancouver (Whistler), Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, Chicago, Cleveland, Toronto, Montreal, Philadelphia, Glasgow, Manchester, London, Copenhagen, Paris, Brussels, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Wellington, São Paulo, and Brasilia have also expressed interest.
Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014
A Pride House was confirmed for the
2014 Commonwealth Games
The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...
in Glasgow, with the Scottish government pledging £25,000 to the effort.
Toronto Pan American Games 2015
The PrideHouseTO Initiative is a comprehensive, province-wide engagement and activation strategy for the lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer (LGBTQ) communities in Ontario during and leading up to the
2015 Pan American Games
Fifteen or 15 may refer to:
*15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16
*one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015
Music
*Fifteen (band), a punk rock band
Albums
* ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005
* ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...
. The initiative is a collaboration of over 12 organizations representing social services, education, government, labour, business and sport and recreation sectors. This initiative has been planned for the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto and this would be the second time that a Pride House has been provided for a multi-sport event in North America after the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.
PrideHouseTO opened July 8, 2015 and ran until July 26 at
The 519 and Barbara Hall Park in the
Church and Wellesley
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* C ...
neighbourhood of Toronto. The venue was officially opened by out Canadian soccer player
Erin McLeod
Erin Katrina McLeod (born February 26, 1983) is a Canadian soccer player who plays as a goalkeeper for Stjarnan of the Icelandic Besta deild kvenna.
She first appeared for the Canada women's national soccer team at the 2002 Algarve Cup and ...
and Toronto city councillor
Kristyn Wong-Tam
Kristyn Wong-Tam (born ) is a Canadian politician who has represented Toronto Centre in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario since 2022 as a member of the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP).
They served on Toronto City Council from 2010 to 2022 ...
.
Smaller Pride Houses were also held in numerous other Ontario cities, as a way to expand the visibility of LGBT issues in sport. At least 15 "ambassadors" were trained by the Pride House committee to organize local events in their home cities.
PyeongChang Winter Olympics 2018
After local organizers failed to secure South Korean government support or sufficient private funding, the
Canadian Olympic Committee
The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC; french: Comité olympique canadien) is a private, non-profit organization that represents Canada at the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It is also a member of the Pan American Sports Organization ...
entered an agreement with Pride House International to host a Pride House during the
PyeongChang Olympics. A corner of Canada Olympic House was set aside as an open-access Pride House for the duration of the games.
References
{{reflist
Olympic culture
International LGBT sports organizations
Olympic Games
LGBT history
LGBT culture in Vancouver