Pride House 2012 logo

Pride House is a dedicated temporary location which plays host to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) 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.

Pride House Presence at Multi-Sport Games

Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010

The Vancouver location of Pride House was housed within Qmunity center.[1] During the 2010 Winter Olympics, 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.[1][2][3] 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 and, for non-Canadian athletes, information about immigration to and asylum in Canada, including "legal resources" from Egale Canada and the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (IGLA).[2][4]

Notable visitors to Pride House Vancouver included openly gay Canadian Olympic swimmers Mark Tewksbury and Marion Lay,[5] Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson and Stephen Colbert, an American political satirist and TV personality.[6]

London Olympics 2012

An initial project for a Pride House at the 2012 Olympics would have taken place at Clapham Common for all 17 days of the event. On 24 April 2012 it was reported[7] 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:[8]

On 12 July 2012, a new project for a Pride House at the 2012 Olympics was announced.[9] 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. Other organisations involved included Federation of Gay Games, the LGBT Consortium, and Pride House Foundation.

Sochi Winter Olympics 2014 attempt

An attempt to obtain a Pride House at the 2014 Winter Olympics 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 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".[10]

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 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.[11][12]

Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014

A Pride House was confirmed for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, with the Scottish government pledging £25,000 to the effort.[13]

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. 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.[14]

PrideHouseTO opened July 8, 2015 and ran until July 26 at The 519 and Barbara Hall Park in the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood of Toronto. The venue was officially opened by out Canadian soccer player Erin McLeod and Toronto city councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam.

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.[15]

PyeongChang Winter Olympics 2018

After local organizers failed to secure South Korean government support or sufficient private funding, the Canadian Olympic Committee entered an agreement with Pride House International to host a Pride House during the PyeongChang Olympics.[16][17] A corner of Canada Olympic House was set aside as an open-access Pride House for the duration of the games.[3][18]

References

  1. 1 2 Hainsworth, Jeremy (17 February 2010). "Museum launches Champion Human Rights campaign". Xtra!. Archived from the original on 23 February 2010. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  2. 1 2 Mitsui, Evan (14 February 2010). "Pride House: Safe haven at the Games". CBC.ca. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  3. 1 2 Nelson, Dean (16 February 2020). "Why Pride House is the most significant legacy of the 2010 Olympics". CBC News. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
  4. ↑ "Pride House to host gay athletes". Vancouver Courier. 23 October 2009. Archived from the original on 9 November 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  5. ↑ Williams, Ken (16 February 2010). "Gay Olympians are finding a safe haven at PRIDE House". San Diego Gay & Lesbian News. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  6. ↑ D'Alessandro, Dave (20 February 2010). "Vancouver's Pride House offers safe haven for gay, lesbian Olympic athletes". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  7. ↑ "Clapham Common house loses pride of place". Your Local Guardian.
  8. ↑ "Los Angeles Tax Lawyer | Beverly Hills Tax Litigation Attorney | The Ben-Cohen Law Firm". www.lataxattorney.com.
  9. ↑ "New Pride House launched for London Olympics". July 13, 2012.
  10. ↑ Andy Harley (15 March 2012). "Judge bans Winter Olympics gay Pride House". Gay Star News.
  11. ↑ "Nearly 30 Remote Pride Houses already registered for Olympic and Paralympic Games period". Archived from the original on February 22, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Remote Pride Houses – Get Involved and Support Russian LGBTQs During Sochi". Archived from the original on February 22, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Glasgow 2014: City to host 'Pride House' during games". BBC News. 23 February 2014.
  14. ↑ "About PrideHouse TO | PHTO". Archived from the original on 2014-02-28. Retrieved 2014-02-25.
  15. ↑ Milton, Steve (23 January 2015). "A more welcoming, more inclusive Pan Am Games". The Record. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
  16. ↑ Takeuchi, Craig (9 February 2018). "Canada helps South Korean LGBT activists establish Asia's first Pride House at 2018 Winter Olympics". The Georgia Straight. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
  17. ↑ Criss, Doug (12 February 2018). "Thanks to Canada, gay Olympic athletes have a place all their own in the Olympic Village". CNN. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
  18. ↑ Arthur, Bruce (22 February 2018). "At Pyeongchang Olympics, Canada's Pride House provides a place to belong". Toronto Star. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
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