As Derrick Gordon, Michael Sam, Megan Rapinoe, Robbie Rogers, and Jason Collins are making it easier for gay athletes to come out in the U.S., so too has LGBT visibility in sports gathered momentum internationally. There is a growing need to build a cooperative, accessible, and sustainable future for international LGBT sporting events. This is the contention of the independent campaign, 1QE4ME, pronounced “one QE for me,” which refers to the goal of a single global quadrennial — every four years — LGBT sporting event.
Launched to coincide with the reopening of meetings between organizers of the Gay and Lesbian International Sports Association (GLISA) and the Federation of Gay Games (FGG), 1QE4ME is encouraging the groups in their negotiations.
Since 2006, there have been two global LGBT tournaments: The Gay Games takes place quadrennially on even-numbered years, and the Outgames do so on odd-numbered years.
1QE4ME supporter and President of the German football team München e.V., Bettina Dietmann-Winter, comments:
Members of the 1QE4ME group have participated in and enjoyed both Gay Games and Outgames. However, we feel that two global sports events does not present a sustainable future for LGBT sports competition on a worldwide level.
The group’s Facebook page, which is open to clubs, individual athletes, and other supporters of the campaign, is doubling as a place for interested parties to leave their remarks. In a video message of support left on the campaign’s timeline, 1QE4ME organizer and Pride Sports Director Lou Englefield asks for cohesion and cooperation in the movement, and notes that biennial events force many people to choose one over the other.
A world event, every four years, would mean that people like me who don’t have loads of spare cash don’t have to choose between Gay Games and Outgames. We could be part of every event.
While 1QE4ME is campaigning for change, organizers are quick to point out that the initiative is a positive one, based on a sense of the global LGBT sports community. Jacques Schoofs, President of Panteres Grogues, Barcelona’s LGBT sports club, says:
There has been a lot of frustration amongst the LGBT sports community about the lack of progress in negotiations for 1QE. We share some of those frustrations, but 1QE4ME is a positive campaign aiming to encourage FGG and GLISA in their negotiations and to show them that LGBT sports people and their clubs do care about the future of global competition.
Founding organizations include Active Company (Antwerp), BGS (Brussels), Düsseldorf Dolphins, Panteres Grogues (Barcelona), Pride Sports (Manchester), and Team München (Munich). Since the campaign launch several other clubs have signed on, including Upstream (Amsterdam), Frankfurter Volleyball Verein (Frankfurt), and the Russian LGBT Sports Federation (Moscow).
1QE4ME encourages clubs from North America, South America, Asia, and Africa to get involved.
Image via Facebook
Keph Senett is a Canadian writer whose passions for travel and soccer have led her to play the beautiful game on four continents. When not writing about human rights, soccer/football, LGBT and gender issues and her own folly at kephsenett.com, Keph’s writing about travel over at A Bus Called Forward. Keph spends her free time trying to figure out how to qualify for a soccer squad in Asia, Australia or Antarctica.
