Edmonton has put forward a bid to be the city that hosts the 2030 Gay Games. MacEwan University child and youth care professor Kristopher Wells said in an interview with Global News Edmonton Edmontonians “know how inclusive and wonderful a city it is, but it really gets to put us on the map.”“The games are really for everyone regardless of your sexual orientation or your gender identity,” said Wells to Global News Edmonton. “They’re to celebrate inclusion in sports and the benefits of getting out and participating in recreational athletic activities.”The Gay Games resemble the Olympics, as thousands of athletes from around the world come to a city to compete in sports. These athletes compete in sports that are in the Summer and Winter Olympics for 10 days. It happens in a new city every four years. Edmonton is one of 10 cities competing to hold the 2030 Gay Games and is facing off against other prominent cities. The nine other cities it is competing against are Adelaide, Auckland, Cape Town, Denver, Frankfurt, Melbourne, Perth, Taipei, and Vancouver. Team Edmonton member Jay Rotteveel said it was asked to assist with preparing the bid package. “The City of Edmonton and Explore Edmonton approached our community and said, ‘Hey look, we need to get consultation on this to put this bid together and make sure that everyone in the community is involved,’” said Rotteveel to Global News Edmonton. “And a bunch of us in the community, all different stakeholders, we all got together and put together the initial bid.”While thousands of athletes will come to Edmonton if it hosts the Gay Games, other people will attend to support them. It would use many city facilities to run events. While an influx of people will come to Edmonton, the committee said it would have 13,000 hotels rooms available for people and has teamed up with 51 hotels so far. Edmonton Coun. Andrew Knack said the Gay Games could help the city's economy. “Think about the impact to local businesses, hotels, restaurants, and stores that will have people and family members who are looking to do things when they’re not competing,” said Knack to Global News Edmonton. “Any time the city can look to host a major sporting event or a major event of any sort, it’s something that we regularly try to push for.”The official bidding papers were sent in on Thursday. The next step will be for Edmonton’s bid committee to fly to Washington, DC, to speak about its proposal in October. After all of the bids are presented, a shortlist of three cities will come out in December. Wells concluded by saying this “isn’t just about and for the (sexual minority) community.”“This is for our city, our province, our country and to send the message that Pride is something we need to celebrate and we need to showcase,” he said. This ordeal comes after Italian boxer Angela Carini surrendered 46 seconds into her Olympic boxing match on Thursday after transgender female Algerian boxer Imane Khelif delivered her a devastating blow to the face. READ MORE: UPDATED: Male punches out female opponent on international TV in women's boxing at Paris OlympicsThe International Olympic Committee said before the match critics were engaging in a witch hunt for expressing concerns over biological men identifying as women and competing against biological women in the Olympics. Legacy media outlets referred to Khelif as a woman. However, the fact remains she will go on to the next round of the women’s boxing competition and Carini will go home without a medal.
