ABSTRACT
The first Gay Games of the 1990s – Celebration ’90, Gay Games III and Cultural Festival – was held in Vancouver, Canada from August 4-11, 1990. A handful of participants from Vancouver, who had participated in the first Gay Games, had been so inspired that on their return home they formed the Metropolitan Vancouver Athletics and Arts Association (MVA&AA). They organised the Vancouver Gay and Lesbian Summer Games. This became an annual event, growing into ‘one of the largest regional competitions on the West Coast of Canada’ (MVA&AA 1989a: 1). MVA&AA began their bid for the 1990 Gay Games in the spring of 1985, convincing Tom Waddell and key members of SFAA of the merits of taking the Games to the next stage – holding them in another country and on a greater international scale. The bid consisted of a simple slide show and presentation at Waddell’s home (Interview with Kelly, 11 November 1996). There was no formal bidding process at this stage. As the official hosts to-be of the 1990 Gay Games, the Vancouver bidding team, in ritual Olympic fashion, were formally presented with the flag of the Gay Games – an interlocking of three rings – during the closing ceremony of Gay Games II.
