Sofia, Bulgaria site of Federation of Gay Games 2012 Annual General Assembly

The Federation of Gay Games has announced that Sofia, Bulgaria, will host the Federation's 2012 Annual General Assembly (AGA) on August 19-21 in partnership with member organisation Tangra Sport. The FGG board will meet on the 18th and 22nd.

Federation Co-President Emy Ritt explained that “In a year when the challenges for LGBT people in Eastern Europe are manifest in the opposition of certain people to events like the 2012 EuroGames in Budapest, we want to show our solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the region. And of course, Sofia is a beautiful city, and one of the most gayfriendly places in the region.”

Fellow Co-President Kurt Dahl added that the choice of Bulgaria fits well with the ambitions of Cleveland Special Events Corporation (CSEC), the host organisation for Gay Games 9 in 2014, to make the most of the ties between Eastern Europeans and the immigrant communities in Cleveland and Akron to promote Eastern European participation in Gay Games 9. “In addition to the large Polish, Ukrainian, and Slovakian communities in Cleveland, there are many Clevelanders of Balkan origin, and they're looking forward to welcome their cousins to Northeast Ohio in 2014.”

Peter Moews, founder of Tangra Sport, the Federation's local partner for the AGA (and Federation member organisation), is pleased to welcome the Federation for its first event in Eastern Europe. “We were delighted to be approached by the Federation to help organize this meeting, and are looking forward to welcoming delegates from around the world to Sofia. We will work to use this event as an opportunity to showcase the growing LGBT sports movement in Bulgaria and Eastern Europe, and to communicate to our fellow sportspeople the challenges of organising and developing events and organizations here.”

Federation Secretary Sean Fitzgerald noted that the 2012 AGA will be the last opportunity for new members to be eligible for the next cycle of selection of the next host of the Gay Games “Federation bylaws give great consideration to the responsibility of choosing the host of the Gay Games. In accordance with our license agreement, the next site selection meeting will take place in 2013 in Cleveland. Only full members that have attended that meeting and the previous AGA in Sofia, or that have attended two of the last four AGAs, can exercise a vote on site selection.”