PRIDE at the 2010 Winter Olympics

The 2010 Winter Olympics have begun in Vancouver and, for the first time ever, there is an LGTB pavilion present at the Games. QMUNITY (BC’s Queer Resource Centre) is hosting Pride House Vancouver, which opened Feb. 11 and will remain open until Mar. 21, 2010. At the House, athletes and visitors will find friendly PRIDE House ambassadors who can tell them about all that is fabulously queer in Vancouver. They also have on hand immigration and refugee experts with a wealth of knowledge and resources.

Other Olympic cities have had gay bars, but nothing has ever been done quite like this and the organizers are honored to be part of history in the making.

During the Games, Pride House doors are open from 10 am to 7 pm, seven days a week. PRIDE House is a social hub and a welcome space for LGTB athletes, family, friends and visitors to come together to celebrate, to get information and resources, to be safe, and to find community.

PRIDE house Vancouver had its Grand Opening last week (Thursday, February 11^th) and featured special guest speakers Mary McNeil, Minister of State for the Olympics and ActNow BC and MLA, Vancouver-False Creek; Hedy Fry, MP for Vancouver Centre; and Marion Lay, Olympian, former President and CEO of the 2010 Legacies Now.

The House will be hosting movies nights during the Games and will include screenings of Training Rules (Presented by: CAAWS – Canadian Association for the Advance of Women and Sport and Physical Activity), A Knock Out, and Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride.

The goals of PRIDE house are to:

- provide a celebratory and welcoming venue for the LGBT community to connect with, seek support, and have fun

- provide information on upcoming LGBT events, conferences, and festivals

- provide outreach and/or support materials and/or contacts such as EGALE, Rainbow Refuge, LIGIT, Gay Lesbian International Sports Association, OUT Games, etc.

- create incredible memories as one of the hippest and coolest places to gather during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The primary objectives of PRIDE house are:

-  to have fun, embrace diversity, and be inclusive

-  to educate and change the homophobia in sport culture

- to be a human rights catalyst to protect gays and lesbians in countries with governments that have laws that openly discriminate against homosexuals.

PRIDE House is particularly significant to citizens of nations such as India, Iran, Jamaica, Ukraine and 65+ other countries where it is still illegal to be a homosexual and in over 7 countries where the crime of being gay or being thought to be gay is punishable by death.  PRIDE house aims to provide those citizens whose human rights are being denied a welcoming space to go and find like-minded people and to find the support and encouragement that is so valuable.

For more about PRIDE House visit http://www.pridehouse.ca.

In other 2010 Winter Olympics gay news… AfterEllen.com has taken on the task of researching the athletes taking part in the Games this year and highlighting for our community the 4 openly gay participants. Check out their list here.