London 2018

London 2018 logo

London 2018 was the organisation that put together the bid for London to host the Gay Games in 2018, at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. It was the first bid by a British city to stage the Games, which have never been held in the United Kingdom. The 2018 Games were the tenth, the event having been founded in San Francisco in 1982 by the gay Olympian Tom Waddell. Constituted as London 2018 Limited, the organisation was founded in June 2010 and campaigned under the slogan "Back the Bid". On 7 October 2013 it was announced that the 2018 Gay Games had been awarded to Paris.

Mission

London 2018 will produce a winning bid for the 2018 Gay Games. It will engage Londoners, businesses, organisations, institutions and the LGB&T communities to support its bid. It will secure the best available facilities to stage a world-class event. In bidding it will leave a legacy of sport, culture and human rights for all Londoners.

Values

• Inclusion
• Personal best
• Celebration

Objectives

To make a difference by:

1. working with National Governing Bodies (NGBs) to make their sport inclusive
2. challenging homo/transphobia in society
3. promoting health and wellbeing for LGB&T people

Domains

• Sport
• Culture
• Human rights

The slogan for the bid is "good for sport, good for equality and good for London".

History

The London 2018 introductory leaflet, designed by Jonathan Harbourne

London 2018 was set up in June 2010, just before the Cologne 2010 Gay Games, by Jonathan Harbourne, to bring the Games to London as soon after the London 2012 Olympics as possible. Suran Dickson soon joined Jonathan as co-chair, and they formed a leadership committee with regular meetings; Dickson later left to found the charity Diversity Role Models. Harbourne, a designer by background, produced the bid's logo and its published literature.

The campaign set out its case in an introductory leaflet, An Introduction to the London 2018 Gay Games/OutGames Bid. This argued that London's staging of the 2012 Olympics, the country's history as the birthplace of many international sports, and the concentration of LGB&T sports clubs in the capital together made a compelling case, and recorded the backing of more than two dozen LGB&T sports clubs and a dozen LGB&T organisations. It estimated that the Games might cost £10 million to stage while generating as much as £250 million for the city.

The bidding process

When London 2018 was formed, the Federation of Gay Games and the Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association, which licensed the OutGames, were engaged in long-running negotiations towards a single combined quadrennial event, and a joint working group went so far as to propose that the 2018 festival be called "Together 2018 Gay Games X 4th Outgames". London's bid was launched on the expectation that a combined event would be staged, and its literature described the two bodies as intending to organise the Games together.

That unification did not come about. GLISA maintained that an agreement for a jointly governed 2018 event had been reached at a meeting in Montreal in May 2013, but the Federation subsequently sought modifications and proceeded with a bidding process for its own Gay Games, while GLISA opened separate bidding for a World OutGames in 2017. A further attempt to combine the two events for 2022 was formalised in a memorandum of understanding in May 2015, and abandoned on 28 February 2016 when the Federation's board voted to end seven years of discussions, concluding that creating a new unified organisation would carry too much risk. The statement was signed by the Federation's co-presidents, Kurt Dahl and Joanie Evans, who had served on the London 2018 committee.

Under the bidding process as published, a request for proposals was issued in November 2011, letters of intent were due in March 2012 and completed bids in January 2013, with a shortlist to be drawn up in March 2013, site inspections in June and a vote of the membership in the autumn. More than twenty cities expressed early interest, among them Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro and Tel Aviv.

Government support

Invitation to the reception for the LGBT community at 10 Downing Street, 22 June 2011. The surname is misspelled on the invitation.

The bid attracted support from ministers and from the Prime Minister, David Cameron.

Following an approach to the sports minister, Hugh Robertson, the bid's organisers were invited to Downing Street in August 2010 for a meeting with Michael Salter, the Prime Minister's head of political broadcasting and his principal adviser on LGBT issues.

On Wednesday 22 June 2011 the Prime Minister hosted a reception for the LGBT community at 10 Downing Street, held during Pride month and honouring those who had competed at the Cologne Gay Games the previous year. The reception had been proposed by the bid's organisers at that meeting, and the guest list, drawn up with them, brought together grassroots LGBT sports clubs and the heads of the national governing bodies of British sport. It was the second such reception held by Cameron, who in June 2010 had become the first Conservative Prime Minister to host one.

Chris Morgan, Jonathan Harbourne and Adrian Trett outside 10 Downing Street, 2011

Personal recollection

After we won the Olympic Games, I wrote to the sports minister, Hugh Robertson, and said wouldn't it be a good idea to host the Gay Games here as well? He wrote back saying, "I fully endorse your project." Soon after that I was invited to Number 10 for a chat with Michael Salter. The evening before the meeting I telephoned Douglas Slater, one of the founders of Stonewall, to ask his advice. He said: "There'll be an 'ask' at the end." Michael was direct: "Why should the Prime Minister support your project, Jonathan? You say it's the biggest sporting event in the world, but no one has ever heard of it." As it happened, it was the day of the Youth Olympics in Singapore. No one's ever heard of it? What is the largest sporting event in the world today – and you don't know it's on, and neither does the public. That is how I convinced him. Then came the ask. "What do you want?" I said: "I want you to put on a reception at Number 10 for all those who represented the UK at the previous Gay Games." The following June, in Pride month, Michael asked me for a guest list for that reception, held to honour those who had taken part in the 2010 Gay Games in Cologne. He invited all the heads of the national governing bodies alongside the grassroots clubs. Cameron was late giving his speech – he was on the telephone negotiating the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. There was a half-page announcement in the Guardian or the Observer saying that he supported the project. I think it was the first time a Prime Minister had supported a Gay Games bid.

– Jonathan Harbourne, founder and co-chair of London 2018 · recorded 2026

In January 2013 David Cameron gave the bid his public backing, saying that it could give the country something to cheer in 2018 – having lost the World Cup bid – and wishing it every luck. The equalities minister, Helen Grant, who had already met the bid's organisers, said that her department wholeheartedly backed it, and that the government stood ready to facilitate discussions with the London Legacy Development Corporation, which owns the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, over the use of its venues.

Bid executive committee

The executive committee named in the final bid book was:

• Patron – Claire Harvey, captain of the Paralympics GB women's sitting volleyball team, formerly an elite rugby player for Scotland, and a patron of the government sports charter against homophobia and transphobia
• Chair – Alex Davis, a sports development professional and Out To Swim coach, who won eight gold medals at the Cologne Gay Games
• Vice chair and head of finance – Toby Lambert
• Project management – Craig Jones, formerly a programme manager at the London 2012 Games, and Gary Feiertag, who led BP's LGBT network
• Media and communications – Gareth Johnson, chair of the Out To Swim aquatics club and co-chair of IGLA
• Marketing and outreach – Leviathen Hendricks, founder of Phoenix FC and a co-organiser of London's Pride House
• Culture – Hsien Chew, of the Pink Singers, founder of Proud Voices, the network of LGBT choirs in Britain and Ireland
• Sports committee – Richard Chere, who worked on Olympic hockey and Paralympic football at the London 2012 Games
• Ceremonies – Ian Poitier, writer and director, who established World AIDS Day in the United Kingdom in 1992 and led the launch of the Red Ribbon
• Diversity and inclusion – Chris Gibbons, formerly of Stonewall, and Michelle Weltman, head coach of Out To Swim and a Great Britain Paralympic swimming coach
• Government relations – Adrian Trett, chair of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats
• Also serving: Alastair Bell, television producer and director; Joanie Evans, human rights campaigner, co-president of the IGLFA and a founder member of Hackney Women's Football Club

Outcome

Cover of the final London 2018 bid book, 2013

Letters of intent to bid were received from Limerick, London, Orlando, Paris and a group proposing Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo. In June 2013 it was announced that London had been shortlisted for the Games, alongside Paris and Limerick.

Before the final bid was submitted, Harbourne stood down as chair, and Alex Davis led London 2018 through the closing stage of the campaign. The bid's original branding and positioning were replaced during this period, and Harbourne did not appear in the completed bid book, which was sponsored by BP.

Personal recollection

Before the final bid went in, my co-chair had the backing of half the committee to lead it herself. I did not want to split the organisation at the last post, so I stood aside. I do not appear in the final bid book.

– Jonathan Harbourne, founder and co-chair of London 2018 · recorded 2026

On 7 October 2013 the Federation of Gay Games announced that the 2018 Games would go to Paris, ending the London bid. The Paris Games were held from 4 to 12 August 2018 and attracted around 10,000 competitors from 91 nations across 36 sports.