Dr Nigel Jarvis presents at Federation of Gay Games General Assembly

Dr Nigel Jarvis, Senior Lecturer within the School of Sport and Service Management, was invited by board members of the Federation of Gay Games to present his legacy research findings to their annual General Assembly, which was held in Limerick, Ireland in October 2015. The Federation, which promotes equality and inclusivity in sport, is the sanctioning global body that ensures the Games take place every four years.  Nigel’s study, part of his sabbatical award from the University of Brighton, investigated the legacies of the 2014 Gay Games, which were held in Cleveland/Akron in the USA.  The event attracted 8,000 participants. Nigel commented: “There is little doubt that the considerable growth of gay sporting cultures and events over the past few decades signifies steady progress for sexual minorities in the arena of physical activity. “However, there has been a scarcity of research on the full range of legacies that these types of alternative medium-sized events can have, as previous studies have tended to focus on larger mega-sport events such as the Olympics and/or related economic and infrastructural impacts.” Based on interviews with 29 key stakeholders in the host cities, Nigel presented his findings which demonstrated a wide range of positive socio-political, sport, volunteering, tourism, arts, economic and event management legacies, although awareness of possible negative legacies and barriers also emerged. He said the games have much symbolic significance for both the gay and wider community in Cleveland/Akron, and accelerated the process of more accepting societal attitudes towards LGBTQI people in the local area and across Ohio.  He concluded that socio-cultural and political legacies associated with the transgressive potential of the Games to challenge wider existing dominant heteronormative values, and specifically those attached to sport, may be the most important. Federation members approached Nigel to discuss how candidate cities could use his legacy data to help develop and justify their bid documents to host future games to a range of stakeholders such as national and local governments, sponsors and sport organisations.