MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ATTENTION SPORTS EDITOR
GLISA CELEBRATES 5 YEARS, 5 CONTINENTS, AND 5,000 REGISTRANTS! On its 5th anniversary, GLISA congratulates Copenhagen, 2009 World OutGames host, for surpassing registrant benchmark.
(May 20, 2009 – Montreal, Canada) The Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association (GLISA) congratulates the Copenhagen World OutGames organizing team for surpassing the benchmark of 5,000 registered participants for the upcoming 2nd World OutGames, July 25th through August 1st.
“This is a significant event in the life of GLISA and the OutGames”, stated Julia Applegate Co- President of GLISA International.” “It was just five year ago that GLISA was established and it’s grown into 5 Continental Association and literally hundreds of member organizations”.
To celebrate its 5th anniversary and its 5 Continental Associations, the GLISA board of directors wanted to further support the 2nd World OutGames by sponsoring the “5-5-5 Campaign” which is awarding 5 sports registrations, 5 culture registrations, and 5 conference registrations to be shared with the 5 continental areas! GLISA North America, Asia Pacific and Central & South America are identifying their proposed recipients through their own organizational connections. GLISA Africa and Europe are working through delegates and contact people to identify recipients. Recipients can be one person (for sports, culture, and conference) or multiple persons (one for sport, one for culture, one for conference) for each Continental Association.
GLISA International will fund the Sports and Human Rights registrations and Copenhagen has agreed to provide the funding for the Cultural registrations from each continental association to attend the OutGames in Copenhagen.
“It’s astonishing, and a credit to the organizing team and the OutGames event, that in these difficult financial times more than 5,000 people from around the world, including over 1,000 participants from North America, will be participating in the Copenhagen OutGames,” stated Greg Larocque, President of GLISA North America. “These thousands of registrants and the hundreds of event volunteers and sponsors should be very proud. They’re winners, every one of them!”
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Contact:
Julia Applegate, Co-President, Julia.applegate@glisa.org or
Wessel Van Kampen, Co-President, wessel.van.kampe@glisa.org
The OutGames will consist of more than three dozen sports events and workshops, a Human Rights Conference and a Culture celebration including presentations by several world cities. Sports will include such events as short- and long-distance running and track and field, an international swimming competition, dance, aerobics, volleyball and badminton, kayaking and more.
The Human Rights conference, chaired by Rebecca Sevilla (Peru) and Svend Robinson (Canada), will feature plenary sessions and discussion groups. Featured speakers include Thomas Hammarberg (Sweden) – Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe, Martina Navratilova (United States) – former world #1 tennis player, Michael Kerby (Australia) – retired Australia High Court judge, Cindy Lauper (United Stated) – pop music singer and human rights advocate.
The Culture celebration includes presentations by world OutCities, including Mexico City, Melbourne, and Tel Aviv, as well as live performances by such groups as Yana Alana and the Paranas and the Queer Tango Festival.
GLISA is composed of five Continental Associations – North America, Asia Pacific, Central and South America, Europe, and Africa.
