The Federation of Gay Games general assembly on February 1 named the three finalists bidding for the rights to host Gay Games XII in 2026: Guadalajara, Mexico; Munich, Germany; and Valencia, Spain.
Dropped from the list of bidders were Auckland, New Zealand; Brisbane, Australia; San Diego, USA; Taipei, Taiwan; and Toronto, Canada.
The three cities will now submit expanded bid books to the general assembly for delegates to examine and ask questions. The FGG will send a team of site inspectors to each finalist city in June or July for evaluation. The FGG membership will then elect the presumptive host at its annual meeting in November in Hong Kong, site for the XI Gay Games next year.
This is the second consecutive time Guadalajara, which hosted the FGG annual meeting in 2019, has bid on the Gay Games.
If Munich or Valencia were chosen, it would mark the fourth time the Gay Games were held in Europe. If either Valencia or Guadalajara were chosen, it would be the first time the event was held in a country in which Spanish is the national language. If Guadalajara were chosen, it would be the first time a Gay Games held outside of Europe was not a former British colony and the first time the Gay Games entered Latin America.
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