Roger Brigham

The election a year ago of a right-leaning coalition city government in Valencia, Spain triggered several local LGBTQ+ organizations this week to drop their support of the 2026 Gay Games being held in that city. The Federation of Gay Games immediately responded by saying it understood and regretted the departure of those organizations, but felt it was important to go forward with the games as planned.

If you read the superficial news reports and commentaries published in the final days leading up to the Gay Games events held in Hong Kong and Guadalajara, Mexico this month, you would have expected sparsely attended tournaments populated by athletes ducking bullets fired by Mexican cartels or constantly looking over their shoulders expecting to be kidnapped by communist party security officers.

For the first time in four decades, I will not watch a single minute of the men's soccer World Cup. Not one vuvuzela-shrieking minute. I love the beautiful game, but despise the foundation of never-ending abuse, excess, corruption, exploitation, and discrimination upon which its premier global event is built. I was one of the American teens in the 1960s who was drawn to the sport by the elegance, artistry, and charm of Brazilian superstar Pelé.