The City of Cleveland has agreed to pay
nearly half a million dollars to settle a lawsuit over who will
produce the 2014 Gay Games.
The lawsuit, filed last September in
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, alleged that the City of
Cleveland and the Federation of Gay Games (FGG) conspired to knock
out Cleveland Synergy Foundation from acting as host of the games.
The FGG severed its relationship with
Synergy, a non-profit group formed specifically to attract the
Olympic-style event to the shores of Lake Erie, last July. FGG
officials said they acted after Synergy failed to meet certain
reporting requirements and had worked on events other than the Gay
Games.
News of the settlement arrived as the
case was set to go to trial.
“What we felt was that the longer
this went on – the litigation itself – the less likely it was any
party … could successfully run the 2014 Gay Games,” Attorney
Richard Haber, who represents Synergy, told
Spangle
Magazine. “And resolving the lawsuit was in the best
interest of all parties and in the best interest of the Gay Games.”
“[Synergy] will not take an active
role in the 2014 Gay Games,” he added.
Synergy was prepared to argue at trial
that several board members of the Greater Cleveland Sports
Commission, the group taking the helm of the games, had made
homophobic remarks, and that the games should be run by a group
dedicated to Cleveland's LGBT community. (A video report on some of
the claims is embedded in the right panel of this page.)