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Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, left, officially changes the status of Cleveland as a host of the 2014 Gay Games on a banner at Bounce Nightclub after Cleveland and Akron were announced as the chosen location in 2009.

(Tim Harrison, Special to The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Three months before the 2014 Gay Games arrive in Greater Cleveland, the city's Office of Equal Opportunity is developing a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Business Enterprises registry to recognize and embrace businesses owned by members of the LGBT community.

Designed in collaboration with Plexus, Cleveland's LGBT chamber of commerce, the registry does not require contractors doing work for the city to hire LGBT subcontractors, Natoya Walker Minor, interim director of the Office of Equal Opportunity, wrote in an email Friday.

Rather, it simply serves as a tool to help members of the public who wish to do business with an LGBT-owned enterprise to find what they are looking for, she said.

“We believe that the LGBTBE Registry is both a historic and monumental step forward that will contribute towards a stronger business environment and that aligns with the mission of the Office of Equal Opportunity, to advance economic opportunity for Clevelanders," Walker Minor said in a news release.

The registry will be up and running by August, when the Gay Games are expected to draw as many as 9,000 competitors from around the world with another 20,000 guests, performers, spectators and volunteers.

The Games begin with opening ceremonies Aug. 9 at The Q and extend over a week, with athletes competing in sports such as swimming and diving, track and field, wrestling and volleyball at venues that include the Cleveland Convention Center and the campuses of Cleveland State, Case Western Reserve and Akron universities.

To be listed in the city’s LGBT Business Enterprise registry, “businesses must demonstrate that they are at least 51 percent owned and operated by an LGBT individual and located and doing business in the Cleveland Contracting Market,” according to the news release.

As proof of a business owner’s sexual identification, the registration application requests certain documents, such as domestic partner registration, civil union or marriage certificates, joint property ownership, petition for hospital visitation rights, petition of legal name change or a letter from a recognized LGBT organization attesting to the business owner’s status, Walker Minor said.

The registry was modeled after the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce's database of LBGT-owned businesses, she said.