Play With Pride

Sport and physical activity can enrich lives in so many ways. It can boost your own mental, physical and social wellbeing, as well as connecting communities. Unfortunately LGBTQ+ people are less likely to feel comfortable and welcome in sport settings, and are less likely to be physically active as a result.  

84% of gay men and 82% of gay women have experienced verbal homophobic slurs in sports settings.

The need for greater LGBTQ+ inclusion has been highlighted through the successful rainbow laces campaign, as well as wider research conducted: 

• 56% of LGBT+ women are not active enough to maintain good health
• 84% of gay men and 82% of gay women have experienced homophobic verbal slurs in sport settings
• 85% of bisexual men and 67% of bisexual women under the age of 22 are not ‘out’ to anyone in their sports team.
• 4/10 LGBT people don’t feel sport is welcoming.

As a result of this overwhelming research, Living Sport initiated Play With Pride, a project aiming to tackle physical inactivity across the county by making clubs and groups more inclusive. Working alongside a group of young volunteers we created a ‘Rainbow Rating’ a self assessment toolkit, to help clubs evaluate their inclusivity. Living Sport can then work alongside these groups to make necessary changes.

Young volunteers also helped Living Sport to create a coach education workshop,  a 3 hour course, that explains specific terminology, increases understanding of how to be inclusive and works through individual examples to increase applied knowledge.

If you are looking for additional advice, then you can access the following resources below:

Stonewall – Top tips for being an inclusive sports club

Stonewall – Top tips for using inclusive language

For those looking to be more trans inclusive, Gendered Intelligence have a comprehensive resource library available here.

Living Sport are reliant on funding in order to continue making physical activity inclusive for all across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. If you would like to donate, and help more people to receive some of the physical, emotional and social benefits of being more physically active then you can below.