LGBT community would 'expect' homophobia in team sports, poll reveals

Wednesday 25 Sep 2013
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A Stonewall survey has revealed that gay, lesbian and bisexual people would expect to experience homophobia if they were an openly gay athlete in team sports.

The poll, entitled Gay in Britain, discovered that more than 6/10 gay and bisexual men and 4/10 lesbians and bisexual women would expect to experience homophobia if they were an openly gay athlete in team sports.

Gay in Britain was carried out by YouGov and was conducted with over 2,000 lesbian, gay and bisexual adults.

The impact of this is particularly acute for gay and bisexual men, with only one in twenty having participated in an organised team sport in the last year.

Stonewall Chief Executive Ben Summerskill said: “Completion of our work on marriage means that one strand of Stonewall’s domestic focus, legislative equality, is effectively complete.”

He added: “But this polling demonstrates starkly that changing laws doesn’t change attitudes and lives overnight.”

Gay in Britain calls for renewed leadership from national governing bodies of sport, as well as from grassroots sports teams and youth groups, to ensure that the needs of Britain’s 3.7 million lesbian, gay and bisexual people start to be met.

In particular Stonewall recommends the following:

•      Schools and youth sports clubs should tackle homophobic bullying on the sports field and encourage lesbian, gay and bisexual young people to participate in team sports, laying the foundation for them to be active adults.
•      Sports teams and associations should promote a zero tolerance approach to homophobic abuse both on and off the playing field.
•      National Governing Bodies of sport should promote the participation of lesbian, gay and bisexual people at all levels by training coaches and officials to tackle homophobic abuse and by supporting and celebrating gay athletes.
•      National Governing Bodies should make a public commitment to eradicate homophobia from their sport and encourage senior spokespeople and high profile athletes to champion the issue.

The report in its entirety can be found here.

To discuss the report further please contact Alice Ashworth at: alice.ashworth@stonewall.org.ukor on 020 7593 3466.

From Stonewall

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