NEWS | THE SOUTHERN LEAGUE x FOOTBALL v HOMOPHOBIA

Committed to making football more inclusive for the LGBTIQ+ community

The Southern League is pleased to be supporting Football v Homophobia.

We have joined hundreds of other clubs, Leagues and organisations within the game to back this initiative, which is committed to making football more inclusive for the LGBTIQ+ community.

February is LGBTQ+ History Month and as part of this Month of Action, events have been organised far and wide to spread the message and acknowledge the journey and progress made by the community both within football and society as a whole.

This is why it is important to back the Football v Homophobia campaign:

• Lesbian, gay and bisexual young people are less likely to take part in team sports. Research shows gay boys and young men taking part at less than half the rate of straight/heterosexual men (UBC, 2017).

• Only 18% of active gay men participate in traditional sports (2CV/Pride Sports, 2017).

• More than half of trans people (54%) feel excluded from sport or feel they have to give up sport at some point because of their gender identity (Outsport 2019).

• 39% of non-binary people avoid clubs for fear of harassment (Scottish Trans, 2016).

The Southern League believes that LGBTIQ+ people deserve a place in football and that clubs hold the key to making football welcoming and inclusive of LGBTIQ+ people.

We have supplied our member clubs with rainbow Captain’s armbands as a visual way of showing support and we are always keen to hear about other ways in which our clubs have engaged with this campaign.

Please send details and photographs to Southern League Director Stephen Hyde, via: sfl.diversity@gmail.com