Commitment to diversity in sport
Nigerian English league footballer Justin Fashanu was the first professional sportsman to openly declare his homosexuality. On February 19 of each year, the date of his birth, the International Day against LGBTIphobia in Sport is commemorated. This year, the Sports and Physical Activity area of the Provincial Council of Barcelona has published a study in which thirty municipalities and various sports organizations in the demarcation have participated to identify the needs and demands in terms of gender perspective and LGTBI+ in the local sports world.
The current situation and the obstacles to be overcome
The study notes the general masculinization of local sport and concerns the decline in girls’ sports practice from adolescence onwards. The town councils point to the lack of funding as one of the main obstacles to effectively promoting gender equality in local sport. It is important that equality plans and protocols are not just on paper, but that they translate into concrete actions.
Proposals for an inclusive gender and LGTBI+ perspective
Sports organizations point out that in some sports it doesn’t make much sense for the competition leagues to be separate between men and women and give archery as an example. Likewise, they detect a lot of verbal violence on the playing fields and underline the need to break traditional models that sexualize women. In this sense, they advocate promoting the same clothing for both sexes.
LGTBI+ sports organizations propose limiting subsidies when discrimination is detected. In fact, it is one of the final considerations of the study: “It would be advisable to rethink the role of public subsidies as a regulatory resource so that they contribute to making this gender and LGTBI+ perspective effective, either by increasing the criteria or applying bonus or penalty regimes.”
The commitment of sports organizations
LGBTI+ sports organizations put several proposals on the table to promote inclusion and equity in local sport. These proposals highlight the limitation of subsidies in case of discrimination, the promotion of the same clothing for all sexes and gender transversality as a requirement to address this perspective at the municipal level.
“In the world of sport, we still have a long way to go to achieve effective equality. We want to give resources to all the municipalities in the province to work on this issue”, assures the Deputy for Sports and councilor of Barcelona, David Escudé.
