Introduction

HM Government (2015) released a sporting policy, ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation’, with the aim to increase participation in sports and physical activity and achieve improvements in five key outcomes: physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing, individual development, economic development, social and community development. An aspect of this policy involved identifying demographic groups that are below the national average in terms of participation and engagement in sport and physical activity, which were described as underrepresented; engagement in sport and physical activity refers to participation, volunteering and experiencing live sport. This essay will explain how the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) community are considered as an underrepresented group (HM Government, 2015) and provide suggested provisions to increase participation of this group in sport and physical activity. 

Underrepresentation of the LGBTQ+ Community

The LGBTQ+ community has been subject to prejudice and discrimination for decades and continues today. The use of homophobic verbal slurs within sports settings such as “faggot” or “dyke” have been experienced by 84% of gay men and 82% of gay women respectively (Englefield et al, 2016). According to Sport England, this extends to outside of educational settings where it was found that 55% of LGBTQ+ males and 56% of LGBTQ+ females were deemed physically inactive when compared to 33% and 45% of the general population respectively (Englefield et al, 2016).

Prime areas for bullying, harassment and ostracization of LGBTQ+ youth include physical education and after school sport (Greenspan, Griffith and Murtagh, 2017), with LGBTQ+ youth students report feelings of less safeness than heterosexual and cisgender students in the use of sports sex-segregated facilities (Kulick et al, 2019). This could lend its way to start to explain why many LGBTQ+ students have lower levels of engagement in physical activity (Greenspan, Griffith and Murtagh, 2017) and tend to play sport at lower rates than that of straight and cis-gender students (Kulick et al, 2019).

The occurrence of homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia within sport is still commonplace and acts as a barrier to participation for LGBTQ+ people (Englefield et al, 2016). In terms of transgender sports participation, transgender athletes may have to provide intrusive gender recognition and subjective fitness assessments in the name of fair competition. Specifically, the International Olympic Committee has allowed female-to-male athletes to compete in male competitions whereas male-to-female athletes must have an appropriate level of testosterone at least one year pre-competition (Englefield et al, 2016). While having heightened testosterone levels could be considered unfair in female competition, the participation of transgender male-to-female athletes would be affected by this ruling.

Solutions to Increase Participation

Provisions have been made to reduce homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia within sport, for example the Stonewall ‘rainbow laces’ in football (Lawley, 2019). This initiative featured athletes replacing the laces of their football boots with rainbow-coloured laces to show their support for the LGBTQ+ community. While such provisions raise the status of LGBTQ+ issues, the efficacy of such methods is dubious due to its effect of the corporate landscape instead of social spaces in sport settings such as locker rooms (Lawley, 2019). To solve this issue, sports team leaders can be mentored by sports psychologists to be more compassionate and empathetic towards LGBTQ+ members of the team to improve team cohesiveness and support for LGBTQ+ athletes, which would lead to higher likelihood of sporting success in team sports (Krane, 2016). Other solutions to reduce the discriminatory and prejudicial behaviour experienced by LGBTQ+ athletes is to form inclusive sporting climates (Krane, 2016) such as LGBTQ+ organised community sport and club networks, which have started to be formed across England (Englefield et al, 2016). Instituting a zero-tolerance policy for prejudicial language can encourage development of such inclusive sporting climates (Krane, 2016).

Conclusion

Overall, the discrimination that LGBTQ+ members still experience within and outside of sporting settings is unsettling. While initiatives such as Stonewall “rainbow-laces” and inclusive LGBTQ+ organised community sport are raising awareness and support for the LGBTQ+ community, members remain ‘under-attack’ due to discriminatory and prejudicial behaviours performed by some homophobic, biphobic and transphobic individuals. Further research needs to be undertaken to provide more solutions to reduce these behaviours in sports settings and as a result, participation of LGBTQ+ people within sport and physical activity should increase as the inclusivity and acceptance increases.

References:

Englefield, L., Cunningham, D., Mahoney, A., Stone, T. and Torrance, H. (2016) Sport, Physical Activity & LGBT. London: Sport England. Available at: https://sportengland-production-files.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/pride-sport-sport-physical-activity-and-lgbt-report-2016.pdf (Accessed: 28/11/2020).

Greenspan, S. B., Griffith, C. and Murtagh, E. F. (2017) ‘LGBTQ Youths’ School Athletic Experiences: A 40-Year Content Analysis in Nine Flagship Journals’, Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, 11(3), pp.190-200. Available at:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15538605.2017.1346492 (Accessed: 28/11/2020).

HM Government (2015) Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation. London: HM Government. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486622/Sporting_Future_ACCESSIBLE.pdf(Accessed: 28/11/2020).

Krane, V. (2016) ‘Inclusion to Exclusion Sport for LGBT athletes’ in Schinke, R. J., McGannon, K. R. and Smith, B. (ed.). Routledge International Handbook of Sport Psychology. Oxon: Routledge, pp.237- 247. Available at:

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315777054/chapters/10.4324/9781315777054-34 (Accessed: 28/11/2020).

Kulick, A., Wernick, L. J., Espinoza, M. A. V., Newman, T. J. and Dessel, A. B. (2019) ‘Three strikes and you’re out: culture, facilities, and participation among LGBTQ youth in sports’, Sport, Education and Society, 24(9), pp.939-953. Available at:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/13573322.2018.1532406 (Accessed: 28/11/2020).

Lawley, S. (2019) ‘Spaces and laces: insights from LGBT initiatives in sporting institutions’, Journal of Organizational Change Management, 33(3), pp.502-514. Available at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JOCM-11-2018-0342/full/html (Accessed: 30 /11/2020).