If you listen to any coming out story from a professional or amateur sportsman they often mention the fear of telling their team mates and how this is often greater than telling close friends or family. There are also those who experience homophobic and racist taunts whilst competing within their respective sports. Sports clubs, changing rooms and the pitch…what were once a major nightmare for any LGBT athletes around the world is starting to change. It would appear that over recent years the world of sport is starting to wake from this nightmare, with athletes from a wide range of sports coming out as LGBT. Tom Daley in Diving, Gareth Thomas in Rugby, Robbie Rogers in Football, Nicola Adams in Boxing and Martina Navratilova in Tennis whom are all just a few of those who have come out.
Despite this sport has the power to make effective change around the world through education, influence and bringing nations and people together. Despite the presence of negative connotations surrounding the world of sport is beginning to change as more athletes of all levels are coming out and showing their true colours on and off the pitch. There are those sports which could be seen as being more open to LGBT athletes however as time progresses this is all starting to blur into one as the snowball keeps on gaining momentum when all it needed was that first step.
As the ball continues to roll it has made way and spurred the creation of new entities and events specifically catering and targeting LGBT athletes around the world. The Gay Games were first launched in 1982 to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, and since then have gone from strength to strength over passing the Olympic Games in regards to the number of competitors. The aim of the games is to bridge the gap between the gay and non-gay world through international athletic and cultural events. Further to this many sports have recognised the growing presence of LGBT individuals within sport and have started to create international governing bodies to oversee the
welfare of their athletes whilst encouraging others to take part.
There are still vast grey areas within sport which experience not only homophobia but also racism and sexism from fans, team mates and others within the sport most notably football. Within the UK there has only been one football player to come out whilst still actively playing within the domestic football leagues, Justin Fashanu. He experienced both homophobic and racist remarks and this resulted in him committing suicide in 1998 following controversial allegations. Football has tried to clean up fan behaviour over recent years and is making strides to make it more accepting to come out, and this looks like it is working with last week it being reported that two high profile footballer including an English International were ready to come out.
Another grey area lies around the hosting of major international tournaments including the Football World Cup and the Olympic Games. The ethos of these and other sporting events is to bring the world together in a time of peace to celebrate togetherness. Yet with controversial hosts for the World Cup in Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022) and the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi all of which have rocky and suspect laws about LGBT these cast a dark cloud over international sporting events and the morals on which they are held. Despite this many athletes both Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and straight use there international stature and reputation to speak out about LGBT and human rights around the world.
Globally aspects such as sport, music, fashion and politics have the power to make a positive effect in the world from both sides of the rainbow.
Interested in LGBT Sporting news? Outsports is a great website that brings you sporting stories from all over the world. http://www.outsports.com/