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Stonewall is launching its award-winning Rainbow Laces marketing campaign for the ninth 12 months and calling on followers to maintain combating for LGBTQ+ inclusion in sports activities after new analysis exhibits “improbable progress.”

New analysis from ICM/Walnut and Stonewall sheds mild on the transformative influence of the long-lasting Rainbow Laces marketing campaign.

Over the previous 5 years, the proportion of sports activities followers who assume homophobic feedback in sports activities are acceptable has almost halved, from 25% in 2017 to 14% in 2022. This follows 5 years of devoted campaigns of Stonewall and sporting our bodies such because the Premier League, FA, Premiership Rugby and the primary sponsors which might be a part of TeamPride.

There was improbable progress, however there’s nonetheless some approach to go earlier than all LGBTQ+ individuals are actually welcomed as equals in sports activities. This 12 months, a number of brazenly LGBTQ+ athletes have risen to the forefront and impressed the nation. Whether or not it is Jake Daniels’ popping out or the Lionesses’ proud lesbian and bisexual inclusion on this 12 months’s European Championship-winning England ladies’s soccer group, LGBTQ+ individuals in sport have by no means been extra seen.

Regardless of this progress, many LGBTQ+ individuals nonetheless really feel unsafe and unwelcome at sporting occasions and health amenities. Analysis exhibits that sports activities followers don’t belief aggressive sports activities to be a welcoming surroundings for LGBTQ+ sports activities personalities. Solely 4 in 10 sports activities followers assume aggressive sport is welcoming to homosexual and bisexual males (40 p.c) or lesbian and bisexual ladies (43 p.c). Solely three in 10 followers (29 p.c) assume aggressive sports activities are welcoming to trans sports activities personalities.

So whereas it has been encouraging to see athletes like Jake Daniels, Zander Murray and Josh Cavallo comfy taking part in as themselves, the marketing campaign to make the game a sport for everybody is much from over.

The marketing campaign is encouraging individuals to maintain lacing up, converse up and stick with it.

Liz Ward, Director of Packages at Stonewall, stated: “Sport has the unequalled skill to carry us collectively. From Premier League golf equipment to grassroots groups and native gyms, it has been improbable to see so many individuals coming collectively to combat for a extra inclusive sport. world this season of Rainbow Laces.

“For the reason that begin of the Rainbow Laces marketing campaign, we have seen consciousness develop and develop, with over 1,000,000 laces modeled on boots on courts all over the world, and consequently we have seen basic adjustments in attitudes – most the British now help LGBTQ+ athletes.

“Nonetheless, we can’t change into complacent. This new analysis exhibits that the general public acknowledges that there’s extra work to be completed to create a world the place LGBTQ+ individuals are free to be themselves each on and off the pitch.”

“So this season of Rainbow Laces, it is vital that all of us ‘Maintain it Up’ and actually make the game a sport for everybody.”

• Rainbow Laces celebrates its ninth anniversary as Stonewall urges the game to proceed Lace Up and Maintain Up within the combat to make the game a sport for all.
• TeamPride’s iconic manufacturers, together with Sky Sports activities, Adidas and the Premier League, in addition to grassroots golf equipment and followers, have a good time the change in perspective and are available collectively to resume their dedication to LGBTQ+ inclusion in sport.
• New analysis* from ICM/Walnut and Stonewall exhibits that over the previous 5 years, the proportion of sports activities followers who assume homophobic feedback in sports activities are acceptable has almost halved, from 25% in 2017 to 14% in 2022.
• The Rainbow Laces marketing campaign highlights the plight of LGBTQ+ individuals in Qatar as we put together for the World Cup. The World Cup is an occasion the place the worldwide sports activities neighborhood should arise and denounce the criminalization and persecution of LGBTQ+ individuals in Qatar.

Ward added: “As we strategy the 2022 Males’s World Cup, we should do not forget that Qatar is a rustic the place LGBTQ+ individuals are persecuted merely for being themselves. Sadly, this 12 months’s event is not protected for everybody, which is why it is so necessary to see gamers and followers stand as much as be counted.

“The World Cup is a crucial second for the worldwide sports activities neighborhood to face up and converse out in opposition to the criminalization and persecution of LGBTQ+ individuals in Qatar.”