Sport’s rainbow weekend

Rainbows were more than just visible in sport last week – they were front and centre, helping to make sport everyone’s game in an unprecedented show of support.

The focus was on professional football and rugby union, but quite rightly for a campaign celebrating inclusion, people from all different sports and walks of life joined in. Bristol Flyers Basketball, MPs such as Caroline Lucas, and Strictly dance ‘sensation’ Ed Balls were just a few of those showing off their Rainbow Laces on Twitter.

The government estimates that 5-7% of the UK population identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, and for reasons discussed at length in parliament committee inquiries, by academics, in surveys and in conferences, many LGBT people have felt and continue to feel excluded from sport. Now sport has collectively welcomed those people in – and a significant step has been taken in the fight against homophobia, biphobia and transphobia.

Here’s five things we learned from Rainbow Laces weekend…

Strong messages from the top filter down faster

“The LGBT community is a vital part of our community,” wrote Premier League chairman Richard Scudamore. “We will support our clubs in ensuring the important campaign messages are heard,” added EFL chairman Shaun Harvey. The RFU’s chief executive Ian Ritchie concurred: “We believe rugby’s core values of respect, teamwork and sportsmanship resonate with what is at the heart of this important campaign.” Time was relatively short – momentum gathered towards a midweek launch and subsequent push – but words from sport’s supremos, speaking with one voice, carry immense weight. Previous campaigns hadn’t managed to achieve such unification; for many clubs, their contracted commitments to betting partners prevented them from association with a campaign then supported loudly and proudly by Paddy Power. This time, the ‘follow my leader’ effect was swift – and the clubs themselves provided visibility in a variety of ways.

Creativity of communication made the campaign go further

At Brentford v Birmingham on Saturday, boots with rainbow laces graced the front cover of Bees Review. Inside, the programme editorial not only stressed that “homophobia is unacceptable” but also promoted the club’s nascent lesbian, gay, bi and trans supporters group, LGBeeT. One of their members told Sky Sports on Saturday: “Seeing the programme cover actually brought a tear to my eye. We’ve had fans come to us in the past and say they haven’t been to Griffin Park for a long time because they don’t feel they can be themselves in such an environment. More than ever, we can show them that times are changing.”

Rainbows abounded – in the Premier League, flags were flown and 20 captains wore special armbands; on social media, profile pictures were filtered with all the colours; EA Sports made a bespoke kit available on FIFA Ultimate Team; and the …

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