Trades Union Congress targets homophobia in sport

The Trades Union Congress is looking at ways to tackle the problem of homophobia in the UK sports industry. In a parallel development, the Football Association has started a campaign to address the problem of homophobia in English professional football. Homophobia remains a problem in professional football and sport generally in the UK, although some evidence suggests that concerted action against it could lead to a decline in its incidence.

At the annual conference of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in September 2009, a fringe meeting was held by the TUC’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) committee to look at ways of tackling the issue of homophobia in sports in the United Kingdom (UK). The move followed the adoption of a resolution highlighting the problem of homophobia in sports by the 12th TUC LGBT conference, which took place in July 2009.

The meeting involved representatives from two leading Premier League football clubs, Liverpool Football Club and Everton Football Club. Also involved were the social partner organisations from the UK football industry – the Football Association (FA) and the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), a TUC-affiliated trade union.

Homophobia persists in sports industry

At the meeting, the problem of homophobia within sport and its impact on employees within the industry were discussed. During the discussion, participants outlined potential strategies to combat the problem.

The TUC’s General Secretary, Brendan Barber, highlighted:

Professional sport remains blighted by homophobia and transphobia in spite of the big advances in LGBT equality over the last decade. Due to the bigotry and narrow-mindedness that exists in sport, the majority of LGBT sportspeople are unable to reveal their sexuality for fear of discrimination or attack. This cannot be tolerated. Unions are linking up with a number of organisations across the UK, including Everton and Liverpool [football clubs], to rid sport of this extreme prejudice, so that sportsmen and women no longer face harassment or intimidation because of their sexuality.

Related developments

The timing of the meeting coincided with the development of a new strategy by the FA to combat homophobia within football. This follows the publication of a report by the gay rights group Stonewall – entitled Leagues behind (925Kb PDF) – which was critical of the failure of the UK football industry to end the problem of homophobic abuse within football.

The report was based on a survey of 2,005 UK football fans and interviews with employees within the football industry. It found that the level of homophobic abuse within the sport ‘deters gay people from playing football and creates a culture of fear where gay players feel it is unsafe to come out’. More than half of the fans surveyed stated that the FA needed to do more to tackle homophobia within football, while only one in six fans surveyed stated that the club they support was taking steps to tackle homophobia.

As part of its anti-homophobia campaign, the FA is to release a video promoting awareness of the problem of homophobia. In addition, it will be reconvening its Tackling Homophobia Working Group, which has been dormant since late 2008. The Chair of the FA, Lord Triesman, outlined:

[The FA remains] committed to challenging all forms of discrimination in football and making the game open to all. We have been working closely with ... the Professional Footballers’ Association on producing a film that has a strong anti-homophobia message and look forward to premiering this in the New Year.

Commentary

Despite the apparent persistence of homophobia in the UK sports industry, the TUC and the PFA are hopeful that their initiatives will be successful in tackling the problem within the industry. The TUC has a long track record of combating homophobia in various sections of the UK labour market. For its part, the PFA has been involved in several programmes with the FA that aim to eradicate prejudiced attitudes towards homosexual football players.

The PFA’s record in fighting racism in football also raises hope that discrimination on the basis of sexuality will eventually be lessened. Despite the existence of substantial levels of racism towards black employees within the sports industry in previous decades, the PFA’s participation in campaigns to eradicate racism in UK football have greatly improved the image of the sport in this regard.

Thomas Prosser, IRRU, University of Warwick