Premier League football has reduced the amount of money it gives to Stonewall

[Fenlandia]

Stonewall is behind the 'Rainbow Laces' initiative but according to The Athletic, the league has halved the amount it puts in, which had been over £100,000 per year. It is also no longer a member of Stonewall's global diversity programme.

The article (https://theathletic.com/5119875/2023/12/07/premier-league-rainbow-laces/ - not sure if archiving will work as it's paywalled) suggests it's possibly down to

• Trying to avoid upsetting overseas markets where being gay is illegal
• Clubs and the league doing more diversity stuff in-house, so why pay twice to tell fans and players that being gay is fine, actually and no-one should be bullied because of it

The article does mention Stonewall's messianic focus on contentious trans politicking and the fact that many other organisations have retreated from working with them.

Someone even mentions TERF island in the comments!

I've never been convinced about the impact of the rainbow laces campaign. I don't doubt that going to football could still be uncomfortable for some gay and trans fans (as it can be for women too!) but society has changed a lot for the better and there is a lot less homophobic chanting and language than a few decades ago. (I wish it was zero homophobia.) There are more active fan groups than ever before who are working directly with clubs. I don't think the positive changes are because the players wore special laces for a couple of games per season.

I agree. In men's football it's done sod all for encouraging players to be openly out and there's still the homophobic chanting going on from fans. Jake Daniels of Blackpool is one gutsy player.

The Menz in Footie showed their true colours recently when they went for the pieces of silver. No surprise there.

Women's football doesn't need Stonewall nor Rainbow Laces. Just better treatment and respect for their game from the F.A.

Stonewall wants to put men into women's football, the women's game doesn't need them at all.

I suppose to be fair we should say that Stonewall did help Jake Daniels before he came out as an active professional footballer who was gay. But that doesn't mitigate all the other harm they have done to wider society.

I don't know what happened privately re Stonewall with Jake Daniels. I hope that they were good supporters of him, and that he still has good support.

Perhaps I'm beyond cynical about Stonewall now. The statements I see from them keep linking him with those stupid laces and and Justin Fashanu (r.i.p) three decades ago. Maybe I'm missing other stuff they've put out, but I doubt it.

They, and the FA. and the PFA, et al, had thirty years at least to campaign and organise after his suicide. What did we see? Rainbow laces...eventually! FFS.

More teams need to stop the game when these chants and abuse start from the crowd, a bit of direct action needed, not hollow statements from the likes of Jordan Henderson and Gary Neville. The PFA needs to get it's arse in gear but I hold no hope. Kick Racism Out took far too long and was/is weak.

I think we will be seeing it (direct action) along with the active fan clubs, if anyone tries to put men into Women's football. Women won't be having it!

Hopefully they've realised that Stonewall's dedication to putting men into women's football, changing rooms and showers is not only a safeguarding hazard but also an affront to most people's sense of fairness and equality.

Stonewall... so used to being right, it can never be wrong.

So now womens football is finally paid a little bit and has a TV league game the tw want in? What a surprise.

They shouldn't be giving them a single penny.

For sure they shouldn't, in a saner, better world. But it's one of many green shoots recently. Let's hope so. I do imagine Reason #1 is the biggest factor, though.

I have got to the point where I find small kids coming onto the pitch before the start of a game waving large progress flags, actively offensive. AFC Bournemouth may have got rid of their much larger than life figure of Sophie Cook, their much lauded transgender photographer that used to be at the entrance of the ground, but they still pretty captured.

They are apparently investing a lot into their women's team and are encouraging people to attend matches. It seems weird that they cannot recognise the incongruence of promoting women but at the same time promoting the fact that men can be women.

It is so different from their intelligent approach to BLM. Rather than jump on a virtue signalling bandwagon and take the knee, players themselves apparently decided to make a film, shown before matches with several of them confirming racism has no place in sport. FWIW I have never heard either homophobic or racist chants.

I think it is because clubs do more of their own thing as it were, not any disapproval or changed view about Stonewall.