Stonewall and discrimination in sports

[BridgetYourFortyDaysAreUp]

A new piece from Stonewall about discrimination in sports, continuing to conflate LGB with "Trans+" of course.

https://www.stonewall.org.uk/news/rainbow-laces-day-new-data-reveals-alarming-levels-of-lgbtq-discrimination-in-sports

Stonewall also commissioned Bolt Insight to hold in-depth conversations with 20 LGBTQ+ peoplewho play or follow sport. Participants described physical activity as vital to their wellbeing, both physical and mental. One 27-year-old man* said moving his body regularly 'allows my mind to quiet down'. Many said that in mainstream settings, the price of taking part is hiding who they are.

One 59-year-old man joined a local men's football team that did not feel gay-friendly. He described putting 'on a more macho front', which left him feeling that he was 'lying to myself and others'. A 51-year-old football supporter said watching his team means 'having to hide a big part of what I am to watch the sport I enjoy’. Participants named women's football, parkrun and LGBTQ+ grassroots clubs as places that get inclusion right. Top-flight men's football was the place they felt had furthest to go.

[my bold. Did they talk to men only? Are men the ones who are important here? Are they all actually men?

I wonder why women's football and Parkrun would be among those "places that get inclusion right?" Hmm...]

*there is no link to the commissioned report, so I can't check the data. There are also at least two companies called Bolt Insight, or Bolt Insights, on Companies House, which deal with data analysis and AI-led research and data collection. So I am not entirely sure who has actually done this research. It would have been useful to have been able to read the findings myself, rather than accept Stonewall's or Bolt Insight's interpretations of them. I imagine the raw data might be interesting to analyze. Twenty people (qualitative data) is not a lot to go on. I have no doubt that discrimination in sport can be quite widespread, but I'd like to see their definitions of discrimination and how they are applied.

If "discrimination" means "not allowing men to participate in women's sports" then whatever data they have collected take on a whole different meaning.

Having a lesbian DD... my thoughts are that womens sports feel more inclusive because the extremely sporty girls are the ones who are already considered outsiders, and at sport they meet other girls like them. Quite a few of her teammates identify as 'non binary' or as 'trans'. (All are legally and biologically girls as per the sports regulations). They are inclusive of each other. She isnt the only lesbian or bisexual girl.

They would also look at you as if yku had grown an extra head if you suggested they allowed trans identifying boys to join, as they know biology does matter in their sport. (And they had bad experiences playing with the boys at Primary level)

One 59-year-old man joined a local men's football team that did not feel gay-friendly.

Ah, the obvious answer then is that he should join the women's team!

Ps. sorry, the bolding in my OP is all over the place, now can't edit! Hope it's still clear enough??