May 17, 2010
www.homophobiaday.org

Initiated by Fondation Émergence and for the first time in the world, a theme-day dedicated to the fight against homophobia was designed and set up in Québec on June 4, 2003. With the kind help of partners, this theme-day expanded to reach the rest of Canada, and then France and Belgium. In 2005, the IDAHO committee proposed the symbolic date of May 17.

This Year's Theme: Homophobia in the Sport World

On a personal level, athletes and figures involved in the sports world are no more homophobic than any other people. Yet, the sports environment is weighed down by a heavy silence on anything dealing with sexual diversity. What’s surprising is how an entire sector of society seems to have escaped the progress of the last thirty years, a time when society grew sensitive to sexual diversity and sexual minority issues.

The sports world has always favoured a lifestyle and a certain way of being that focus on physical performance. Both set rules for excluding everything that does not live up to the environment’s stereotypes. Homophobia originates from a stereotypical image of what a man should be and of what a woman should be. In the sports world, masculinity and femininity can only be heterosexual. However, boys who are gay and girls who are lesbians are also attracted to sports and wish to take part in them or make a career out of it. People entering athletic organisations know what rules to play by: being gay or lesbian needs to be tucked away into the closet and silence becomes master of the game.

The sports world needs to join in society’s progress, put an end to the silence on LGBT issues, and get involved in the fight against homophobia.

 

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