Dublin streets will sound to the beat of 120,000 Gaelic football fans this weekend but before a ball is thrown in between Clare and Derry at Croke Park thousands more will have marched in the Dublin Pride Festival winding its way around the capital.

They will include a strong contingent from the GAA, including members of the Sport for Business team, who will gather at the Cusack Stand in the morning and walk proudly as allies of the LGBTQ+ community.

Senior Referee David Gough will not be among them this year as he will be getting ready for the high-profile Sunday clash between Kerry and Mayo. He will attend the Gaelic Players Association Breakfast in the morning but having carried the rainbow flag largely on his own as a gay man since 2011 he is entitled to step to the side on this occasion.

In 2015 he was stopped from wearing a rainbow wrist band but within four years the GAA had come around to the extent of marching formally within Pride for the first time.

It was an obvious part of the “Where we all belong’ message that has spread through every club and county to turn the most traditionally Irish, and possibly quite insular to an outside observer, into a very open and welcoming community and sporting beacon.

But marching does not alone make everything OK.

“When I came out publicly in 2011, I just assumed that it would open doorways for other people and it doesn’t seem to have,” said Gough yesterday, speaking at the launch of SuperValu’s #CommunityIncludesEveryone campaign.

“In the Women’s games, it seems much more comfortable for a player to come out publicly but not so yet in the Men’s.”

“Across 64 inter-county football and hurling teams, nobody seems to have found a comfortable space yet or a place in their journey where they feel comfortable coming out.”

“That’s a little bit sad because greater visibility leads to greater ease for people who are following in those footsteps.”

It is not an issue exclusive to Gaelic Games. Two Irish Rugby players Jack Dunne and Nick McCarthy have spoken openly about their sexuality in recent days and weeks and 17-year-old Jake Daniels did likewise at Blackpool Football Club in England but the fact that they all made international headlines indicates the rarity of such open acceptance.

Brands within sport have stepped up with Aviva, Bord Gais Energy and Bank of Ireland all showing deep engagement in this space but the progress remains slower than we would all like.

The Sport Ireland Sports Monitor for 2021 published in the last week shows that while 41 per cent of those who identify as LGBTI+ participate in sport, the same percentage as those who identify as heterosexual, only 21 per cent are members of a sports club, versus 32 per cent.

That is a gap which speaks about the fact that clubs are not quite as welcoming as we might like to believe, and knowing that it is on all of us to change it.

Marching tomorrow will be fun and it will make us a little more aware. It is what we do after though that will make the difference.

To this end Sport for Business will host a Members Round Table Event next Tuesday, June 28th on what we can do better with representatives from across the sporting and business communities. Bank of Ireland and Bord Gais Energy will join us, as will the GAA Triathlon Ireland, Sport Ireland and the Irish Football Association.

Sporting pride and BelongTo will be there to share the lived experience.

An open discussion about creating a more open sporting environment can only be a step in the right direction.

 

 

Sport for Business Partners