On Saturday we had the honour of marching with the GAA, Ladies Gaelic Football Association, Camogie Association and Gaelic Players Association as part of the Pride Dublin Festival.
A giant football certainly attracted plenty of enthusiastic support from the thousands who thronged the streets in a colourful and noisy positive display of where we are as a nation in relation to inclusion and an open welcome for those whose life is deemed to be ‘different’.
The Gaelic Games’ contribution to the parade came alongside that of the Gay Boh’s bus from Bohemian FC and while the number of professional footballers or inter-county male players to have come out is well below what you would expect in statistical terms, it feels as though the dial is moving towards it being a more comfortable space in which that might happen.
We wrote on Friday that 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 was 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 tomorrow 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
