Communicating LGBT+ Inclusion: Join our Webinar in Pride Month

Sports Media LGBT+ to provide ‘Rainbow Ready’ workshop on morning of Tuesday 9 June as part of Pride Sports series…

When’s the best time to have a wider conversation about inclusion in your sport?

As the pandemic continues, it’s been a challenge for all of us to engage with our athletes, coaches, staff, fans and customers.

Pride Month in June is an opportunity for everyone to reach out and renew our commitments to creating safe, welcoming cultures and environments in sport in which everyone can flourish.

For those in media and comms roles, it’s vital to know your audience – and the LGBT+ community is growing in visibility. For example, data suggests as many as one in six young people (aged 18-24) would choose to describe their sexual orientation as ‘bisexual’.

To make our sports and activities as attractive as possible to Generation Z, we need to ensure we’re using inclusive language, and understand what messaging and behaviours will encourage participation.

In February, Sports Media LGBT+ produced our ‘Rainbow Ready’ resources pack, designed to help press officers, sports journalists, social media managers and others who are navigating this evolving LGBT+ landscape. The guidelines are designed to build confidence in those who are communicating out, and reduce the fear of getting something wrong which could produce a negative response from those who are LGBT+, those who aren’t, or both.

We’ll now be adapting the resources into a free digital webinar, to be held on Tuesday 9 June (starts 11am) as part of the Pride Sports Webinar series. The workshop will be delivered by Sports Media LGBT+’s network lead Jon Holmes, who is also Senior Editor at Sky Sports.

The Sports Media LGBT+ webinar is one of five being held across the month. The other webinars are:

  • Tue 2 June (11am) – Including trans people in sport (Simon Croft, Gendered Intelligence)
  • Tue 16 June (11am) – Beyond Rainbows: Engaging LGBT+ Communities (Hugh Torrance, LEAP Sports Scotland)
  • Tue 23 June (11am) – LGBT+ Inclusive Coaching (Lou Englefield, Pride Sports)
  • Tue 30 June (11am) – LGBT+ Inclusive Boards (Lou Englefield, Pride Sports; Lisa Wainwright, Sport and Recreation Alliance)

The Pride Sports Webinar Series is being held in partnership with the Sport and Recreation Alliance, the umbrella organisation for over 300 national sports bodies in the UK. Check out the ‘Take Pride In Yourself’ page on the SRA’s website.

Register for the webinar and join Jon for a helpful, accessible hour that will guide you through a strategy of communicating LGBT+ inclusion in sport.

For more information, contact us here or email jon@sportsmedialgbt.com.

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