Passion for Pride drops in UK sports, but LGBTQ people are united and powering on
There’s a sense of nonchalance within British sports about Pride Month so far this June, with less enthusiasm from governing bodies and clubs, and a relative dearth of coverage in mainstream media; however, as LGBTQ storytellers, we’re regularly reminded of the need to stick together and show up for Pride…
This year marks a decade since my first Pride in London march, when I walked with friends and colleagues from across Sky.
I feel confident in saying I was the only person from Sky Sports editorial in the company-wide group on that sunny Saturday in June 2015.
By that time, I’d only had one article about an LGBTQ athlete published on the website. I was still building my confidence personally and professionally, having only come out as gay 18 months previously.
It meant the world to me to be marching alongside my boyfriend, Chris, who had moved down from Leeds to London with me a few months earlier.
Two years later, I started up Sports Media LGBT+ as an industry network group. We’ve now grown into a digital publisher and consultancy, shortlisted at the SJA British Sports Journalism Awards.
Often, when I’m invited to speak to journalism students, I remind them how relatively recent our visibility has become in sports and society. At the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, there were just 25 publicly out athletes; the first gay wedding in England was only held in 2014; and at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2015, the number of out lesbian and bi players stood at 15.
Now we’ve seen “Team LGBTQ” expand to more than 200 athletes across Paris 2024; currently, 38 countries around the world have equal marriage; and women’s football has grown so exponentially that it sometimes feels as if queer representation is embedded everywhere within the game.
Despite this, the connection between Pride Month and British sports feels less secure in June 2025. For example, the Wembley arch used to be lit up in rainbow colours at this time of year – but no more.
It’s not so much the decline in rainbows that concerns me (the temporary changing of social media profile pictures always felt rather performative), but storytelling produced by governing bodies and clubs seems more scarce, and mainstream media outlets aren’t commissioning and publishing content like they used to. This was also evident during LGBT+ History Month in February, and before that, during Rainbow Laces.
In part, the current dearth could be attributed to our biggest city Pride events in Britain being held outside of June (London on July 5, Birmingham in May, and Brighton and Manchester in August).
Yet we need to shine a light now. In Liverpool, there is an ongoing bid to rescue the city’s annual Pride in July, cancelled due to a funding crisis.
The Reds have always been keen to point out how back in 2012, they were the first Premier League club to officially participate in a Pride parade. Wouldn’t it be great if Pride in Liverpool could be saved in 2025 with a little help from the champions?
Smaller events such as Middlesex Pride, due to be held a short walk from Brentford’s ground, are also at serious risk of being shelved due to sponsorship struggles.
There have again been several T20 matches in county cricket dedicated to Pride, but there doesn’t appear to be an overarching summer Rainbow Laces activation this time around.
On the second day of the England v India men’s Test match at Headingley, there were even Progress Pride flag stickers at the base of the stumps, but this was barely acknowledged on Saturday.
The first sign of a story about it anywhere was in Indian media on Tuesday, noting the incongruence of the trans colours in light of the ECB’s recent ban on trans women playing women’s cricket.
Compared to previous years, it’s been a quieter Pride Month for me on the domestic front at Sports Media LGBT+. I was invited to contribute to a piece on FIFPro’s website about our work on the Football v Homophobia campaign, and also delivered an LGBTQ-specific session to graduates on the Google Pixel FC Academy project (an inspirational day!)
Other than that, fewer businesses have reached out to enquire about Pride opportunities. Nevertheless, the work continues – we’re helping to deliver an event in London on Thursday evening to mark two years to go until EuroGames Cardiff 2027. Contact me if this is of interest!
Ultimately, when you consider the volume of sports-related activity in North America, it’s still a colossal difference across the pond – even with the effect of the anti-inclusion sentiment being fostered in the U.S. by the Trump administration. When I’m writing for Outsports, it’s also refreshing to see the variety of different sports marking Pride.
So credit to those in British sports media – the journalists and reporters, content creators and influencers, media officers and comms leads – who are persevering this Pride Month in the face of indifference or cowardly reluctance to amplify LGBTQ voices.
For a lot of editors, it’s as if our community has lost the novelty value of 10 years ago. With the social media algorithms favouring “rage bait” and search traffic falling due to the ever-tightening grip of Google’s A.I. Overview, it’s easier now to paint the platforming of positive Pride in sports content as either posturing or pointless.
But of course, we’re not going anywhere. This summer, in various towns and cities, there will be sports media professionals taking part in their first Pride parades since coming out, similar to my own experience back in 2015.
There are athletes, coaches, officials and staff members who are LGBTQ and who would no doubt happily share more with the wider world, if only they could see evidence that this special time of year for our community is celebrated by their employers too.
So take it from someone who once felt they had to hide away a part of who they are, just to fit in. Pride Month truly matters, in the U.K. as much as in the U.S. or anywhere else.
And the impact of marking the occasion in sports sends out a powerful message. Two articles I just wrote for Outsports reminded me of that – Justin Lui reacting to fellow Olympic volleyball star Erik Shoji’s “super heartfelt” coming out video, and hockey international Davis Atkin and his Australia teammates all playing in Pride socks.
Atkin said: “If I had grown up and seen my heroes run out in rainbow socks, that would have been immense, showing me that people at the top level are like me.”
He added: “It means something to so many people… I just loved it. I almost cried at the end.”
Lots of you reading this will be able to second that emotion. It’s why we keep marching, and why we keep telling LGBTQ stories in sports.
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