From armband Armageddon to what felt like a thousand phone-ins, this year’s LGBTQ+ inclusion campaign appeared to be under constant fire; but away from all the noise, fan groups, community foundations and LGBTQ+ people working in football were among those reflecting the positives and encouraging others…

By Jon Holmes

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If you’re still catching your breath after what feels like a robust examination of Rainbow Laces, then be sure to rest up over the festive period.

Because as LGBTQ+ people in football, we’ll likely be under the microscope again in February.

However, fear not – our community in the game may even be stronger for all the scrutiny, which is reigniting our collective campaigning spirit and focusing minds ahead of the annual Football v Homophobia Month of Action and LGBT+ History Month. Appropriately, the latter’s theme for 2025 will be ‘Activism and Social Change’.

Although the Premier League has now packed away its ball plinths and handshake boards, elite clubs – plus all those in the EFL, which is due to activate its “Rainbow Ball” again – are cordially invited in February to renew their commitment to combating anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

That opportunity is extended to every league and club across the land, in men’s and women’s football.

And for anyone feeling weary at the prospect, there are plenty of examples from the last week or so that will provide fuel for the fight.

So here are five positive stories you might have missed – and please let us know in the comments or on social media (#RainbowLaces) about what energised you…

‘Pride in the Pack’ at Wolves shows LGBTQ+ fan movement is alive and kicking

Running a supporters group requires dedication and diplomacy. Just imagine the acute challenges that the leaders of LGBTQ+ groups face when a player publicly opts out of a campaign such as RL.

These individuals are giving their time voluntarily and often have had no relevant training, such as on managing external comms and how to use inclusive language. They can find themselves at odds with not just officials at their club but also the fan groups of other clubs; they might even face strong criticism from their own members.

Credit therefore to those who take on such roles, even more so in the current climate. Wolves have been gradually introducing their new group to the wider fanbase and for their RL match, ‘Pride in the Pack’ were featured in the matchday programme and on the big screens at Molineux.

We want to offer a safe space for individuals to chat with fellow fans about our beloved gold and black as well as general topics and provide support to those who have felt uncomfortable attending matches 3/3

— Pride In The Pack 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (@PrideInThe1Pack) December 3, 2024

The emphasis was on the social benefits the group offers LGBTQ+ people and importantly, allies too. Another of PITP’s objectives is to “support other local and national groups in tackling LGBTQIA+ issues in football.”

Their enthusiasm is matched by so many other fantastic fan groups around the UK (a recommended watch is the new SPFL United short film about Partick Thistle’s Proud Jags) but the national movement has stalled somewhat in recent times.

The FSA / Kick It Out partnership on ‘Fans for Diversity’ supports inclusive groups more broadly, but LGBTQ umbrella organisation Pride in Football has been less visible in recent years. PIF was launched in November 2014 but there was little to no mention of its 10^th birthday last month, with its website and socials almost dormant.

There will have been reasons for that, but now it’s high time to galvanise again. As the Jo Cox quote goes: “We are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us.” The revitalisation of a cohesive LGBTQ fan group collective, which campaigns in unison with bite and purpose, would be welcome.

Establishing a formal structure of regional alliances, such as that which already exists for Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire comprising six groups, is a logical next step.

Kelvin and the Heartstopper star – two gay Ipswich fans playing the game

Showcasing the good ED&I work of community foundations and trusts has become increasingly integral to Rainbow Laces.

Several now put on small-sided football sessions that are specifically stated as being inclusive of LGBTQ+ people and allies. Those attending have often had negative experiences of school sports or never previously had the confidence to just turn up and play.

One of the regulars at Ipswich Town Foundation sessions is Kelvin Segger, who is in his early 70s. An interview with him went out before the club’s RL matches in which Sam Morsy chose not to wear the armband.

💙 To mark Stonewall's Rainbow Laces campaign, we spoke to Kelvin, a participant of our LGBTQ+ Football sessions.

Kelvin discussed the impact of the sessions, and the importance of the Rainbow Laces campaign in promoting inclusivity in football.@PLCommunities | #RainbowLaces pic.twitter.com/pZcqAykibp

— Ipswich Town Foundation (@ITFCFoundation) November 29, 2024

Kelvin talks about the empowering effect of the campaign and gives almost a premonition of what is about to come for his club.

“OK, certain people are against it, certain people do not want to be part of it and there’ll be people here who do not agree with that,” he says.

“But it’s got to be done and if it helps just one or two people in a crowd, then at that point it’s worth doing. It’s all good for football.”

Another ITFC Foundation post for RL featured actor Bradley Riches, who plays James in Netflix’s Heartstopper, attending a football session. “I wish I had a group near me like this, just because I think more queer people want more queer friends. I might be driving two hours every week to come and join!” he says.

The PL also shared Tottenham’s film about Just Proud, sessions organised by fan group Proud Lilywhites and delivered by the THFC Foundation, while on a similar theme, Leicester Women boss Amandine Miquel led a session for inclusive club Leicester Wildecats and fan group Foxes Pride.

For foundations delivering these projects, having a dedicated LGBTQ+ slot in the calendar provides a valuable window of opportunity for them to be brought to wider attention.

Three of Brentford’s great Danes make new pals at primary school session

The Premier League is proud of its Primary Stars programme – there are more than 19,000 schools engaged in it across England and Wales, and a Rainbow Laces resource based around teamwork is a key component.

On Saturday morning, the PL dropped an Instagram collab post with Brentford’s Community Sports Trust showing first-team players Christian Norgaard, Mads Roerslev and Mikkel Damsgaard joining pupils in creating a pledge about being better allies and friends.

“It’s important as a captain and leader to ask your teammates how they are, what they do and how they feel,” Bees skipper Norgaard tells the pupils, adding that “trust and respect” are the qualities they should be mindful of.

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A post shared by Premier League (@premierleague)

All three men are internationals for Denmark, which is ranked in the top five of 49 European nations on the Rainbow Europe map of LGBTQ+ human rights. The country has a comprehensive sex education syllabus with age-appropriate lessons, including a module on adolescence in which they can submit anonymous questions to teachers.

In a column for the i paper in May, Denmark-based journalist Helen Russell – the bestselling author of How to Raise a Viking, The Secrets of Parenting the World’s Happiest Children – wrote about the impact of this approach. “Examples [of questions] this year included: “Why do some people think it’s bad being gay?”,” she noted, later adding that a survey shows Danes are “the most shameless people” on earth.

Shame destroys the lives of LGBTQ+ people. I can speak from personal experience – I didn’t come out to anyone until my early 30s. When The Times asked me to write about Rainbow Laces this year, I selected the story of Ouissem Belgacem, who I interviewed in 2021 for a Sky Sports feature titled ‘Tough, talented, Muslim, gay – the man who shocked French football’.

If only Premier League clubs had found time to discuss questions submitted anonymously from within their dressing-room ranks, we might have avoided a lot of the confusion of the last week. There are around 70 nationalities represented in England’s elite division this season.

As Zander Murray’s workshops have demonstrated in Scotland, creating a space in which participants can raise concerns or pitch viewpoints without fear of reprisals or recrimination is essential. British men’s football, which is constantly bringing in talent from different backgrounds, needs to get more comfortable with being uncomfortable.

A legend who’s a proud lesbian puts it all into context in podcast chat

In May, ILGA World released a report titled “Laws On Us” that outlined how LGBTQ+ rights are sliding back across the globe. While there were localised advances to celebrate, “resistance and detraction have materialised almost everywhere,” wrote the report’s co-lead author Lucas Ramón Mendos.

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A post shared by ILGA World (@ilgaworld)

The Premier League has phenomenal influence – it’s the world’s most-watched sports league, with approximately 3.2 billion people across 188 countries tuning in to enjoy the action. Around a third of those countries criminalize LGBTQ+ people, including Egypt, where the country’s media was quick to celebrate Morsy’s avoidance of the rainbow armband.

In Ivory Coast, where Marc Guehi was born, signs of the nationwide anti-gay backlash manifested at a national-team match in September. Noussair Mazraoui plays for Morocco where ReportOut recently found “LGBTQ+ Moroccans live under a shadow of discrimination and persecuted, driven by hostility within family units as much as, if not more so, than societal pressures.”

The decisions that Morsy, Guehi and Mazraoui took around the armbands and anthem jackets exist in that context. Each man will have felt some pressure from family members (Guehi’s father, for example, said later that the LGBTQ community was “trying to impose… it’s belief against belief”) or from society to resist.

It was helpful to hear therefore from Jess Fishlock, who having been a Seattle Reign teammate of Megan Rapinoe for many years understands the pressures of conservativism better than most.

The Wales legend was interviewed on the Sports Agents podcast and expressed her disappointment that the actions of individual players were clouding a clear, simple message about how to be an ally.

“I think we’ve forgotten what these campaigns are about… it’s just really sad. I feel like we’re going way back again to where we started all of this,” said Fishlock.

“But if that’s what we have to do – if we have to strip it back and if we have to go back 15, 20 years to redo this again – then I know we’re going to have a lot of people on the front lines that are willing to do that work.”

@thesportsagents 🗣️ 'They're choosing to say 'we're really not that inclusive actually'.' ⚽ Wales legend Jess Fishlock says football is being set back '15-20 years' by players refusing to engage with the rainbow armbands. 🏳️‍🌈 @globalplayer #TheSportsAgents #mufc #manchesterunited #manu #manunited #ipswichtown #itfc #crystalpalace #cpfc #fyp ♬ original sound – The Sports Agents

Give yourself permission to be proud, says Premier League star who came out as gay

Over the last 10 years, whenever talk about being LGBTQ+ in football becomes a topic du jour, Thomas Hitzlsperger has been a true tonic. The former Germany international was on pundit duties for Prime Video Sport and BBC Sport last week and once again, his perspective was much needed.

While newspaper columnists who aren’t LGBTQ+ were queuing up to either disparage Rainbow Laces or pass judgement on it, often in the narrowest of terms (such as measuring the initiative by the number of PL players that have come out publicly since it began), Hitzlsperger eruditely explained how even seeing one symbol of acceptance was unimaginable while he was playing.

“Now rainbow flags are part of our daily life, more or less,” he said in a powerful first-person video shared on Aston Villa’s social channels.

Ahead of our Rainbow Laces fixture this evening, Thomas Hitzlsperger shares his story 💜 pic.twitter.com/e805a1HxIG

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) December 4, 2024

Across the week, it was encouraging to see more LGBTQ+ voices in football being elevated – Liz Ward and Hugo Scheckter were among those whose thoughtful social media posts were picked up on by the media, and they were invited to expand on BBC broadcast channels too. In fact, numerous members of our LGBTQ+ Professionals in Football Collective took opportunities to air their views (check out Chris Paouros, Jahmal Howlett-Mundle, Sam Lansdale and Luke Tuffs, for example).

Even within that network, there’s a diversity of opinions as to where Rainbow Laces goes from here but with growing LGBTQ+ representation within the game, it’s noticeable that major media outlets will make the effort now to include us when they talk about us. That can only cement our community’s standing within men’s football, and shows we are accessible and attainable.

It’s courageous to speak up when your community is being made to feel unwelcome or worse, is under attack. Hitzlsperger responded to that. “I focused more on the positive stories, on people who became role models for me, because they went that way – they were brave enough to come out publicly and they were brave enough to keep up with some of the criticism.

“That was the inspiration and I’ve come a long way. I’m delighted that I’m here today, in this position and can be a role model for other people.”

Let’s not lose sight of the progress we’ve made. And let’s vow to never go back to silence and shame.

Further reading…

Premier League ‘dropped ball’ on Rainbow Laces, LGBTQ fan leader tells FvH Podcast

Sam Morsy saga misses the ‘bigger picture’ of homophobia in football (George Simms, The i paper)

Nominations open for Football v Homophobia Awards 2025, celebrating LGBTQ+ inclusion in the game

Short hair, who cares? Footballers discuss misgendering and Rainbow Laces in women’s game on FvH Podcast

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