Gay people—they’re just like real people too. Though this may come as a shock to some, the LGBT community serves as a group of societal contributors, including employees, parents, entertainers and even recently, openly gay professional athletes.
The Premier Football League, England’s version of the MLS, or major league soccer, has started the “Rainbow Laces” campaign—a weekend of soccer where many players and supports will tie up their cleats with rainbow laces. The weekend long campaign will take place during European Pride Weekend. According to The Guardian, in preparation for this event over 100,000 pairs of rainbow laces have been distributed to players and supporters to wear during games. The Rainbow Laces Campaign aims to “kick” homophobia out of professional league sports.
According to Buzzfeed, Rainbow Laces has released a promotional video on Youtube in which famous soccer players, including Olivier Giroud, who was voted “Sexiest Player of the Year” (for good reason) by popular French gay magazine, Tètu, state what they cannot change about themselves. Statements include their height or the belief that they “look like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.” After a few moments of players stating what they can’t change, a narrator states, “but together, we can change the game. Players are lacing up to kick homophobia out of football.”
The support for the LGTBQ Community in professional sports is a significant step in conquering the ideology that individuals of non-heterosexual orientations cannot compete in professional sports, because they are not “manly” enough to participate. However, the Rainbow Laces Campaign runs the serious risk of being yet another benign awareness campaign. This is because Stonewall’s efforts lack any call to action for players, fans, or anyone with ties in professional sports to do anything other than change the colors of their laces for two days. This raises the risk that individuals will quickly forget the efforts of Rainbow Laces, and will move on to their next topic of awareness. Simply being “aware” does not create change.
On the other hand, awareness of homosexuals active in professional sports was brought to light this year when Michael Sam, the openly gay first-string quarterback for the University of Missouri, was drafted into the NFL. Though news of his sexuality severely biased the coverage of him as he was drafted, he was eventually picked up by the St. Louis Rams—until being cut from the team almost two weeks ago. Since his termination from the Rams, Sam has been drafted to the practice squad on the Dallas Cowboys. Just because we are aware of gays that play sports, does not mean that any specific team has to choose to accept them.
This is why “awareness” is not going to cut it in the Premier Football League and professional sports altogether. Michael Sam has proved it before—yes, gay athletes exist (they’re just like normal athletes, except ESPN places a greater focus on their shower habits than their performances on the field). However, the existence of an openly gay athlete in professional sports has done nothing to eliminate the bans based on discrimination for sexual orientation on various football teams across the nation.
As a result, the Rainbow Laces campaign needs to do more than spice up the wardrobes of the Premier Football League for a weekend. Though the event does utilize twitter for fans to express support with the hashtag #rainbowlaces, there is still no radical change to be made, no progress, and no difference by the end of the pride weekend. The football league should encourage players to regularly wear these laces, showing an ongoing effort to kick homophobia off of the field and keep a continuous focus on the issue. In addition, the Premier Football League should enact clauses in its organization’s bylaws that work to eliminate any form of discrimination altogether, thus making the league a safer environment for players and employees alike.
The world is not going to be changed with a hashtag. Though they are capable of developing important social conversations, such as that of #yesallwomen, they typically lack any form of real call to action—after all, how much of an ideal can you place inside of 140 characters? Instead, Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces Campaign should be using their hashtag and pride weekend laces to initiate an ongoing effort, drawing constant attention to the issue at hand until a resolution and equality have been reached. The world has not yet been changed with a tweet—but there is hope of future development of a much greater effort to end homophobia in professional sports.
Terrence Preston can be reached at terrence.preston@spartans.ut.edu