Opinion: Let’s Make A Future Where There Can Be An Openly Gay World Cup Player

Photo by Gabriel Smith.  License information here.

With World Cup fever sweeping the globe, professional women’s soccer player and Athlete Ally Pro Ambassador Sally Shipard asks how much longer it will be before we see an openly gay man on the pitch.  In this article for The Huffington Post, Sally discusses the importance of gay athletes being visible and of straight athletes practicing allyship.

For me, action means using sport as a platform for promoting inclusion, as well as the ongoing development of more concrete initiatives.  My football and life experiences have provided me with insight into the challenges faced by young women in sport.  My Chasing Leather dream has been bubbling since I was about 16, and is founded on the belief that all girls and women should be able to engage with sport in a positive and empowering way.  Negative experiences, unsupportive environments, and the attractions of new technologies have made it increasingly challenging to keep women engaged in sport.  Chasing Leather plans to change that.

Pride Month is an opportunity for me to celebrate becoming an active ally to the LGBT sports movement as we move toward a world that does not yet exist—one in which homophobia and transphobia no longer pervade the sporting world.  To create that future—a future in which there can be an openly gay player at the World Cup—it is up to all of us to join and accelerate the movement.  Both LGBT and straight athletes must engage and take action.

You can read the full article here.