The topic of homophobia in sport has recently made headlines in Australia, with a series of homophobic incidents involving men’s AFL players.
These homophobic incidents are frequently well-reported in news media, but research has rarely explored the impact on participation for LGBTQI+ people.
Fresh research into the issue
Our latest research is one in every of the primary pieces of educational research in Australia to document what number of LGBTQI+ people play and have interaction with sport. We also explored current levels of discrimination across sport in Australia, and the barriers and enablers of participation for young LGBTQI+ people.
Our research focused specifically on LGBTQI+ people aged 16-25 across community sport and movement settings (including gyms and leisure spaces), and was funded by VicHealth.
Previous research has shown young LGBTQI+ persons are targeted with homophobia and transphobia at school and youth sport environments, and this affects them in several ways.
Specifically, it affects their mental healthwith an increased risk of depression and anxiety, and forces them to drop out of sport – with many selecting to not play sport as adults.
The decline of LGBTQI+ youth participation
Our research showed 47% of LGBTQI+ youth were registered to a sports club between 2019 and 2022. Then, in 2023, just 33% of our sample said they currently take part in some type of competitive sport.
Comparable data from AusPlay show around 60% of young people across the broader population play sport.
Within different segments of the LGBTQI+ community, our data show just 31% of gay men and 29% lesbians play competitive sport, and even fewer inside trans and gender diverse groups.
Therefore, our data support previous research from the United States that show young LGBTQI+ people engage with sport at half the speed of non-LGBTQI+ youth.
Trying to search out a reason why
There is commonly much discussion inside media about why there are only a few openly gay men in skilled sport. Our data highlight one in every of the explanations – gay men are less more likely to play sport in the primary place.
Some of the important thing barriers identified by participants were an absence of protected spaces, negative or traumatic early experiences, and discrimination.
Of those participants who do play sport, only 49% openly share their LGBTQI+ identity with teammates and coaches.
Ongoing discrimination is a key driver of why LGBTQI+ youth disengage from playing sport, and a reason why young people reported little-to-no sense of belonging inside sports environments.
Some improvements seen but not for gay men
Overall, our research showed 53% of LGBTQI+ youth have witnessed discrimination (through homophobia, biphobia or other transphobia), and 40% have experienced discrimination.
These levels of discrimination show some marked improvement for the reason that last major study in 2014 exploring homophobia in Australian sport, wherein about 80% of respondents reported witnessing homophobia.
This suggests increased efforts to advertise inclusion for LGBTQI+ people in sport is having a positive impact.
However, our data showed 76% of gay men have witnessed homophobia in sport, which shows little marked improvement in a decade.
Across our focus groups, young people spoke of negative early experiences at school sport, and the negative effects of ongoing debates related to LGBTQI+ issues in sport (resembling trans athlete bansor participation in pride games).
Most striking across our focus groups was the will for young people to give you the option to be themselves when playing sport and “just exist”.
The notion of getting freedom and to not have their identity challenged, questioned, ridiculed or invalidated while navigating sporting spaces was discussed extensively.
Hopes for the longer term
Young people discussed the ways wherein sport organisations could work towards making them feel safer and included.
They also had strong views towards pride efforts, raising issues with “rainbow washing”, an absence of engagement with LGBTQI+ communities, and minimal commitment to addressing discrimination.
One young person in our study expressed:
“I would really like to see a little bit bit more effort, as an alternative of chucking us in a box saying ‘it’s too difficult to work out’. ‘We’re going to incorporate you’ could be an excellent next step. But I feel quite a lot of work must be done to feel welcomed again.”
Our data show targeted efforts and programs are urgently needed to make sure sport and movement settings don’t proceed to cause harm and force LGBTQI+ youth to drop out from sport.
Additionally, the information raise significant challenges for the broader sport sector and its ongoing sustainability.
Every sport wants latest players and fans, however the sport sector risks losing an entire generation of young people unless it fully commits to reducing and eradicating discrimination towards LGBTQI+ people.
This work must also complement and sit alongside other necessary work addressing gender-based violence, and work addressing backlash to feminism and gender equity amongst teenage boys in schools.
Sport organisations must take immediate steps to make sure their environments are fully inclusive of LGBTQI+ people.
This will be done through good policy development and effective implementation, anti-homophobia initiatives and campaigns, and interesting LGBTQI+ sport communities.
