Why are LGBTQ fans having to untangle Rainbow Laces?

In the history of the Rainbow Laces campaign, LGBTQ supporters
groups have been pivotal - think of Proud Hornets’ huge rainbow
mosaic at Watford, fans getting to chat with first-team players,
and clubs and community trusts sharing the stories of members.


However, in the 2024 activation, three groups in the Premier
League - Crystal Palace’s Proud and Palace, Manchester United’s
Rainbow Devils and Ipswich’s Rainbow Tractors - found themselves
pitched into controversies due to decisions made by players that
blew up into big stories.


Be it an armband or an anthem jacket, whether abstaining or
altering, the impact of these situations are felt deeply by LGBTQ
fans who suddenly find themselves having to handle media
enquiries and negotiate with club officials under similar
scrutiny.


On a special Podcast episode, Proud and Palace co-chair Emma
Franklin-Wright and group member Randy Boose share their
reflections from a turbulent week and a half; Emma’s equivalent
at Rainbow Devils, Eric Najib - who’s also first-team manager at
Stonewall FC - talks us through what happened at Manchester
United; and we’re also joined by Rishi Madlani, the co-chair of
Pride in Football and a committee member of Leicester City’s
Foxes Pride.


As well as looking back, the panel also looks ahead to what a
future Rainbow Laces activation might look like in light of this
year’s challenges, and how the annual FvH Month of Action in
February 2025 can help shift the focus onto where it needs to be.


Links


Football v Homophobia - https://www.footballvhomophobia.com/


Sports Media LGBT+ - https://sportsmedialgbt.com/


Read Randy’s blog -
https://substack.com/@randy831/p-152601330 


Proud and Palace on Instagram -
https://www.instagram.com/proudandpalace


Rainbow Devils - https://rainbowdevils.com/



Thank you for listening to the FvH Podcast - if you enjoyed this
episode, please subscribe, rate, review and share on socials.


We're at @football_v_homophobia on Instagram and Threads;
@footballvhomophobia.com on Bluesky; @FvHtweets on X; and you can
like us on Facebook too. Contact us via DM or email
jon@footballvhomophobia.com 


Me & You by MusicbyAden |
https://soundcloud.com/musicbyaden 


Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com  


Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported


https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US