Football fans have been urged to speak in support of the transgender community as FootballvTransphobia launches its sixth annual week of action.
Many leagues publicly state they are for women and non-binary people, while the FA allows trans people to compete in the gender category of their choosing, though they do need to undergo regular checks to ensure there is no “unfair advantage”.
But there has been an increase in reports of anti-trans discrimination in recent years, with Kick It Out confirming it has received more reports this season relating to transphobia than ever before in its history.
That is the environment campaign group FootballvTransphobia faces as it pushes to stamp out those hostile attitudes. But they are hopeful that their latest campaign will have a positive effect on the lives of trans people in football.
Speaking exclusively to Mirror Football, campaign lead Natalie Washington said: “Trans people are involved with football at all levels. It’s about making sure people feel safe when they’re going to watch their favourite team.
“They don’t want to hear transphobic abuse and they don’t want to be the subject of transphobic abuse. It’s also about finding ways for people to play, or get involved in coaching or refereeing. And to help clubs and leagues understand how they can be more inclusive.
“I personally and the trans people in the game often talk about how it’s quite hard going at times when we see those messages coming out. But also every year we get really positive messages.
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Sky Sports)
“There’s always at least someone who says ‘I saw the campaign and it inspired me to reach out to my club, to train for the first time’ or ‘I went to see the team I support for the first time because I felt empowered’. That brings home the value of it.”
And it is messages like that which push Washington on in the face of the horrendeous abuse the LGBT+ community have come to expect when talking about their experiences.
She added: “The reason I do things like this is because I want to make a positive impact, I want to see that I’m making the world a better place, in the ways that I can have a positive influence.
“The measure of success is is someone getting something positive out of this? Is this making somebody’s life better. Is this giving someone the opportunity to do something they otherwise didn’t get? That’s the value of it.
“The trans population is a small population. Often it’s easy to forget, but there’s not many of us. We’re not changing millions of lives, but every year there’s a few people that get back playing for the first time or go watch their team for the first time. That’s the real value of it.”
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As well as supporting the campaign by looking at the infographics on the FootballvTransphobia website, Washington also urged supporters to take a stand in support of the trans community whenever they hear abuse towards them.
“The biggest thing people can do is take a stand, use their voice. If they hear people talking about ‘concerns’ about trans people to challenge those, to ask people to look at the facts more rather than what they might feel,” Washington said.
“Not everyone knows a trans person but a lot of people probably do now. What people need to remember is if they hear transphobic abuse going on in the stands, if they go unchallenged, people think it is acceptable to keep doing.
“While there might not be a trans person there at the game, there might be next time, or there might be someone there who’s questioning and that abuse might keep them in the closet.
“So you can make a really big impact by just challenging transphobic attitudes. That’s something everyone can do. It’s not easy. So if people don’t feel confident doing that, they can use their voice to say something positive.”
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