Salford sports teams back Rainbow laces campaign

Salford Universities sports teams have been supporting the Rainbow lace anti-homophobia campaign by wearing multicoloured laces.

The University are following the initiative brought in by charity, Stonewall UK that has been in place for a number of years across all sport in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people in sport

Salford Proud are the universities LGBT staff and postgraduate network. They were able to provide the funding to purchase the Rainbow laces for athletes to showcase how welcoming they were to anyone in sport no matter what their gender, age, ethnicity.

Colleagues from @UoSSportsCentre with our @UoSDoS donning their #RainbowLaces as a message against homophobia in sport pic.twitter.com/eFo5mi21s5

— Salford Proud (@SalfordProud) November 29, 2017

Salford’s sports teams wore the laces on their playing boots during BUCS games and teams who don’t compete in weekly fixtures also got involved by tieing the laces to their equipment, wearing them as bracelets and incorporating it into their hairstyles.

Rainbow lace plaits for the game today ?? @SalfordProud @SalfordUni @TeamSalford pic.twitter.com/bGF3HIEJCK

— Salford Uni Hockey (@SUHC_1) November 29, 2017

Our netball girls sporting the #RainbowLaces in today’s match! @SalfordProud @SalfordUni pic.twitter.com/K1Iu0u1OSR

— SUNC (@SalfordNetball) November 29, 2017

Laura Godwyn-Outten, Salford universities club sport co-coordinator, helped to push the campaign on campus,”the reactions have been very positive, we’re obviously very welcoming and inclusive and we want to make sure that anyone can take part in sport where they possibly can do.

“We’re aware that BUCS are tackling some issues around trans inclusivity because of some rules and regulations that take place which can potentially act as a barrier but I definitely think that these kind of campaigns is helping to bring those barriers down.”

Across the globe, fans within all sports will lace up in a mass show of solidarity for LGBT people in sport. According to Stonewall research, almost two-thirds) of sports fans said more should be done to make LGBT people feel accepted in sport.

With the English Premier League being one of the bodies behind the campaign, there are hopes to see more sports stars, staff and fans publicly supporting LGBT people and demonstrate that homophobic and abusive comments in sport are not acceptable.