25 November 2023 , 07:00
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LGBT+ rights charity Stonewall have called on sports fans and players to get involved in the Rainbow Laces campaign by taking part in the #KeepItUp challenge.
Rainbow Laces is celebrating its 10th anniversary, with Stonewall keen to refocus the campaign ahead of its second decade. To do that, they are asking people to Keep It Up, by walking 10 miles, cycling 10 miles, doing 10 keepie-uppies or many more activities.
The aim is for those taking part to raise money to help further the rights of the LGBT+ community and encourage fans to keep up their support. Stonewall's sports engagement manager Erin Williams is keen to make it clear how easy it is to get involved.
Speaking exclusively to Mirror Football, Williams said: "We're creating a social media tagging challenge, which I'm super pumped about. I love these. It's super easy, all you really need to do is do something showing you're 'Keeping It Up'.
"So that could be keepie-uppies in football or sprint reps. Do it with friends, do it on your own, wear your laces, wear your armband. Record it, then stick it on your socials and tag your team-mates, then they can do their own thing and share it.
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"We want to see lots of people taking on the challenge, getting that competitive streak going and showing that support. Alongside of it, it's a great way for people to fundraise, getting people to sponsor your doing those challenges. Honestly, the sky is the limit."
Stonewall are encouraging fans to get involved in the KeepItUp challengePeople taking part in the challenge need to add the hashtags #KeepItUp and #RainbowLaces to their attempts, as well as tagging the Stonewall social media accounts. Williams hopes that by doing so, it can be shown that action for LGBT+ rights is being taken right across sport.
"It can sometimes get hidden in a way. Professional clubs have fantastic displays of support, big budget things. But how can anybody, no matter where you are or what your resources are show what you're doing and show you're truly learning," Williams added.
"We just want people to shout about it a bit more. It's been 10 years and the journey from 2013 to now has been huge, but we're still far away from where we want to be. We know that 40 percent of LGBT+ people still don't feel comfortable in sporting environments.
"We know that 80 percent are hearing homophobic language in sporting environments. The impact of the campaign over the years has meant that more and more people over the years have felt more comfortable to recognise that that's not ok and feel comfortable calling it out.
"But I think especially after the last couple of years, we've realised that progress isn't linear. It can get rolled back. So we want to Keep It Up to show that LGBT people need to included in sport, we should feel the benefits of sport no matter who we are.
"But also this is about winning, it's sport right? So we want to make sure we can all thrive and get to that place where we can succeed. We're seeing fantastic progress, but we're not quite there yet."