Kick Off of the working group for Gender & Sexual Diversity in Sport

On February 2, 26 representatives from organized sports and NGOs met for the first time at the invitation of fairplay, Skate Austria, 100% Sport and Vienna Roller Derby to discuss the topic of gender and sexual diversity in sports. 

Why gender diversity? 

Diversity, inclusion and the reduction of discrimination are topics that sport has to deal with: Currently, people are excluded from sports because of their gender identity. Organized sport is based on a binary system, meaning that it is always divided into women and men or girls and boys. But the reality is more diverse. Trans women* and men*, intersex people or those who are non-binary, i.e. do not want to/are not able to assign themselves to any gender category, face great challenges in sports1. On the one hand, there is a lot of ignorance in organized sports about gender diversity and also little support and experience, on the other hand, there are fears when it comes to making competition categories more inclusive so that, for example, all athletes can assign themselves to the category they identify with. 

Need for action 

Especially in popular sports, whose main task is to get as many people as possible moving, there is an urgent need for action for three reasons: 

1) There are human rights and the right to participation and inclusion in sports as well. 

2) There is a need and demand from currently excluded groups. 

3) On the part of the IOC, there is a demand for action on the part of the professional associations to come up with sport-specific solutions on the topic, which on the one hand make sense for the sport, and on the other hand are inclusive and anti-discriminatory. 

Open exchange & best practices 

To remedy the situation, the fairplay Initiative 2022 launched the Europe-wide project "Sport for all Genders and Sexualities - Tackling Sexism, Trans- and Homophobia in European Grassroots Sport" (SGS). It aims to advance a sport culture that is open to all people regardless of gender (female, male, trans, inter, non-binary) and sexual identity (gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or heterosexual). In addition to action-oriented research to be able to name exclusions of women and queer people, guidelines, awareness-raising trainings and campaign tools will be developed. 

As part of this project, working groups on gender & sexual diversity in sport with relevant stakeholders will be established in five European countries. These are to exchange ideas and provide advice on the topic: Critically accompany ideas and results of the project and adapt them to the concrete needs of (organized) mass sport as well as carry them into the sport. In this way, we will jointly find practicable, sustainable and inclusive solutions and support for mass sport. 

Kick Off 

In early February, the Austrian Working Group on Gender & Sexual Diversity in Sport met for the first time at VIDC. Interest & need are obviously present: In addition to 4 NGO representatives, 10 colleagues from professional as well as 2 from umbrella organizations participated, 2 LGBTIQ+ advocacy groups, 4 sports clubs, 3 representatives from sports politics as well as Sport Austria were also present. 

Objectives and background of the working group were presented, the organizations got to know each other and identified challenges and the status quo of the implementation of gender diversity in their organization. Good practice examples from Austria were presented. In the future, the working group will meet three times a year and will always work on one question/topic in detail. The next meeting will take place at the end of May. 

Concrete & simple 

Some things were already clear after the kick-off: There are usually no simple, quick solutions and all people have the right to participate in sports. And sometimes it is easier than you think, if you start where you can change something yourself: There are already clubs that invite players of any gender identity and define women* very openly, for example - so at least basic inclusion in training is possible. 

Inspiring best practice examples from Europe can be found here on our fairplay education platform. 

You want to be part of the working group Gender and Sexual Diversity in Sports and contribute to making Austrian sports more inclusive?
Then feel free to contact staritz [AT] vidc [DOT] org / Nikola Staritz (Project Management, fairplay)