LGBTQ+ Liaison

A little bit of history about Bradford City AFC and the support for the LGBTQ+ community. 

Back in 2011, the club became the first UK Professional Football Club to allow literature addressing anti-gay issues and LGBT issues to be distributed at a football game. We were the third club in the UK to sign the UK Government’s charter tackling homophobia and transphobia in sport.  We publicly signed the charter ahead of our fixture against Plymouth Argyle on 10th December 2011.  On that day the club hosted a ‘day of action’ addressing homophobia and transphobia in football.

In our 2013/14 season, Bradford City AFC became the first club in the UK to fly the traditional Gay Pride flag, in a move to promote inclusivity and as a mark of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. The club aims to be an inclusive environment and welcome people from all parts of the community, no matter what their ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or social background.

The promotion of inclusion allowed both supporters, and our matchday and non-matchday staff the ability to feel safe and supported throughout the club.

The club also has an active ‘LGBTQ+ Supporters Group’ created by supporters for supporters with the aim of encouraging people of the local LGBTQ+ community to actively attend football matches, without receiving any prejudice and in a safe and welcoming environment.

Back in late 2016 Bradford City AFC partnered with Stonewall to support the LGBTQ+ community, to promote inclusivity across the sporting industry. 

As part of the Stonewall initiative, the club holds a ‘Rainbow Laces’ fixture once a season to promote inclusivity, for everyone, including supporters, staff and players with the aim to ‘Make Sport Everyone’s Game’.  Our players wear rainbow laces, our captain dons a rainbow armband, and the traditional corner flags are replaced with Rainbow corner flags.

We feel as though visibility is an important step in achieving LGBTQ+ inclusion as we actively look at ways to improve that across the board.

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