Painting the River Rainbow

11% of the rowing community identified as a member of the LGBTQ+ community in 2021 according to British Rowing, a quantitative over-representation compared to 3.2% of the population as a whole. So that’s all good then, right? Not exactly. Heteronormativity remains deeply ingrained within our sporting community and homophobia is a lived reality for many.

The ’Out on the Fields’ study – the first international study into homophobia in sport – was published in 2015 and found that 73% of people did not believe youth sports were ‘supportive and safe’ for LGBTQ+ participants and 84% reported hearing homophobic jokes in sports settings. From heteronormative and frankly misogynistic coaching comments like ‘don’t get distracted by the shirtless men rowing past’ to homophobic jeers, sport remains a deeply unequal place.

While British Rowing does not break down the 11% LGBTQ+ figure further, anecdotally it is clear that there is much more visible queerness in women’s sports compared to men’s. This is true not just of rowing. Across the 2019 Women’s Football World Cup, at least 41 female players or coaches were openly gay or bisexual; during the 2018 men’s tournament, there were none. Likewise, a study into LGBTQ+ discrimination in sport in Australia in 2017 found that men experienced double the level of explicit and implicit homophobia of women (Symons et al.).

Sport has historically been constructed as a male domain. Through physical endurance and competition, masculinity has been constructed and reasserted. Female athletes are therefore seen to break from the female gender norm. Together with breaching gender stereotypes, they are seen to more “manly” and breach heterosexual norms too, generalised as lesbians.

At the same time, sport has been a safe space for queer women. Joe White, a co-founder of Three Lions Pride, an LGBT+ England football supporters group, suggested that “In the women’s game, there’s more diversity in the fans, less ‘laddish banter’”. There are certainly more gay female role-models in sports. Paralympic rower Lauren Rowles has said she wants to be the “gay, disabled role model” she never had, to help kids feel less “alone”.

This is not to say that gay female athletes experience equality with their straight counterparts. There remains a significantly higher drop-out rate in sport among LGBTQ+ youth and homophobic discrimination is all too common.

So what’s being done?

• The Rower’s Pledge is a global initiative to promote inclusion and acceptance of everyone in sport, with the ability to sign as a club or individual

https://www.glrf.info/glrfcentral/therowerspledge.html

• London Otters is an LGBTQ+ inclusive rowing club based at the Royal Docks in East London. Set up in 2014 by Warwick Lobban and Grant Ralph who struggled to find a club which allowed them to row while being openly gay, the club seeks to offer a supportive community to rowers of all abilities
• In 2022, the London Otters ran ‘Rainbow Races’ as an extension of Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign. Over 70 rowers competed

Of course, statistics mask the human experience of rowing. There remain significant barriers for LGBTQ+ people to access rowing and sport as a whole. Particularly given the increasing toxicity of the political climate in the UK and beyond towards the LGBTQ+ community, and particularly trans athletes, the sporting community cannot pat itself on the back on equality.

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Becca Sproston

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