The Club is proud to show its support for the Rainbow Laces campaign at this weekend’s men’s home match against Fulham.
The Rainbow Laces campaign celebrates stories of LGBTQ+ people within sport and aims to tackle discrimination at every level of the game.
During this Sunday’s match the campaign will be marked in a number of ways, including captains wearing rainbow-coloured armbands, rainbow-coloured corner flags and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium illuminating in rainbow colours after full-time. Furthermore, the campaign’s branding will also be visible across our social channels and in the matchday programme.
We were one of the first to establish a LGBTQ+ Supporters’ Association, the Proud Lilywhites, which launched in February, 2014. The group’s membership now stands at nearly 1,000 fans across the world and they **[celebrated their 10-year anniversary](https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2024/february/club-celebrates-10-years-of-the-proud-lilywhites/)** in February of this year.
This year, we will also be celebrating our Just Proud group, of which several are also members of the Proud Lilywhites.
Football sessions are run for the group by the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation on Monday evenings from 7-8pm at Tottenham Powerleague. The sessions provide an invaluable opportunity to exercise and build friendships, with one member – Chris – driving a one-and-a-half hour journey each way from Cambridgeshire every week just to get involved. He describes the sessions as a “massive socialisation opportunity for myself and others in my community. It doesn’t matter who you are, we are just a group of friends coming together to play football on a Monday night.
“The fact that the Foundation puts this session on for us – not only the pitch hire, but also the coaches – is really important, because football is for everybody.”
Cat, a primary school teacher and another regular member of the group, has taken so much inspiration from the sessions that she launched a girls’ only team at her school.
“From having weekly sessions with the girls I noticed an instant improvement, it is great I can help kids in my school also have that opportunity,” she says.
“I feel so privileged to be a part of the group. The fact the Club puts so much time and effort into our community really means a lot, without that I am not sure I would feel comfortable coming to games. I feel like we have a real support network.”
Just Proud is one of many Foundation programmes supported by the Premier League and Professional Footballers’ Association. Administered through the Premier League Charitable Fund, funding helps football clubs tackle inequality and respond to local challenges, supporting people and their communities to be more inclusive.
For more information, including how to register, email **amy.haynes@tottenhamhotspur.com**