NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 30: A detailed view of the Nike Flight Hi Vis winter ball is seen on a Rainbow Plinth as part of the Stonewall Rainbow Laces campaign prior to the Premier League match between Newcastle United and Norwich City at St. James Park on November 30, 2021 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
The Rainbow Laces campaign returns to the Premier League this weekend
Stonewall's chief executive Simon Blake is hoping to 'dial up' Rainbow Laces as the charity's flagship campaign returns to the Premier League for its 11th year.
Blake took charge of the LGBT+ rights group in September having spent six years as its deputy chair earlier in his career. This will be the first year he will oversee the Rainbow Laces campaign, which was launched back in 2013.
The campaign has come a long way from its inaugural year when Stonewall made surprise deliveries of Rainbow Laces to Premier League clubs. Now the top-flight is a fully-fledged partner of the campaign, though new research published last week revealed 1 in 4 LGBTQ+ people still do not feel welcome at live sports events.
While those statistics are shocking, Blake believes that they also go to show the importance of the Rainbow Laces campaign. As it returns to the Premier League this weekend, the Stonewall chief has issued a fresh rallying call.
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Speaking exclusively to Mirror Football, Blake said: "As has been the case since the beginning of the campaign, it's really about trying to make sure that sport is accessible to all. We want people to be able to participate, to enjoy, to be a fan and to feel safe.
"So this campaign is really about creating awareness on why it is important, why it is an issue, awareness that LGBT+ people do want to participate and there is lots of progress and good practice.
"And to continue to say there is much more that needs to be done both in football and across all levels in all sports. We've just had Paris where we had more LGBT+ Olympians than ever before. So on the one hand you've got this incredible progress.
"But on the other for some people it still doesn't feel safe. We continue to need to keep on dialling this up, keep on showing that if you've got people making homophobic chants, if you've got people who are feeling like they just don't want to go because they're not sure they'll be included, we've got to keep fighting for change."
Simon Blake is the new CEO of Stonewall, which runs the Rainbow Laces campaign ( Image: PA)
While Blake admits there remains a long way to go, he is also keen to focus on the campaign's achievements. He added: "I think also it's also important when we say there's a long way to go to say 'look how far we've come'.
"Ten years ago when we started the Rainbow Laces campaign, there just wasn't the awareness. There wasn't the belief that it was important. What we've got now is growing awareness, growing understanding that it's important.
"A growing recognition that LGBT+ people want to participate and a committment at all levels of the game to create more inclusion to address discrimination where it occurs. And make sure that in 10 years time we're saying 'look haven't we come even further'."
One of the campaign's major obstacles in recent years has been the steady decline of active engagement from top-level players, many of whom no longer wear the laces. Blake though is not concerned and insists Rainbow Laces is still making an impact.
"A campaign that been around for a long time, people may think it's done. People will show their support in all sorts of different ways. What we see here is that there is that continued sense of support for the campaign and it is growing outside of different sports," he said.
The Premier League and FA are making sure there's action to tackle the roots of this as well as showing visibility. So I think overall what we're seeing is the campaign is progressing, it's moving on in all sorts of different ways.
You've got the Women's Super League who have joined this year, you've got the darts world championships. The campaign is still making an impact, making a difference and really important."
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