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With LGBT sport and physical activity in the spotlight, we take a look at our work in the sector.

With Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaignOpen in a new window now a week in and the nation’s best rugby union playersOpen in a new window and teams in the Football LeagueOpen in a new window set to lace up in technicolour this weekend, we thought we’d give you an update on our work with the LGBT sport and physical activity sector.

Rainbow Laces was set up by Stonewall in 2013, with laces being sent to all Premier and Football League clubs and players being encouraged to lace up and show their support for the anti-homophobia campaign.

Since then it has grown, encompassed more professional sports and, last year, saw 75,313 pairs of laces being distributed in all areas of sport – to fans, players and officials.

This year, the campaign spans three weeks, but will be focused around a national lace-up day on Wednesday, 28 November, as Stonewall aims to top the 12 million adults that saw the campaign in 2017.

As Rainbow Laces has grown, its scope has gone from homophobia to encompass biphobia and transphobia, just as our work at Sport England in the LGBT community has grown.

Below is a summary of our current knowledge, what we as an organisation have done so far, and what we're planning to do next – with much of our current insight coming from the Sport, Physical Activity and LGBT report we commissioned from Pride Sports, which can be downloaded here.

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