Meet the Kent FA Equality Advisory Group
As Kent FA celebrate LGBT History Month, we have held up a spotlight to the Kent FA Equality Advisory Group, asking them why think it is important to report discrimination!
I accepted a role on the Kent FA Equality Advisory Group as I believe that football should be accessible to everyone. Whether playing, volunteering, coaching or refereeing, anyone and everyone can enjoy football and play a big part in its continued development and growth.
Having worked at the Kent FA, I know the fantastic work they do to create opportunities for people to play football. They’re groundbreaking, visionary and always ahead of the game, so I hoped to be able to help and support their efforts at a strategic level.
Being part of EAG has broadened my own understanding of the challenges facing the game. It’s important we use sport as an example of how to behave in society and that’s why I love being involved with the Kent FA’s initiatives and campaigns, which set such exemplary standards.
This group and campaign is not only important to me but for the future of our beautiful game, our game is for everyone and no one should feel any other way and it's about educating and applying this to all aspects of our sport to create a enjoyable and inclusional game for everyone to enjoy and love.
Abuse or discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, is a barrier to LGBT people feeling that football is safe, welcoming and inclusive to them.
Bexley Invicta FC (now Charlton Invicta FC) - the football club I founded as south east London and Kent’s only LGBT-friendly football club - provides that safe, welcoming and inclusive environment in which LGBT footballers and their friends can play football.
By reporting any incidents of homophobic or transphobic abuse or concerns about discrimination to Kent FA, the county can take positive action to help make Kent football ‘for all.”
Reporting Discrimination is highly important when any act of discrimination occurs. Every individual has the right to be treated as an equal with dignity and respect despite gender, race, background, faith or religion and most importantly, everyone should be made to feel safe at all times as every individual is there for the same reason, to learn, develop and have fun kicking the ball so what right does any person have to take that away from them....
Prevention is vital, following and creating new procedures for recognised discrimination is a healthy way forward for any establishment and should continue at all time. Educating those with discriminatory attitudes will help reporting to a minimal and, penalising those who are committing an offense or catching it at early stages, appropriate action should be taken so this kind of behaviour is not repeated.
'Your rights, your voice to equality!'
This is an extremely important campaign and a fantastic idea for promoting reporting incidents. It will hopefully encourage more openness in football and the awareness will help eradicate discrimination.
The campaign will highlight the procedure for reporting incidents and how easy it is; the network that supports the process and how outcomes are dealt with.
Education is key to making reporting discrimination work and an awareness month is certainly a welcome and refreshing requirement to making that happen. I have pleasure in giving this my full support.
Elise Rendall - Twitter - @ER1281 and @KentSport1
Sport can and does have a very powerful and positive influence on people as players, coaches, volunteers or supporters. Not only can it provide opportunities for enjoyment and achievement, it can also develop valuable qualities such as self-esteem, leadership and teamwork and a lifelong love of sport.
For the majority of people, the experience is an extremely positive one. However, there can be occasions when some behaviours occur that are unacceptable. Discriminatory abuse in any form is totally unacceptable.
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