Vila Joiosa Town Council and the Viladiversitat collective launch a campaign to raise public awareness of LGBTIphobia in sport

• The municipality's sports facilities display protest posters and banners during the month of February, on the occasion of the celebration of the International Day Against LGBTIphobia in Sport on February 19.

The Nou Pla football field has been displaying banners since this weekend to make visible the eradication of LGBTBIphobia in sport. At the football matches played this weekend by the local teams Vila Joiosa Club de Futbol i Atlhètic Jonense, the Councilor for Social Services and Equality, Maite Sánchez, and the Councilor for Sports, Peyo Lloret, showed the vindictive banners together with members of the Viladiversitat collective. Next weekend, the ltbiphobia banner will be displayed at the El Pantà rugby stadium.
 
The departments of Social Services and Equality and Sports of Vila Joiosa City Council and the association Viladiversitat have launched an awareness campaign to make visible and eradicate LGTBIphobia and masculinity in the sports field.
 
The councilor for Social Services and Equality, Maite Sánchez, explains that "we are joining Viladiversitat to show our rejection of ltbiphobia in any type of sport and to achieve, together, sensitizing the population about serophobia and masculinity and to achieve that the sports facilities are free spaces and respectful of diversity".
 
The campaign consists of distributing posters to all the municipal sports facilities in the town where different sports disciplines are played, as well as sports schools, in order to eliminate certain discriminatory attitudes that exist in sports environments towards the LGBTI+ group and , in addition, make visible that they are places where no one can feel in a situation of discrimination or harassment because of their sexual orientation or identity.
 
In addition to the billboards, Viladiversitat will install vindictive tarps at the main matches in disciplines such as football, basketball or rugby, among others, during the month of February, coinciding with the celebration of February 19, International Day against LGBTIphobia in the sport
"For many LGTBI+ people, shame, stigmatization and discrimination as a result of LGTBIphobia continue to be part of their reality in life and we cannot allow that there are people who cannot practice a sport because they feel harassed or discriminated against his sexual orientation", points out the Councilor for Sports, Peyo Lloret.
 
Every year, the Ministry of the Interior's hate crime report points out that almost 20% of hate crime incidents reported in Spain have LGTBIphobia as the cause and the fourth space where more crime incidents are reported hate sports facilities and playing fields. Physical attacks, threats and insults on the networks, insults in the stands, the playing fields or the networks, jokes in the media and social networks, laughter in the changing rooms and in the sports facilities and the silence of others mean that, in For many LGBTI+ people, sport seems like a hostile space where they don't belong. Thus, many LGBTI+ people decide not to be part of the world of sport or inhabit it with fear of being who they are.