In order to abolish discrimination against LGBT people
in sports EGLSF is doing lobby work within the Council
of Europe. As an official NGO we enjoy participatory status with the CoE. Our main representative
is Ben Baks, former EGLSF co-president.
Discrimination is regrettably still a common
problem within the gay and lesbian sport community.
In October 1994 the EGLSF published: "A Documentation
on the Discrimination of Gays and Lesbians in Sports". In this report a total of 25 examples of
discrimination were outlined. The range of discrimination varies from excluding gay and
lesbian athletes from participating in sports events to open, or hidden violence, mobbing
and psychological pressure.
Since then many additional cases have been reported. These cases were published in an
update of the document called “Offside” in 1999. It was presented
at the Building Bridges conference in The Hague.
“Offside” was distributed to all sport
federations, the European Committee, the European Parliament, the European Council in
Strasbourg and the organisers of the European Conference on Sport and Tolerance. One
of the EGLSF’s main tasks
is to put its finger on those cases of discrimination and homophobia and to raise awareness
on this important issue in the world of sports.
The EGLSF lobbies for setting and acknowledging the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexual
and transgender in sports and therefore strives to be involved in all international declarations
or agreements to fight discrimination of all sorts and against anyone, no matter whether
he or she is gay, bi- or heterosexual.
