Diversity has been a buzzword ever since London started
campaigning to host the Olympics, so it was slightly underwhelming
to get a look at what's actually been done in terms of LGBT
inclusion. Beyond recruiting LGBT staff and volunteers, the
organising committee's key innovations seem to be: sticking "LGBT
visitor information" in the Athletes' Guide and making an "LGBT
Pride Pin Badge to visibly demonstrate inclusion". Not to be
sniffed at, but as my mother would say: what do you want, a
medal?
The website uses Stonewall's logo, but according to the chief
executive Ben Summerskill, contact between the two organisations
has been minimal: "We may have been written to once, but it's
certainly not been in the last two or three years," he said. Had
LOCOG lived up to its professed vision from the off, says
Summerskill, "it would have given a very clear signal that young
LGBT people can get involved in sport. The sad truth is that you
don't even need the fingers on one hand to count the number of
openly gay and lesbian athletes who will represent Great
Britain".
It's not just Britain; a few months before the opening ceremony,
even David Furnish was wondering where all the queer athletes were.
Sport and (open) homosexuality are still a frustratingly poor mix.
At best, it seems, there is an atmosphere that Pat Griffin, author
of Strong Women, Deep Closets, calls "conditional tolerance", where
lesbians are ok as long as they keep their mouths shut and do their
best not to look too dykey. "A silence so loud it screams," Griffin
calls it, and her phrase springs to mind every time I read a biog
that dances elaborately around mention of an athlete's home
life.
Read the rest of this feature in DIVA's July 2012 issue, on
sale from 7 June.
Get your copy here:
divadirect.co.uk
