Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
I honestly don't know anything about what it is that Right to Play does, but I get the impression that it is a lot more than just performing lip service. Does anyone have any experience with this group? In what ways do they actively promote acceptance in sports?
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Lots of information can be found on their website
http://youcanplayproject.org/ or their twitter @youcanplayproject
You Can Play is a public awareness campaign group working with teams in a number of sports to create a culture in locker rooms where athletes are not bullied because of their sexual orientation and make them safe for all athletes so kids coming up in sport won't have to deal with past issues in sport where sexual orientation might have caused you to lose a spot on a team or quit a sport. They act as consultants to the teams as to how to facilitate this sort of change and when asked/invited by the team, will step in as a 3rd party to address any issues with players making inappropriate comments. They do perform a lot of "lip service" by speaking at events, to teams and basically any opportunity they can to teams and sport but being new, I think this is moreso to get themselves out there. They also now partner with charitable events aimed at including all athletes and have lead an initiative for gay athletes going to Sochi as over the past year, as they have grown and evolved considerably due to the positive NHL response and more public awareness of their campaign.
When they started, they sat down with as many teams as possible in every sport and educated them about inclusion and trying to quell the mindset that sports, namely the Big 4, are for "real" men only. Patrick and Brian Burke (founders of You Can Play as Brendan Burke, Brian's now deceased son came out as gay shortly before his death and they did this in his memory) went out and spoke to a number of teams and leagues about Brendan and trying to change locker-room culture and getting partnerships with the teams to offer further educational opportunities.
They have also sat down with numerous players (Tyler Seguin probably the most well known case of having these meetings) at the request of the team and league (they don't act on their own, it is at the invitation of the league or team) after anti-gay comments were made on social media or in the media as part of their partnership with the NHL to both get information from the player as to why they said it and then educate them as to why it wasn't a great idea to say it. As per Patrick's own admittance, it isn't to punish the player and they don't lecture them and no discipline is suggested by them to the team, it's an educational opportunity for both sides with hopefully the player choosing to correct the behaviour.
I think right now, their biggest promotion for inclusion in sport is the Sochi Olympics and stating that any openly gay athlete should attend and they will attend as well as a group (which include a number a pro-inclusion but not homosexual themselves members) despite any Russian laws against being pro-gay as the Olympics has nothing to do with sexual orientation and everything to do with skill and ability. The other large project is the NHL player videos, much like the MLB it gets better ones, where players are saying that they want someone on their team because they are good enough to play and that's all they care about.
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