Rainbow Laces has always campaigned to make sport everyone’s game, focussing on inspiring, educating and encouraging allyship to support LGBT inclusion in sport.
The events of 2020 have highlighted long-standing inequalities across society. We’ve seen the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic on marginalised groups and the results of structural racism throughout society, including in LGBT communities and across sport.
The events of this year have also shown us how much community and allyship matter. We’ve seen the role that sport and fitness play in bringing us together, and so many LGBT people and allies have been doing amazing work to make sport everyone’s game.
The club has been a proud supporter of the LGBT community, and the fantastic work Stonewall does, for many years and members of our first team squad took part in an EFL video to promote the campaign.
On Saturday, the Hatters and Preston North End will be showing their support for Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign in our Sky Bet Championship fixture at Kenilworth Road.
The campaign supports LGBT equality and Saturday's game has been designated as the fixture in which we highlight our support for LGBT fans, players and staff across the game with both captains wearing rainbow-coloured armbands, as Glen Rea did at Swansea last Saturday for the Welsh club's designated matchday.
We will also be using rainbow-coloured substitution boards and corner flags, and this week has also seen the club change its online crest to a bespoke rainbow-coloured version for the campaign, with our matchday programme and social media assets for Saturday also reflecting the colours of the campaign.
This year has been like no other and it’s now more important than ever that we raise awareness and support the LGBT community.
Together or apart, online or on the pitch, we need to build on our work to make sport everyone’s game.
You can play your part by visiting https://www.stonewall.org.uk/our-work/campaigns/rainbow-laces to support the campaign.