After experiencing homophobia as a teen soccer player, Erik Denison has made it his life's work to stop discrimination in sport. He says encouraging clubs to change isn't working — so councils should step in.
He stopped playing sport altogether and his mental health plummeted to the point where he was suicidal.
"The sport industry itself has issued a statement confirming that homophobic, sexist, and racist language increases the risk that young people will experience poor mental health, including self-harm and suicide."also found the presence of psychological abuse can be a "gateway" to physical and sexual abuse.
"Unfortunately, we found no changes to the frequent use of homophobic language by the teenage athletes in our study after the education session," Dr Denison says.As a young child, Dr Denison loved playing all kinds of sport, including baseball. "Studies consistently find sport leaders view ending discriminatory behaviours as optional, and a distraction from delivering their sport and winning games."
She hoped the rest of the club would pick up her initiative and run with it. However, there were no moves for the men's team to also be involved in a pride cup or even a pride game.
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