FGG member FSGL part of major initiative from French Ministry of Sport

FSGL President Bruno Aussenac with French Secretary of State for Sport Rama Yade

The Federation of Gay Games was delighted to be invited to the launch of a major initiative on May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia, by French Secretary of State for Sport, Rama Yade. This initiative was the result of a series of meetings which included representatives of the Fédération Sportive Gaie et Lesbienne (FSGL), the French national LGBT sports federation.

During this event, the FGG was pleased to offer Mme Yade a Gay Games medal and to invite her to join Equipe France at Gay Games VIII in Cologne from 31 July to 7 August.

The Ministry issued the following statement on this initiative (our translation):

One year after organizing and chairing the first world congress on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, and after launching the declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality at the UN, Rama Yade* brought together LGBT organizations and French sports federations on the International Day Against Homophobia.

There are two goals for this meeting:

- to rid professional sport, elite sport, all our sporting clubs and organizations, of homophobic attitudes, attacks, and insults
- to use sport to teach respect for difference in sexual orientation and gender identity.

FSGL VP and FGG delegate Maria Salvietti, Bruno Aussenac, Rama Yade

The Secretary of State has thus proposed, in consultation with the sporting movement and LGBT associations, the first steps in a genuine action plan for preventing and combating homophobia, based on six priorities.


To teach: By creating a module on awareness of the fight against homophobia in the training of all sports instructors, in cooperation with the INSEP, the French national sports institute**, which will also finance research programs on this subject.

To learn: By carrying out a survey, in cooperation with SOS Hompophobia*** on the reality of homo­pho­bia in sport, with results expected by the end of this year.

To listen: The Ministry of Sport will ensure that all sports organizations publish the anonymous hotline of SOS Homophobia.

To unite: The Secretary of State has asked that the next meeting of Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE)****, which includes the fight against all discriminations in its mission, be held in Paris in early 2011.

To engage: The Secretary of State will encourage all national sports federations to sign a charter against homophobia in sport, which will include concrete commitments. Several federations have already accepted to sign (football, rubgy league and rugby union, bas­ket­ball, ten­nis, karate, judo, and wrestling).

To support: The Secretary of State will propose that the annual mission orientation of the National Center for the Development of Sport, the financial arm of the Ministry, include the fight against homophobia among its priorities. Specific support will be offered to programs fighting homophobia at the local level, throughout France. As a first action, the Secretary of State has asked the Center to devote 100,000 euros to innovative sports programs in the fight against homophobia in and via sport.

Mme Yade wearing her Gay Games medal

A working group, bringing together the Ministry of Sport, the sports movement, and LGBT organizations, is already at work to implement this action plan for preventing and fighting homophobia in and via sport. The Welsh rugby player Gareth Thomas***** will be the ambassador of this plan, and the Secretary of State has invited French tennis plaer Amélie Mauresmo to join him as co-ambassador.

Bertrand Pirel, advisor on professional sport, and Stephen Frost, head of diversity and inclusion for the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, discussing the role of national federations in the fight against homophobia in sport

* Mme Rama Yade was formerly Minister for Human Rights, and is now Secretary of State for Sport, under Mme Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, Minister for Health and Sport.

** INSEP¨is the national sports institute, responsible for developing sports policy, and the home of French elite and Olympic sport.

*** This survey will involve the FSGL, which co-sponsored a first survey on the subject in 2005.

**** Our friends from the EGLSF have been key players in FARE for several years.

***** Gareth Thomas was to be present at this launch, but could not travel due to restrictions on air travel due to the ash cloud.