ACT NOW: Petition against religious-based homophobia at the FIFA Women's World Cup

For so many young women around the world, playing at the World Cup is a dream come true.
Can you imagine being denied that dream simply because of who you love?

We are asking you to support a petition against religious-based homophobia in the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
[Sign HERE]

This Sunday 26 June, Nigeria will take the field against France in Sinsheim, Germany for the opening game of the World Cup. The players on this team, and the players excluded from this team, are victims of religious-based homophobia, a witch hunt reported this week in the New York Times, aimed as kicking women off the national team, “not because they were bad players, but because they were lesbians.”

This petition, supported by the Federation of Gay Games and the International Gay and Lesbian Football Association, among others, urges FIFA, football's international governing body, to publicly condemn this kind of systematic discrimination and to sanction the Nigerian Football Federation in order to bring an end to this discrimination and abuse.

Tell FIFA that homophobia has no place in the “beautiful game”.

Emy Ritt of Paris, co-president of the Federation of Gay Games stated that the FGG would be wholeheartedly supporting the petition, and asking its member organizations and friends of the Gay Games to sign: The truest values of sport are those of sport for all. This means sport in which everyone is welcome and everyone is safe, whatever their sexual identity and sexual orientation. The actions of the Nigerian team are contrary to our values of participation, inclusion and personal best for all, which should be the values of FIFA and sportspeople everywhere.

Klaus Heusslein of Milan, co-president of IGLFA said: Nelson Mandela said: 'Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. Sport can awaken hope where was previously only despair.'

Sport can be, must be, a power for good. We must make sure that every athlete has the right to be part of sport’s mission for a better world, regardless of sex, race, religion or sexual orientation. The right to participate in sport is a human right, a right for everybody, for all Nigerians, for all women, for all whomever they love.

We therefore fully support this petition and will ask our members to sign in accordance with our shared convictions.
[Sign HERE]

Even before the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup kicks off this Sunday in Germany, FIFA’s rules have already been broken. These are the rules against discrimination and the interference of religion in sport. In the battle against bigotry and discrimination, FIFA, under fire for its own moral lapses, can demonstrate a real commitment to the values of sport, a sport in which the “Laws of the Game” apply, rather than the Bible or the Koran.

Since this damning report, FIFA has remained silent. And yet given FIFA’s history, we would expect the federation to promptly condemn such discrimination. In 1961 FIFA expelled South Africa from the World Cup because of its racist apartheid system, readmitting them only in 1991 after the release of Nelson Mandela. In 2001 FIFA passed the Buenos Aires Resolution against racism, and followed it up with an ambitious “Say No to Racism” campaign, in response to the problem of racist taunts hurled at players around the world.

And just last year the FIFA president responded to international pressure and apologized for a remark offensive to LGBT people, saying, "it was not my intention and never will be my intention to go into any discrimination ... this is exactly what we are against." In the light of FIFA’s choice of countries practicing official and unofficial homophobia as future hosts of the World Cup, it is important for this governing body to show that it is committed to real change: here is a perfect opportunity, with a clear case of lesbophobic discrimination.

While it is rare to see such an obvious case of pride in homophobic discrimination, such discrimination, and beyond discrimination, rape, assault, and murder, remain the fate of lesbian, gay, bi, and trans people throughout the world, and in particular in Africa. As is the case in Nigeria, much of this homophobic hatred is justified and encouraged by Evangelical “Christian” movements.

Sport, which should be a safe place free of religious-based discrimination, too often offers no haven for LGBT athletes. Consider one of the most high-profile recent cases, that of Eudy Simelane, a beloved South African football player who was raped, beaten, stabbed and left to die near her own home last year.

That’s why in Nigeria, where lesbians are sometimes ostracized and physically beaten, the Nigerian national football coach is playing a dangerous game with her homophobic witch hunt. But there’s something you can do about it. Please sign our petition, and make sure those around you know about it too!


[Sign HERE]