Discrimination is regrettably still a common problem for the gay and lesbian sports community!
In October 1994 the EGLSF published “A Documentation on the Discrimination of Gays and Lesbians in Sports”. In this report, a total of 25 examples of discrimination were outlined. The range of discrimination varies from excluding gay and lesbian athletes from participating in sports events to open, or hidden violence, mobbing, and psychological pressure.
Since then many additional cases have been reported. These cases were published in an update of the document called “Offside” in 1999. It was presented at the Building Bridges conference in The Hague.
“Offside” was distributed to all sports federations, the European Committee, the European Parliament, the European Council in Strasbourg, and the organizers of the European Conference on Sport and Tolerance. One of the EGLSF’s main tasks is to put its finger on those cases of discrimination and homophobia and to raise awareness of this important issue in the world of sports.
The EGLSF lobbies for setting and acknowledging the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender in sports and therefore strives to be involved in all international declarations or agreements to fight discrimination of all sorts and against anyone, no matter whether he or she is gay, bi- or heterosexual.