Wednesday 9th December is Rainbow Laces Day, and marks the focal point of Stonewall’s annual Rainbow Laces campaign, which runs from 26th November to 13th December. The campaign works to make sport more inclusive, celebrating the positive impact that sport has on LGBTQ+ people, and LGBTQ+ people have on sport. Wearing Stonewall’s rainbow laces are an easy and fun way to show your support for the LGBT community.

The campaign was launched in 2013 by Stonewall, initially focusing on football, and has since become a global movement, with athletes across myriad sports wearing the laces. The campaign encourages officials, broadcasters and players at elite and grassroots level to show their support for LGBTQ+ equality and make sport everyone’s game.

The Club and the Supporters’ Trust are proud to support the Rainbow Laces campaign. It remains a sad fact that there are only a handful of LGBTQ+ players currently active in men’s football around the world, and the broad landscape of the sport on and off the field, from the terraces to Twitter, is still blighted by homophobia and transphobia, making it daunting and difficult for LGBTQ+ people to come out publicly. 

43% of LGBTQ+ people feel public sporting events are not a welcoming place for LGBTQ+ people, and one in five LGBTQ+ young people (18 to 24) have experienced discrimination while exercising at fitness or sports clubs. Women’s football presents a more welcoming landscape, with many more players being publicly out, but there is still progress to be made. 

Champion Hill wears its colours on its sleeve, with the Club’s beloved rainbow concourse showing support for the LGBTQ+ community from the moment one passes through the turnstiles, and the ‘we don’t care which side you play for’ slogan adorning the walls of Dulwich Hamlet’s clubhouse.

This evening the club will welcome the public back through the doors for men’s football for the first time since March, and captain Michael Timlin will wear a rainbow armband as Dulwich Hamlet take on Eastbourne United. The Mega Container will be open from 18:30 tonight, and as always we will be selling rainbow laces, with all proceeds going to Stonewall. 

If you can't make tonight's match, you can also order the laces from our online shop as usual.

Find out more about the campaign and Stonewall’s work for LGBTQ+ communities here.