Gay Gooners is Arsenal Football Club’s official supporters’ group for LGBT+ fans.
Established in February 2013, they are the first and largest LGBT+ fans group in England, with over a thousand of members in the UK and overseas.
Gay Gooners exists to provide a social group for LGBT+ Arsenal fans, allies and their friends to meet up, provide a safe and welcoming space, and campaign to kick homophobia, biphobia and transphobia out of football.
Gay Gooners holds meet-ups near Emirates Stadium before home fixtures, group trips to away games and organises regular social events. It also represents the club on the annual London Pride parade every summer.
The group’s banner is displayed inside Emirates Stadium after being unveiled on the pitch by club legend Pat Rice MBE.
The club are fully behind the group and support their aims to ensure that football is an inclusive and supportive for members of the LGBT+ community.
Gay Gooners’ patron and lifelong Arsenal supporter, comedian Matt Lucas says he is “immensely proud of and grateful to the club” for its support for the group and how “young gay fans now feel included by the club in a way my generation never could”.
The club works directly with members of the Gay Gooners to tackle anti-LGBT+ discrimination in football by inviting members to take part in inclusion training for staff. Gay Gooners also send a team to the club’s annual Arsenal for Everyone tournament at the community hub.
Members receive regular newsletters about forthcoming events and LGBT football news. To find out more, visit their Facebook page or follow them on Twitter.
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