As part of Arsenal’s ongoing commitment to its Arsenal for Everyone initiative, the Club is supporting Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans (LGBT) History Month, which celebrates the lives and achievements of the LGBT community.
The Club will celebrate its LGBT fan base at this Saturday’s FA Cup game against Blackburn Rovers and has invited representatives from LGBT organisations to attend the match, including Football v Homophobia, Stonewall and Kick It Out.
The Club always strives to engage with its fans and a new LGBT supporters group, The Gay Gooners, has recently formed. The group will meet for the first time on Saturday.
"As a club, we want to ensure that we encourage an inclusive atmosphere for all our fans, regardless of their sexuality or gender identity"
Ivan Gazidis
The Club supports the Football v Homophobia campaign and is committed to making football a safe and inclusive environment for all its fans. This month, the Club has been working with Football v Homophobia to arrange a special schools tournament.
Arsenal’s chief executive Ivan Gazidis said: “As a Club, we want to ensure that we encourage an inclusive atmosphere for all our fans, regardless of their sexuality or gender identity. We are proud to be able to work with Football v Homophobia to help remove discrimination and prejudice, and promote the message that everyone should be able to enjoy football.”
The Club has also been collaborating with other organisations in the local community on a variety of activities for LGBT month. A special LGBT evening event, Educate and Celebrate, will showcases work by local schools, and the Club has partnered with Camden and Islington LGBT Forum to host a debate to discuss tackling homophobia through football.
All the community events will take place on February 28 as part of LGBT History Month and supplement the Club’s anti-bullying workshops held throughout the year within local schools.
Arsenal Football Club is proud to be the first Premier League football club to support to the bid for London to host the Gay Games in 2018. The London2018 Gay Games Bid Committee is hoping to build on the legacy of the 2012 Olympics and bring the Gay Games to the capital, which could potentially attract more than 12,000 visitors from across the world.
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