Until Life Do Us Part – Tournament against femicide and gender-based violence
THEMES
– Participation in sport policies relating to sex and gender
– Club uniforms
– Fighting discrimination
– Communication
– Diversity education and training
TARGETED OBJECTIVES
– Raising awareness about gender-based violence
– Bringing people together
– Reappropriation of public space
– Promoting a non-competitive approach in sport
– Giving visibility to women, girls, transgender, intersex and non-binary persons in sport.
MAIN INITIATIVE
“Finché Vita Non Ci Separi” (Until Life Do Us Part) has been held every year since 2017. It arose from the need within Atletico San Lorenzo to talk about gender issues and to counter patriarchal violence using sport as a tool.
Cisgender males were barred from participation in order to give priority and visibility to those who have less of it, in sport and in society at large.
At the beginning, this tournament focused on cisgender women, but since the latest edition the scope was broadened to include transgender, non-binary and intersex people, as they experience similar mechanisms of gender-based violence, in sport and elsewhere.
BENEFICIARIES
Women, girls, transgender, intersex and non-binary persons. Age 18+.
IMPACT OF THE INITIATIVE
Each team is named after a female athlete who defied gender or racial stereotypes and stood up against discrimination.
Every year, the tournament is dedicated to a woman who made an important contribution to the world of sport and/or human rights.
Besides the sport activities, the event includes opening speeches focusing on the topics of gender-based violence and discrimination, in addition to an intervention by the local ANPI (National Association of Italian Partisans).
As this was the first time this tournament was also open to the participation of transgender, intersex and non-binary athletes, all bathrooms were made gender neutral with the help of ad hoc printed gender-free signs.
SUSTAINABILITY AND TRANSFERABILITY
In order to favour sociability and a non-competitive sports environment each team’s participants are decided on the day of the tournament.
The transgender participants asked to play in the same team, as some among them feared being misgendered. Since the tournament went very well both in terms of ambience and fair play, we hope all teams could be mixed in the future.
This practice is easily reproducible in any area and context where sports associations, NGOs and informal groups have strong ties with the territory and attract the local population.
A monitoring activity through a post-event survey to be sent to participants would be useful to know if there are aspects or issues we didn’t consider.
WEBSITE OR RELATED RESOURCES