Aufschlag, LGBT Sport Club
THEMES
– Participation in sport facilities
– Diversity education and training
TARGETED OBJECTIVES
– Aligning the organisation and its welcome policies with the members and their inclusive approach.
– Creating a gender and sexuality inclusive sport culture within the team where everyone feels welcome.
MAIN INITIATIVE
This initiative has been active since 2008 and involves the participation of all club members: as the Ballerinas are a grassroots democratic organisation, all active members who train regularly have been involved and taken part in the discussion process and decisions are implemented democratically. Changes due to the initiative included:
– Welcome and representation: changing the promotion material and the way we see ourselves: leaflet, website text, photos showing sex and gender diversity, text welcoming FLINTA, publicising who is welcome to the team, etc.;
– Short introduction round before each training session where everyone introduces themselves with their name and pronoun. This aims to avoid (or reduce) misgendering, or that “newbies” have to declare themselves and bridge the gap between new players and older ones;
– Raising awareness (internally and externally): taking part in LGBT tournaments, confronting other lesbian teams with their policies and exclusions, promoting opening other women’s tournaments to FLINTA (e.g., FLINTA Cup at Ute Bock Cup, one of Vienna’s biggest charity football tournaments), participating in discussions and talking to others, promoting inclusive policies, participating in tournaments and publicising an inclusive approach, etc.;
– Self-reflection: after each training there is a short round, where everyone gives a quick debrief about how they found it, to check if everyone is ok. This formalises feedback and critique and invites people to express how they feel. Previously, reflection was always informal and only between those who went for a beer after the training. Now we have the feedback round, and then those who want to can go for a beer;
– Events: organising events like the “Queer Feminist Football Tournament” in Vienna; participation in Vienna Pride, RosaLilaVilla Straßenfest, and other feminist events.
BENEFICIARIES
Amateur athletes between 16 and 60. Lesbians, women, transgender and non-binary athletes.
IMPACT OF THE INITIATIVE
The short-term impact was not very significant, but about 12 years later the participation of non-binary athletes has increased greatly.
The club began by reflecting on its own welcome policy as there were no non-binary athletes taking part in the training and some had been confronted with misgendering. Dealing with this topic and understanding ourselves better as a team was fundamental. The discussion was familiar to some team members, who had also been activists in feminist and queer contexts and already had some experiences and quite some knowledge. Yet this also posed a problem: not all members understood the discussions at the beginning. Some members were not exactly opposed to opening the Ballerinas to trans and non-binary athletes, but they were unfamiliar with the topic and had some fears. The main fear was losing a safe space for queer/lesbian women. If we think back, the discussion has not been very empathetic to those who shared these fears. But fortunately no one left the team and today everyone is convinced that changing the Ballerinas from a lesbian/women’s team to a FLINTA team was the right decision; those who had concerns saw that there was nothing to fear: the Ballerinas
are yet a safe(r) space for marginalised genders and sexualities.
SUSTAINABILITY AND TRANSFERABILITY
As the main task is starting a process of self-reflection and internal discussion this activity can easily be transferred to other organisations. The Ballerinas have seen how other organisations have changed their welcome policy and developed actions to support this group.
WEBSITE OR RELATED RESOURCES