LGBT Pride Month is dedicated to the celebration and commemoration of LGBT+ pride.
Pride Month began after the Stonewall riots, a series of gay liberation protests in 1969, and has since spread outside of the United States.
Modern-day Pride Month both honors the movement for LGBT rights and celebrates LGBT culture.
Why is it important that sport engages with Pride Month?
Whilst Pride Month is a celebration of the LGBT+ community, its also an important moment to uphold their rights and highlight the issues this community faces.
The challenges the LGBT+ community face are still present across the globe, and The PSA World Tour & PSA Foundation are proud to support all LGBT+ players at all levels, supporters of the game and more.
64 countries in the world still consider being LGBT+ illegal, and within many countries where it is legal, LGBT+ individuals are often denied basic rights and are ill-treated.
Even for countries like the UK that have strong LGBT+ rights, pride month remains a reminder to ensure these rights are still in place, and to combat the issues LGBT+ people still face.
For example: One in five LGBT people have experienced a hate crime or incident because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity in the last 12 months
Sport as a whole has an important responsibility to create spaces where LGBTQ+ people feel safe, included, and supported.
Sport is a fundamental aspect of many individuals’ health and well-being.
Many LGBT+ sports people still today feel marginalized in different parts of the world: and we believe every person has the right to enjoy and take part in our sport.
We aim to support the LGBT+ squash community by:
-Ensuring that from the World Tour to local clubs, squash is an inclusive game
-Promoting a community where LGBT+ players are accepted on and off court
-Highlighting the various LGBT+ tournaments that take place across the world as an opportunity and example of inclusive sport
As a Tour and Foundation, we want to bring light to more LGBT+ topics, support this community further and learn from these communities about how we can make our sport more welcoming.
To celebrate this month and highlight the importance of LGBT+ representation, we have a range of pieces coming up, including:
-An interview with former World Number 2 Jenny Duncalf, who recently became a mother with her wife, former World Number No. 1 squash player Rachael Grinham
-We speak to World Number 44 Todd Harrity about his identity as An openly gay professional player
-We take a look at Northern Rebound’s Annual LGBT+ squash tournament, which takes place the National Squash Centre in Manchester.
Stay tuned across all of our channels to see more #PrideInSquash Content
LGBT+ learning resources
