Rainbow sport

The trigger for this article was a special evening organised in Esch in November 2022. The screening of the film Foot et homo, au cœur du tabou told the story of the hell endured by an amateur football player in France who was excluded from his team because of his sexuality. At the end of the film, a short debate was held on the subject. What is the situation in Luxembourg? No one had an answer. No figures, no problem. The LGBTIQ+ community seems to have no problem accessing sports halls or clubs. Chiara, who teaches krav-maga and self-defence classes, has always worked in a very masculine environment. "I did boxing, freestyle wrestling and MMA (mixed martial arts), and I was often the only woman in these classes, which was perhaps more difficult than being a lesbian. It's a question of power. Practising these sports goes against the stereotypes we may have about what women should be like." If the LGBTIQ+ community is becoming more visible, so much the better, but for her "the practice of sport should have nothing to do with sexuality".

Things have changed for Sergio since he came out at the age of 19 in 1993 in Spain. He used to play football at school, but was soon drawn to the martial arts. A milieu that allowed him to express himself as he was, "my homosexuality was quite normalized, it never provoked rejection. I have no problem saying I'm gay". Still well integrated into his sports clubs, in particular karate, which he practised from the age of 11 to 22, he believes that there is no sport that lends itself more to the community: "It's a cliché to say that there are sports that are more gay, or more suited to gays, there are no limitations for any type of sport. The key is education."

While Sergio has never experienced any problems personally, he can understand that some members of the community need to get together around physical activities, mostly in the LGBTIQ+ Sport group of centre Cigale: "We have carried out a questionnaire with the community to get a better idea of tastes and expectations. As far as sport is concerned, we're perhaps going to start with running – it's simple and quite unifying. The idea is to provide support to those who need it. It's a bond that we want to create between ourselves but also with our allies, to spend a moment together."