We Educate
Athlete Ally educates athletic communities at all levels — sport governing bodies, teams, and individual athletes — to understand obstacles to inclusion for LGBTQ people in sports and how they can build inclusive communities on their teams or within their organizations. We hold trainings across the country on college campuses, with front office staff of major sports leagues and institutions like the NBA, NCAA and the MLB and with individual athletes. We have partnered with teams in major cities like Seattle, New York, and Washington D.C., to host Pride Nights and raise awareness about LGBTQ issues. In 2018, we launched Champions of Inclusion, an online curriculum providing coaches and athletic departments with education and resources around critical issues facing LGBTQ athletes and tools for creating an inclusive environment for all.
Athlete Ally at the 2017 Women’s March in Washington D.C.
We Change Sport Policy
Athlete Ally works to ensure athletic communities are as LGBTQ inclusive as they should be. We work closely with teams and institutions like the NCAA to develop clear and accessible policies around LGBTQ inclusion. In 2012, we co-authored with Dr. Pat Griffin the NCAA’s first LGBTQ equality guide — Champions for Equality — for college coaches, athletes, and administrators. In 2017, we launched the Athletic Equality Index (AEI) to measure LGBTQ inclusion policies and practices in the NCAA’s Power Five conferences. With plans to update the AEI every year and add 90 additional schools in 2018, the AEI provides an invaluable baseline so we can continue to push for LGBTQ inclusive policies at all colleges and universities across the nation.
We also apply pressure to global sport governing bodies to ensure their policies around LGBTQ inclusion are existent and consistent. In 2017, we launched an ongoing campaign demanding that World Rugby adopt transgender-inclusive policies. In 2015, we joined the #WomenInFIFA movement to push FIFA Congress to enact proposed reforms for women in soccer.
Principle 6, a campaign inspired by the values of the Olympic charter, is a way for athletes, spectators, and global supporters to celebrate the Olympic principle of non-discrimination and speak out against Russia’s anti-gay laws before the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
We Advocate For LGBTQ Rights
At Athlete Ally, we believe athlete activism should be expected and accepted. We incubate athlete activism through our Ambassador Program and organize platforms for athletes and sports institutions to advance LGBTQ civil rights, including mobilizing athletes and teams to voice their opposition to laws and policies that discriminate against LGBTQ people. For example, in 2016, we organized Boston sports teams to support the Mass Public Accommodations Bill and worked with the NBA, NCAA, and ACC to move games and championships out of North Carolina over HB2’s passage.