Examining Pride Cups as a health promotion resource to address homophobia in Australian men's sport.

Effective interventions are needed to stop homophobic behaviours in sport settings as these behaviours are associated with negative health and social outcomes for individuals who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or other diverse genders and sexualities. This paper reports the results of a quasi-experimental study commissioned by a public health agency to explore the benefits of a novel intervention that has been widely adopted by Australian community sport clubs. The 'Pride Cup' intervention includes education for club leaders, sport participants and the hosting of a rainbow-themed 'pride game'. Survey responses of male participants from six randomly selected sport clubs which had received the intervention (n = 148) were compared to responses (n = 137) from six randomly selected comparison clubs (Australian Football, cricket, field hockey, roller derby). Employing a post-test-only design, the study explored differences in homophobic attitudes, behaviours and individual efficacy to react negatively to homophobic behaviours. The study found significant differences (p < 0.001) in self-reported use of homophobic slurs (e.g. fag) in the last 2 weeks by participants in the treatment (11%) versus comparison (31.8%) clubs, and significant differences in the perceived use of these slurs by teammates (25.9% vs. 56.6%) or coaches (7.8% vs. 23.3%). There were also significant differences in efficacy scores, but no differences in homophobic attitudes. These results, combined with evidence of community-driven adoption, support the allocation of public health resources to conduct larger scale trials using pre/post designs to confirm these findings. Homophobic behaviours are harmful to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or other diverse genders and sexualities (LGBTQ+) people. United Nations agencies have called for research to identify ways to protect this population from discrimination in community settings. Little research has been conducted to understand how to address this problem in male sport. This study explored the value of an intervention developed by Pride Cup Australia, widely adopted by Australian community sport clubs. The charity provides education and helps clubs host a rainbow-themed ‘pride game’. The study compared the homophobic language used by male participants at six clubs that had implemented a Pride Cup, with participants at six clubs which had not. Homophobic attitudes and confidence to react negatively to homophobia were also compared. Participants at clubs that adopted the intervention used less homophobic language in the previous 2 weeks than at the comparison clubs (11% vs. 31.8%) and were half as likely to report their teammates had used this language (25.9% vs. 56.6%). It is unclear if differences were caused by the Pride Cup intervention or some other factor (i.e. teams that agreed to host Pride Cup were already more supportive of LGBTQ+). Given grassroots support for this potentially promising intervention, larger scale studies are needed to confirm these findings.

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