FC Barcelona host the twice yearly LGTBI+ Iberian Sports Group assembly

Last Saturday 7 October saw FC Barcelona host the twice-yearly LGTBI+ Iberian Sports Group (ADI) assembly, an initiative involving the Club's Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Department.

The ADI mainly work to tackle LGTBI phobia in sport and to develop safe and diverse spaces for the LGTBI+ collective to play sport. One of the group's entities organises each assembly, and this time it was the turn of Panteres Grogues, the not-for-profit LGTBIQ+ multi-sport association with whom FC Barcelona has had an agreement to collaborate since 2022. The aim is to educate and provide advice on gender diversity, sexual orientation and identity, and tackle LGTBI phobia in the world of sport, as established in the Club's Statutes. A get together to highlight the issues in both women's and LGTBI+ sport, and to find solutions and provide mutual support.

This assembly at the FC Barcelona installations featured representatives from the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Department, who presented the Club's LGTBI+ initiatives, plus 22 entities from 7 Spanish autonomous communities and Portugal. The session saw the accounts presented, along with a report on the annual activities, and new entities were approved to join. Representatives from the LGTBI+ clubs studied the strategies and actions to follow in the coming months, particularly in order to defend the trans, intersex and non-binary collective after the ongoing discrimination they are experiencing from several federations regarding playing sport.

At the end of the session, the Club invited the entities on a guided tour of the Barça Immersive Tour and the new blaugrana museum.

The LGTBI+ Iberian Sports Group (Agrupación Deportiva Ibérica LGTBI+, ADI)

The ADI was founded in 2009 and comprises 22 entities from different Spanish autonomous communities and Portugal. As well as LGTBI+ entities, the group includes other groups and entities who want to improve their internal approach to human rights, be more inclusive and consider the diversity within our society, as well as adapt to the new sports law, which states that sport is a human right and that no one can be excluded on the social, gender, sexual orientation, identity or gender expression grounds. Some LGTBI+ associations belonging to the group work to bring sport to their members.

The ADI aims to teach and extol the benefits of playing sport, whether in physical, psychological and social terms, so that ultimately no misogyny or LGTBI phobia exists in sport.

The ADI meetings have led to significant achievements like the drafting of proposals in order to approve Law 4/2023, of 28 February, for the real and effective equality of trans people and for the guarantee of the rights of LGTBI people, or evening forming part of the LGTBI+ State Council.

A Club against homophobia, biphobia and transphobia

In February 2022, FC Barcelona and Panteres Grogues signed a collaboration agreement that set out how both entities were going to work together. In the Club's case, this focused on education and advice regarding gender diversity, sexual orientation and identity, as well as the fight against LGTBI phobia in the world of sport.

The FC Barcelona Diversity, Equaiity and Inclusion Department has put on workshops and educational sessions for young sportspeople at La Masia and technical staff from Barça's professional teams. They have also raised awareness about the different groups via sporting workshops, such as the event with the former basketball and handball players' associations to celebrate the Day against LGTBI phobia in Sport, or by flying rainbow flags at the Spotify Camp Nou and Estadio Johan Cruyff.