On July 25th, Pride House Birmingham announced that they are open to visitors, tweeting:
“We are proud to say that we are looking OUTstanding”.
The purpose of Pride House Birmingham is to create a safe and welcoming, inclusive environment for LGBTIQ+ supporters, athletes, staff, volunteers and organisations at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. The presence of Pride House Birmingham is particularly significant given the fact that 35 out of the 54 sovereign states still criminalise homosexuality.
The main Pride House venue is located in the heart of the city’s Gay Village, in close proximity to the Birmingham 2022 beach volleyball and basketball 3×3 and wheelchair basketball 3×3 venue at Smithfield.
Additionally, for the first time in Games history, Pride House also has a presence in the Athletes’ Villages, with trained volunteers staffing the stations set up at The University of Birmingham, The University of Warwick, and The NEC Hotel Campus.
The work of Pride Sports
Pride House Birmingham is delivered by Pride Sports, a UK based sports development and inclusion organisation. Pride Sports was established in 2006 and has worked across the UK to make sport and physical activity more inclusive of LGBTIQ+ people.
For example, in football, Pride Sports runs the international Football v Homophobia campaign providing year-round opportunities for football clubs, players, fans and administrators to stand up to discrimination in the beautiful game and help make football more welcoming for everyone.
Pride House opening celebrations
On Friday night, the LGBTIQ+ inclusion venue celebrated its opening night with a VIP reception, hosted by sports reporter and former Wales hockey international Beth Fisher. Special guests at the first event included Commonwealth Games medal winners for Team England, Heather Fisher and Sally Walton; the Minister for Sport and the Games, Nigel Huddleston MP; and Pride House Ambassadors Michael Gunning and Amazin LeThi.
Last Friday, prior to Pride House’s official opening, a delegation of officials from the Commonwealth Games Federation, including president Dame Louise Martin and chief executive Katie Sadlier toured Pride House and thanked the team and volunteers for their hard work on the project which has finally paid off.
“I’m delighted to see the opening of Pride House Birmingham, which will be a fantastic hub to champion and enable LGBTIQ+ values throughout the Games,” says Dame Louise.
“We’re proud to support Pride House and as “The Games for Everyone” we believe that Birmingham 2022 will provide an inspiring and important opportunity to engage, champion and benefit many diverse communities, including the LGBTIQ+ sporting community.
“Our sporting family is defined by all kinds of diversity, including religious and cultural diversity. Through our support for Pride House, the CGF will continue to lead by positive example, embracing our shared passion for sport and living our values of Humanity, Equality and Destiny.”
Events at Pride House
While Pride House Birmingham will dedicate itself to ensuring that LGBTIQ+ Commonwealth athletes feel safe and happy at next year’s games, Pride House Birmingham is opening its doors to the public over the next few months.
Today alone, they are holding a UK AIDs Memorial Quilt Exhibition, a HIV/ AIDs Memorial Quilt Making Workshop, a panel discussion titled “Sport for social good or bad? Assessing the role of global sport in LGBTIQ+ inclusion”, and an evening in the bar watching the second Women’s Euro semi-final in which it will be decided whether France or Germany will be facing the Lionesses at Wembley.
Inside Pride House
The Pride House venue itself contains a number of exciting and educational facilities which are open to all. Upon stepping in to Pride House, one will find:
- An exhibition and game play space dedicated to LGBTIQ+ and LGBTIQ+-friendly video games, delivered in partnership with Gayming Magazine, the world’s only LGBTIQ+ video game magazine
- The Pride House Bar which open from 10am until late serving a wide range of drinks and bar snacks
- A cafe, described as “a family-friendly, sober space where you can also view displays reflecting our education and youth programming with local schools”
- Exhibitions including: a ‘LGBTIQ+ Human Rights Across the Commonwealth’ feature with maps of five continents containing country-by-country information, and a photography feature focusing on the achievements of ‘LGBTIQ+ Sporting Heroes of the Commonwealth’
- An education room, “drop in to hear panel discussions and talks from guest speakers; watch screenings of films and documentaries; and take part in interactive Q&As and other educational event”
- A media suite with desk space for journalists and reporters
If you can’t make it in person to the Pride House in Birmingham, then you can always tune into their weekly Pride House Podcast which features conversations that focus on the relationship between Commonwealth sport and LGBTIQ+ rights.
The aim of ‘The Pride House Podcast’ is to celebrate the achievements of those providing representation for LGBTIQ+ communities in Commonwealth sport; and to assess the progress made by human rights defenders based in the 54 countries whose athletes are expected to compete at Birmingham 2022.
Final thoughts
The Pride House website states that:
“Through the sharing of stories and experiences, Pride House Birmingham hopes to rally wider support and allyship for the causes most important to activists and organisations advocating for LGBTIQ+ rights; and broaden understanding of the pivotal role that sport plays in breaking down stereotypes about lesbian, gay, bi and trans people, all around the world.”
The work that the staff and volunteers have put into turning Pride House into a reality is impressive and inspiring. While there is a very long road ahead of us in terms of securing rights and safety for LGBTIQ+ communities across the world, with homosexuality still being illegal in 69 countries, fantastic initiatives like the Pride House shine a light on how progress is possible and should be celebrated wherever found.