Two major cricket leagues in England and Wales will be demonstrating support for the Rainbow Laces campaign this weekend. Men and women — in the NatWest T20 Blast and the Kia Super League, respectively — will be wearing rainbow-colored shoelaces, among other displays of inclusion. Rainbow Laces is a campaign that encourages athletes to wear rainbow-colored laces in their cleats and sneakers during matches to show support for the LGBT community.
The promotion is being pushed by the England and Wales Cricket Board, which lists five ways the Rainbow Laces campaign, and the rainbow in general, will be incorporated into matches this weekend:
- All NatWest T20 Blast and Kia Super League players and umpires will be given rainbow laces to wear during matches
- Rainbow flags will be prominently displayed in the pre-match ‘guard of honour’ welcoming teams onto the field
- A rainbow band decoration will sit on the stumps
- Sky commentators will be donning rainbow laces to show their support for the campaign
- The Rainbow laces flag will be displayed at county grounds together with big screen support for the campaign at all grounds.
Visibility efforts like this are good ways for organizations like the ECB to begin its demonstration of LGBT inclusion, and we look forward to seeing what the next steps will be.
Sky Sports recently profiled an LGBT cricket club, Grace’s, to talk about the campaign and their designation as one of the few (if not the only) LGBT cricket club in England.
