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People who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender may experience harassment or discrimination from people who are scared of or uncomfortable with these identities.

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Due to social attitudes towards LGBT people, in the past and still to this day LGBT athletes have given up sport, or hidden their sexuality and gender identity, to avoid hate and issues they will receive. Being a LGBT can be a struggle in just day to day life, but being a LGBT and a well known athlete, in the public eye can be really extremely hard as they face homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and other barriers to participating in sport, and to a lesser extent in other physical activity. This has a negative impact on the numbers of LGBT people taking part in sport.

Many sports have now made it unacceptable to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or for spectators to abuse at games, just as they have done for racial, gender and disability and discrimination. However this as not solved
homophobia in sport, it still exists at all levels. And when homophobia is allowed to exist as standard practice in something as mainstream and everyday as sport, for example it tells gay people ‘you don’t belong here’.

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This case study is about a former rugby player Gareth Thomas who was attacked by a 16 year old boy in Cardiff for him being gay. Gareth then took to social media where he posted an emotional video explaining the attack. The teenager then apolisged for his actions towards Gareth Thomas which he accepted the young boys apology Gareth requested that the boy went through  Restorative justice

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Restorative justice brings people harmed by crime or conflict and those responsible for the harm into communication, enabling everyone affected by a particular incident to play a part in repairing the harm and finding a positive way forward. This benefits the victim because it gives the victims the chance to meet or communicate with their offender to explain the real impact of the crime. It empowers victims by giving them a voice. It also holds offenders to account for what they have done and helps them to take responsibility and make amends. I also believe that it can benefit the criminal as well because it will reduce repeat offending and teach they will see that crime is the wrong path to turn down and restorative justice can act as a wake up call for some people and make them turn their life around.

I agree along with disagree with restorative justice. i agree with this because
It involves bringing together victims and offenders to help you find answers, and to help the offender to fit back into society. Research shows many people find restorative justice helps them to move on with their lives after experiencing crime. It can also reduce the frequency of reoffending.
I agree with this justice because in this case where a boy attacked a man for his sexuality, the boy clearly is homophobic, has he's acted upon his beliefs, therefore sending him to prison may only make his homophobia even worse as more likely he'll be around a lot of gay, bisexual and transgender men in a small space, this could make his opinions even worse. However sending him to prison instead of restorative justice may make him better for the reason that he'll be around these type of people and it could have a positive affect on him as he could learn to accept LGBT so when he get out of prison he as no issues with them at all and no longer discrimination, therefore this is a reason why i can disagree with restorative justice. Another reason why i disagree with this justice is because it only works for some as some criminals can see it as they got away with their crime and more likely to do it again. There is also no really punishment in my opinion the criminal will meet with the victim as discuss the issue, they are not losing anything they are not being punished at all. It reminds me of a pupil misbehaving at school there will be a meeting to talk about their actions but theres more likely more punishment at a school meeting as the student may get expel all the restorative justice does is tells them not to do it again.

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Should athletes have to build a ‘resistance’ to discrimination? 

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Should athletes have to build a ‘resistance’ to discrimination? 

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Being a LGBT athlete, i think they already have an idea and know from day to day life that being in the public eye will be extremely tricky as they will not accepted by everyone. Therefore i think from society they would have already built up some sort of ristance to ignore comments. However people acting upon there discrimination or target LGBT athletes for example physical abuse like this case study. Gareth Thomas besides the emotional video took the positives out of his attack has he stated "And also to the people of Cardiff who supported me and helped me because there’s a lot of people out there who want to hurt us. But, unfortunately for them, there’s a lot more who want to help us heal. So this, I hope, will be a positive message." I believe that LGBT athletesshould not have to build up a resistance to discrimination against them anymore then an heterosexual should have to build up resistance to comments.

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Does social media have a responsibility to do more to prevent homophobic abuse? 

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Does social media have a responsibility to do more to prevent homophobic abuse? 

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In 2015 Play by the Rules launched the You Can Play campaign to address homophobia in sport issues. It features a host of sports stars with the simple message ‘regardless of sexuality, if you can play, you can play’. I 100% stand by this! Sport is about the skills and performance of how a person plays or performs, a persons sexuality does not affect and as nothing to do with playing sport therefore i don't see why spectators should worry about it. By Play by the Rules releasing this video on media as made people realise that a person sexuality should not matter in sport. However this video is only addressing homophobia in sport, when really media needs to focus on homophobia in every day life and tackle the course as this video is only trying to solve the symptoms.

I think social media can only help with homphobia a little as it can provide a place for LGBT people to go to and stick together. June 2016 The internet created a safe abode behind the screens, thus, revolutionizing the manner individuals belonging to the LGBT section can communicate. After a shooting in a gay club in Orlando. However before social media can help prevent homophobic i think us the society needs to change, that means changing how we see and view LGBT, for example people believe gay men are 'camp' and 'feminine' and seen as 'weak' when really thats is not the case as we see men who are quite built and into sports who are extremely fit and strong who are gay. The society needs to realise that LGBT people can play sport the same if not better then heterosexual people.

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Play by the Rules: If you can play, you can play

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What can be done to protect athletes from homophobic abuse on social media? 

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What can be done to protect athletes from homophobic abuse on social media? 

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The internet acts as a mask that people can hide behind where they can voice their hateful opinions and hurt many peoples feelings ta they are not brave enough to say in person. If a site considers a message or post to be potentially criminal, the police and the site will take appropriate action. This could involve arrest and bringing a prosecution, especially in those cases involving a sustained campaign of harassment or abuse or where someone's life is threatened. However this doesn't stop abuse totally media can ban and block people from their pages and sites but they can still create accounts in different names and emails. Something a lot more needs to be done. But i think we can prevent homophobia by education in schools to tackling anti-LGBT attitudes. This is because how young people see themselves, each other and the world around them is shaped by what they learn about at school. If you have an education programme that doesn’t mention LGBT, it can do immense damage. Nearly half of LGBT pupils (45%) – including 64% of trans people are bullied for being LGBT. Overall Social media can help control abuse but can not solve it, it's the people behind the computers, phones and tablets who a change and stop abuse

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What are the benefits of Thomas speaking out about the homophobic attack? 

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What are the benefits of Thomas speaking out about the homophobic attack? 

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By Thomas speaking out about his attack it's letting the public know that homophobic attacks are still happen as i believe people think it doesn't happen anymore. Specially with his attacker being 16 years old, it shows that homophobia still happens in these  younger generation where people think it's accepted. Because Gareth Thomas requested a restorative justice for the young boy, this inspires for other LGBT people who have suffered attacks to not to just hate and want the attackers in prison but to meet with them and talk about their issue and make them realise what they did is an actually crime and their ways should be changed.