LGBT History Month began its year focusing on sport with an announcement by Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone thet premier league football clubs would be signing the LGBT Sports Charter during the course of February. Speaking on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme, Featherstone reiterated the Government’s commitment to challenging homophobia and transphobia and said that this related to the players and the behaviour of the fans . She also tied the campaign in with other disciplines and pointed out that the Charter was aimed at all sports, not just football. Simone Pound, the PFA’s Senior Executive of Equality, acknowledged that no UK player had come out since Justin Fashanu and said that achieving equality would be the way to changing this.

LGBT History Month co-chair Tony Fenwick said: “If premier league teams start signing up and committing to the Charter it’ll show that they are as committed to tackling homophobia and transphobia in the sport as they are to racism. But I couldn’t help noticing that, although Lynne Featherstone used the terms quite comfortably, the Today interviewer spoke of ‘transphobia’ and ‘homophobia’ as though they were foreign words. Perhaps the BBC should use them more often.”

The interview can be heard here