Smaller than expected numbers attended the Proud to Play youth hui this week, the free event was organised for a planned 200 LGBTI youth from across the Asia-Pacific region. During the event, out Olympian speed skater Blake Skjellerup and soccer player Lori Lindsay spoke about their experiences of coming out and being both gay and playing sports. Those in attendance were also treated to a talk by researcher and RainbowYOUTH board member, Sophie Sills, her presented her research on queer people's experiences in women's sports teams in New Zealand. A spoken word workshop, held by Action Education, lead to the creation of poems and a discussion on gender segregation in sports. LGBTI youth organisation InsideOUT ran a workshop gathering young people's ideas and stories in relation to a number of different issues in the LGBTI community, such as safety in school, homes, how we are represented in the media and access to healthcare. National Coordinator Tabby Besley says; “These findings will be used as part of a presentation by our volunteers Bella Simpson and Alex Ker at the PROUD ILGA Oceania Rainbow Human Rights Conference coming up in Wellington, with the aim of bringing youth voices from around the country to the conference. “It was really great to have the opportunity to talk with young people in another part of the country, especially having the young people from Qmunity in Gisborne present, to hear their stories.” The hui was part of a larger sports component of Proud to Play for the Auckland Pride Festival. Originally featuring fifteen sports, Proud to Play has had to cancel several events, including lawn bowls and dragon boating due to lack of numbers. Organisers have not yet provided the results of the games throughout the week however we will keep you updated as these come in.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 18th February 2016 - 3:12pm