BT Sport has announced Playing with Pride, a show fronted by Clare Balding, who will host a line-up of guest contributors in a round-table discussion highlighting LGBTQ+ inclusivity in the world of sport.
The show will air this Friday 27th May on BT Sport, and will feature guests including Tom Daley, Rio Ferdinand, Rylan Clark, Fara Williams, Pippa York and Ugo Monye.
Conversations brought to the table will include the evolution of LGBTQ+ opinion in sport and society, as well as stories of personal experiences that have led the guests to become drivers of change.
A preview of the show has been released, and you can watch it right here now.
In the footage, Ferdinand can be seen opening up about his personal history, saying: “If I’m honest, the household that my sister grew up in, my dad wasn’t somebody that would talk with the right vocabulary and right language about people coming out as gay, at times maybe homophobic with some of the comments he might say.
“Myself and my brother the same as well, so I understand immediately my sister – the pain, the torture, the big effort that it took for her to come to us and go to her big brothers ‘listen, I’m gonna come out and I’m gay.’
“And she told us of the difficulty and the education that she’s given me now… sometimes in life you need some situations to hit you right between the eyes for it to impact you positively, and I think I’ve taken much more of an interest, I’ve educated myself, I’ve tried to read more up on it and understand people more based on my sister coming to me and being so brave and saying ‘this is me, this is who I am’.”
Throughout the show, the guests will be looking at solutions or support for improvements at grassroots and elite sporting institutions, leagues and organisations, to promote a more inclusive attitude in society, with the hope of creating a global sporting arena welcoming for all.
Playing with Pride airs on BT Sport 2 on Friday 27th May at 5:30pm. BT is a sponsor of Pride in London for 2022. If you’re looking for something else to watch, check out our TV Guide or visit our Sport hub.
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