Football clubs at all levels of professional Scottish football have teamed up to sign up to the Scottish LGBT Sports Charter to improve LGBT inclusion

For the first time, football clubs in all four of the SPFL divisions have joined forces to sign up to the Scottish LGBT Sports Charter to ensure lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are better included in Scottish football.

The Charter has five principles that sports clubs should follow to remove the barriers that LGBT people face in sport, such as challenging homophobic and transphobic behaviour.

Today Aberdeen, Celtic, Hearts, Hibs, Partick Thistle, Rangers, St Johnstone, Dumbarton, Airdirionans, Albion Rovers, Forfar Athletic, Elgin City and Peterhead have all signed up, making a big statement that Scottish football clubs want everyone to feel welcome at football.

Scott Cuthbertson, development manager of the Equality Network said: “We don’t yet have any openly LGBT players in the men’s professional game in Scotland but we know there are plenty of LGBT fans. Thank you to those clubs who have already taken this step. For clubs who haven’t yet signed up and who want to make their club more inclusive, our door is always open.”

Rangers striker Kenny Miller commented, “Rangers is an inclusive club and strives to promote equality and inclusion and we are delighted to sign up to the Scottish LGBT Sports Charter.”

According to the Equality Network, this should pave the way for more coordinated efforts to encourage more LGBT people to get involved in football. A study carried out by the Equality Network in 2012 revealed that 57% of LGBT people would be more likely to participate in sport if it was more LGBT friendly.

The study also showed that respondents identified football as the least LGBT inclusive sport.