#ProudToPlay: YouTube Celebrates LGBT Athletes

YouTube, alongside parent company Google has launched a celebrating of Gay Pride and gay athletes through the #ProudToPlay campaign. This campaign celebrates gay athletes and gay figureheads in sport. Sexuality was always an issue skirted around in the past, journalists avoided asking questions about the subject and sportsmen kept their sexuality under wraps. Fifteen years later this has started to change. The LGBT community has embraced sports, and some of our greatest sports institutions have welcomed gay athletes.

YouTube are encouraging users of the site to create their own videos about LGBT sports issues that YouTube go on to highlight over the next month. The YouTube pride logo, featuring a rainbow soccer ball, will be on every YouTube page.

Sports bring together people from all backgrounds and experiences through a shared passion, and YouTube shares that spirit of connecting diverse communities to make a difference. In celebration of the upcoming World Cup in Brazil and LGBT Pride month YouTube are honouring the LGBT athletes and their supporters.

YouTube’s #ProudToPlay campaign goes alongside Nike’s #BeTrue campaign that helps fund the LGBT Sports Coalition, a group of people aimed at ending anti-LGBT bias in sports.

YouTube have got many athletes on board who support the #ProudToPlay campaign. These include: Jason Collins, Brooklyn Nets; Robbie Rogers, LA Galaxy; Kobe Bryant, LA Lakers; John Amaechi, Former NBA player; Tom Daley, Diver; Neymar Jr, FC Barcelona. 

Check out the official #ProudToPlay video.