Sport & Exercise Research Group Seminar ‘Sport and homophobia in France: Twenty years of research’

Sport & Exercise Research Group

Monthly Research Seminar (First Wednesday of each month)

Sport and homophobia in France: Twenty years of research – Featuring Professor Philippe Liotard

From 1997 (Eurogames in Paris) to 2018 (Gay Games in Paris), LGBT’s sport spread in two directions. On the one hand, an associative sports network has developed which prepares people for the Gay Games and organizes everyday sport practice, most of the clubs being linked to the French Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation (FSGL). On the other hand, LGBT’s sport is a tool for fighting homophobia. Firstly, because LGBT’s sport has been created on the shared emotional experience of homophobia, offering a safe environment for athletes. And secondly, the main concern of this talk, because regular international sports events are used to promote a positive image of LGBT people with a collective vigilance emerging in the media since the mid-2000’s.

Professor Philippe Liotard is a lecturer and researcher based at the Université Claude Bernard Lyon – Université Lyon 1 who works in the area of sport and discrimination. He has published a range of books with a specific focus on gender discrimination, including Le sport dans les sixties. Pratiques, valeurs, acteurs (Reims, Éditions et presses universitaires, 2016) and Sport et homosexualités (Montpellier, Editions Quasimodo et Fils, 2008).

All Welcome!