This year School Sport NZ were invited to attend the Lil Gay Out 2023, hosted by Hobsonville Point Secondary School. This annual event brings together hundreds of Rainbow Rangatahi from across Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland to meet, celebrate their community and learn from industry experts. We went along with our partners at  Rainbow Games to update Rangatahi on what is happening behind the scenes with diversity and inclusion in Secondary School Sport. We told them about our exciting partnerships with Sport NZ and Rainbow Organisations such as InsideOUT and Rainbow Games and what they can expect from us over the coming year.

Rainbow Games brought along games ambassador Kate Weatherly ( #kateweatherlymtb ) who competes internationally in the sport of Mountain Biking. She shared her inspirational journey as a Trans women in sport and how she navigated high school and sport to find her community in the sport she loves.   

We also asked the Rangatahi for their opinions on school sport and the Rainbow Games as we work towards the development of a Rainbow Games Youth Festival as part of Rainbow Games | Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland NZ 2024. They told us that they do want to play and be welcomed into sport at school in semi competitive, organised opportunities. When asked; when people are making decisions about your participation in school sport, what do you want them to know? Some of them responded with:

“That I am trying”

“Be inclusive and respectful”

“I’m not gonna participate if there aren’t safe places for me to change”

“How not being able to play sport or wear the uniform of my choice (non-gendered) makes me not want to play sport at all.

“I would like them to consider everybody, and try to encourage people to give things a go (if at all possible) even if they may have no prior experience. I would also really like sport, in schools especially, to be a safe and welcoming place for all young people to make friends and have fun.”

Article added: Monday 24 July 2023