revolutioniseSPORT, Pride in Sport & Hockey Victoria team up to deliver best practice approach to gender inclusivity through digital software platforms
In conjunction with Pride in Sport and Hockey Victoria, the leading Asia-Pacific sports management technology company SportsGrid have announced the release of an industry standard supporting users who identify with a diverse gender and/or sexuality. The new standard calls for gender identifiers to be expanded to cover all members of the community, in a way that is respectful and inclusive.
SportsGrid’s flagship product is the revolutioniseSPORT ‘whole of sport’ online management platform, which is used by over 200 state, territory and national sporting organisations as well as 14,000 clubs across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the Cook Islands.
revolutioniseSPORT now champions the following features to build inclusive sporting communities:
- Introducing 'Non-binary' as a gender option, so members of the community can accurately identify within their specified gender when registering with their sport;
- Changing the ‘Other’ gender option to read as ‘Differently identify’, so those who do not identify as Non-binary, Female, or Male are not ‘othered’, and can specify the label in which they identify (if any);
- Ensuring a member’s gender identity appears in the relevant parts of the platform (such as the member profile and when reviewing statistics), so members of all gender identities are accurately represented;
- Allowing ‘Non-binary’ and ‘Differently identify’ to be a filtering option for all searching and reporting, to help sporting organisations better understand the diversity present in their sport, and implement appropriate change to support these members;
- Ensuring that the 'Non-binary' and ‘Differently identify’ options meet validation checks (e.g., for team entry) so that clients can create inclusive competitions to allow members of any gender to participate without restriction; and
- Enabling API export (and import) of this data to ensure cross-sector compatibility with other sports software platforms.
Hockey Victoria, a key partner on this project, and who had recently migrated to revolutioniseSPORT, advocated for and supported this important change as part of their diversity initiative. CEO Andrew Skillern is proud to state that "It is important for Hockey Victoria to demonstrate to its community that we are inclusive through action. We want members of our community to feel comfortable with their gender identity and, furthermore, comfortable in their involvement with hockey, both on and off pitch. The changes we have made we hope go a small way in encouraging more people, regardless of their gender identity, to participate in hockey.”
revolutioniseSPORT Lead Product Manager Cass Simonetti said: “We have been the Platinum Sponsor of Pride in Sport Awards for the last two years, as well as the primary sponsor of the Pride in Sport Index publication, and we are ecstatic to be the first Software-as-a-Service application within the Australian sporting industry to have such a comprehensive solution for supporting gender identity inclusion in sport.
"Every day, we see sport administrators and staff dedicating countless hours to improving the accessibility of their organisation. As the leading sports management platform in the Asia Pacific, revolutioniseSPORT is often the first interaction a potential member has with a new club, so we are in a unique position to support club inclusivity from day one.
“I am thrilled that, as a queer person and the Lead Product Manager at revolutioniseSPORT, we continually make strides towards improving the representation, visibility, and inclusivity of people who identify with diverse genders and sexualities.
“Sport has acted, and will continue to act, as a catalyst for social change, community engagement, and inclusion. We absolutely have a long way to go to ensure sexuality and gender diverse communities are adequately supported. However, with over a million Australians using revolutioniseSPORT in their day-to-day lives, it is our mission to ensure these users feel they are in a safe environment from that first moment of interacting with their sport.”
Pride in Sport National Program Manager Beau Newell said that revolutioniseSPORT’s commitment marks a major moment in Australian sport.
“The introduction of more inclusive gender indicators demonstrates a fundamental shift within Australian sport towards the greater inclusion of trans and gender diverse players. By rolling out these indicators across their platform, revolutioniseSPORT have shown a true and tangible commitment to providing a more welcoming and inclusive experience for the trans and gender diverse community” Newell said.
“Sport has an amazing opportunity to provide a safe and inclusive environment to all people, including people with diverse genders and sexualities. As a country that holds sport very close to our hearts, it also has a unique position to be able to help change attitudes of many Australians. The demand for more inclusive sporting cultures makes clear that Australian society increasingly expects that sport should be for everyone, including trans and gender diverse people.”
“I congratulate revolutioniseSPORT in making this landmark commitment in working towards a progressive and welcoming Australia, and encourage others to consider making their sports an inclusive place for all.”
Pride in Sport played a key role in advising Sport Australia and the Australian Human Rights Commission during the development of guidelines for the inclusion of trans and gender diverse people in sport, and has since worked with several National Sporting Organisations (NSO’s) to develop their respective governance for greater inclusion of the trans and gender diverse community.
Image credit: Partridge, E. (2020). Accessed from https://medium.com/bgl-tech/pronouns-how-to-be-more-gender-inclusive-in-the-workplace-and-in-life-4685cdc2439a