Written by Al Slattery (they/he)
I already mentioned attending the AusGP last week and while I was there I was lucky enough to attend the Proud 2 Play: Pride in Motorsport networking event; the first of its kind in the world. The organisers were lovely and were obviously trying their hardest to increase pathways into motorsport careers for queer people. The event was amazing and I met some wonderful people from people working in the sports inclusivity space to ex-racing drivers to people who were just fans to people working in Motorsport Australia and everything in between. It truly was a wonderful evening and a great marker of the success and strides that Motorsport in Australia is making to increase accessibility and inclusivity within the sport.
However, there were notable issues that stood out to me as a neurodivergent, physically disabled, trans queer person that these kinds of events need to improve on. It isn’t enough for your event to cater to queer people, it is no longer enough to just be focussing on queer issues. Your event needs to fundamentally be intersectional and have transness, disability, race and gender at the forefront of the planning.
I want to applaud the event organisers for a few things I noticed about this event in their organisation but also want to point out some shortfalls in where intersectionality becomes paramount.
THE THINGS THEY DID WELL
Attendance of and marketing towards women
The majority of the attendees were women. In a sport and sports fandom that notoriously has been male dominated and actively hostile to the inclusion of female fans, this event through marketing strategies, event type, and brand image managed to predominantly attract women to their event. This was also noticeable at the PrideHub at the GP run by the same people, where the vast majority of the people working in that tent were women.
Support for Human Rights Causes
Many of the organisers – both those at the PrideHub and the event – were wearing Keffiyehs (the traditional Palestinian scarf garment which is currently being worn by many in solidarity with the Palestinian people). It is great to see that many of the organisers obviously and visibly showed their support for ongoing human rights crises and other marginalised people.
Solidarity with those Struggling for Inclusion in Motorsports
Similarly, the act of the PrideHub lending their space to Girls Across the Grid shows they largely understand and support the struggles of other marginalised groups, including in their fight for recognition and inclusion in motorsport and in the F1 fanbase. The Proud 2 Play organisation, while centred around queer representation and inclusivity in sport, is undoubtedly also making strides in the equal representation of women in sport.
THE THINGS THAT COULD BE IMPROVED
Disability Access and Inclusion
The event was largely not disability accessible and didn’t have disability accessibility at the forefront of any of their planning. There were no chairs at the event, just tables spread around. One attendee did ask for a chair to be brought in from the other room, but they never should have had to ask and many others attending, including myself would not and did not ask in this situation. If your event is meant to be championing inclusivity and diversity, why is it not a disability friendly space?
Trans Inclusivity and Acceptance
While we did make name tags and were encouraged to write our pronouns on them, these were almost entirely ignored. I personally was misgendered several times despite having my pronouns literally written out in front of people on my name tag, and this included by people involved in the running of the event. Any queer space or event where the correct pronouns are not the bare minimum is not effectively pushing inclusivity for all queer people. This saddened me, because Proud 2 Play has trans people involved in their organisation including someone at the event that is specifically working towards trans inclusivity in sport. But as a trans person I didn’t entirely feel comfortable and accepted at the event, and this might partly be due to my next point.
Racial and Gender Diversity in Attendees
The event was almost exclusively attended by white cis queer women. While a Pride in Motorsport event that is predominantly attended by women is wonderful and brilliant and is combatting some important marginalisation within Motorsport, within queer spaces in general white cis women still hold privilege over their counterparts who are trans and/or women of colour. I will not speak to the experiences of people of colour at the event but as a trans queer person, queer spaces almost exclusively made up of cis people often do not feel as welcoming as other spaces. In the same way that the large number of women at the event was a strong point of the marketing and event organisation, this is also something that can be worked on.
Racial and Gender Diversity in Industry Experts Invited
Furthering this, many of the industry experts themselves – those that were invited as people who have careers in the industry rather than the fans, people wanting to break into the industry or people that found the event on their own – were cis men, also predominantly white. This made the networking more difficult for many including myself. While this is possibly largely due to those being the vast majority of people who have made it in their respective fields due to misogyny, transphobia and racism in the industry, a greater diversity within the attendees would have made the event more successful and welcoming.
I want to reiterate that I had a wonderful time, I met some great people both who already work within the industry and those that are fans who wish to ultimately work in the field. I had some great conversations about wild stories from ex-racing drivers and people doing great things with inclusivity in Motorsport and I undoubtedly learnt some things that I will take into my everyday life and my F1 content creation.
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