With the slogan “Change the play. In all sports, diversity of identities”, Mides and the National Sports Secretariat will develop awareness and reflection instances in September, in order to promote and guarantee access and inclusion of LGBT+ people. “The actions towards a fairer society should take place permanently,” said the Minister of Social Development, Martín Lema.
In the activity carried out this Wednesday 7 at the headquarters of the Ministry of Social Development (Mides), the secretary of the Presidency of the Republic, Álvaro Delgado; the directors of Social Development, Cecilia Sena; from the Sociocultural Promotion Area, Rosa Méndez, and from the Human Rights Department of Mides, Lorena Jhones; and the director of the Special Programs Area of the National Sports Secretariat, Alejandro Sagasti.
The Mides commemorates the Month of Diversity, in order to raise awareness, reflect and be accountable in terms of public policies on sexual diversity in Uruguay.
With the slogan “Change the game, in all sports, diversity of identities”, it aims to promote and guarantee access and inclusion of the LGBT+ population in sports fields. To this end, during September there will be activities to disseminate and promote rights, with emphasis on access to spaces and sports practices free of discrimination.
“We have to present the Month of Diversity, but these types of actions, towards a fairer society, should be given permanently,” Lema said in his oratory.
He added that the position of each individual is what transforms society. “How someone positions themselves from the point of view of behavior is not in the norm, but it is in conscience,” he said, and considered that a fairer society is natural and “that each one be as they are.”
Meanwhile, the director of the Sociocultural Promotion Area explained at a press conference that the slogan is an invitation to change the practices of discrimination in sports.
Méndez also referred to the presentation of the investigation Heteronormativity in action in physical education and sports, carried out by the Institute of Political Sciences of the Faculty of Social Sciences, as part of the activities planned for this month. This work provides a guide to disseminate good practices for the inclusion of LGBT+ people in all public and private sports institutions.
In addition, other activities will be carried out, such as the inauguration of the LGBTI-Litoral Norte (CAPA) Affirmative Psychology Care Center in Bella Unión, awareness talks for students from the San José Teacher Training Institute, sports activities on the Darwin athletics track Piñeyrúa de Montevideo, together with the National Secretary of Sport and the Municipality of Tacuarembó and an extraordinary session of the National Council for Sexual Diversity (CNDS). Presidency
