Swinburne University of Technology has won Bronze in the latest release of the Australian Human Rights Commission and Australian Sports Commission Pride in Sport Index (PSI) rankings.
The Index is the only benchmarking tool that assesses LGBTQIA+ inclusion in sport, globally.
Inclusion at Swinburne
As proud members of Pride in Sport, Swinburne Student Life made a submission to the PSI demonstrating organisational efforts to promote inclusion at all levels of sport for participants with diverse sexualities and genders.
Swinburne is driven to ensure everyone feels that they belong. However, people who have diverse genders and sexualities are more likely to experience poor mental health and feelings of isolation, so working to promote their inclusion in sport at the university is an important step towards achieving better health and mental wellbeing among Swinburne’s LQBTQIA+ student population.
Find out about clubs, sport, leadership, volunteering, advocacy and the famous Razor Shop at studentlife.edu.au
Swinburne’s Bronze
Based on a points system, organisations who make a submission to the PSI are assessed against: governance and strategy, visibility, education, engagement, and additional work undertaken in the space.
Swinburne brought home the most points for its zero tolerance policy against homophobia, biphobia and transphobia and for providing evidence around promoting visibility within the university’s sporting clubs including spreading messages around asexual awareness week, asexual visibility day, creating a Swinburne Pride Instagram filter, and developing LGBTQIA+ inclusive social media content.
Swinburne Student Life Team Leader of Clubs and Sport, Regan Longfield, said winning the award is all about crating an inclusive environment for everyone.
“We are thrilled to be doing our part to ensure sport is inclusive for everyone at Swinburne. As a sporting nation, we need to ensure people from all backgrounds and genders feel that they can participate in something that brings so many people together and creates a lot of joy,” said Longfield.
“I’m really keen to keep working with the Student Life team and see us earning a gold in the next round of PSI rankings.
“Making a submission to the PSI allows Swinburne to evaluate our own practices for inclusion, but also determine what constitutes good practice and assess ourselves against external measures and other sporting organisations.”
