Pictured is GAA Referee and LGBTQ+ advocate David Gough at the launch of SuperValu’s ‘Wear with Pride’ Laces campaign. As part of the initiative and SuperValu’s wider #CommunityIncludesEveryone campaign, rainbow laces will be available to purchase in over 222 SuperValu stores nationwide for Pride month, with proceeds going to support Belong To, LGBTQ+ Youth Ireland. Photograph by ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan
By John Harrington
David Gough believes the GAA has made positive progress in becoming a more inclusive organisation for members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Speaking at the launch of SuperValu’s ‘Wear with Pride’ laces campaign for Pride month 2023, of which Gough himself is an ambassador, the inter-county referee hailed what he believes has been a transformative journey in the last four years.
“I think from 2019 to where we are now that has been the greatest transformation of an Association to do with LGBTQ+ rights,” said Gough.
“To bring in a Diversity and Inclusion officer, to allow us walk in Pride, to allow their biggest sponsor to run a diversity and inclusion campaign for the last three years and build on it so much that we're now in a position where each intercounty team - football, ladies football, camogie and hurling - are going to be given a set of laces to wear. The referees have been handed out their laces as well. And just to see that it has moved on so much in such a positive way is a great thing for me to see personally but also for the Association that it's increasing its visibility within the LGBTQ+ community.
“The GAA, like the LGBTQ+ community, it's a community based organization and they should be doing their best to promote community matters. That's why they have their slogan 'Where we all Belong'. SuperValu have their 'Community includes Everyone'. It's great that the two are marrying on this and have brought in BeLonG To and the LGBTQ+ community because they are all community based organizations and it is for the betterment of Irish society.
“The GAA permeates every level of Irish society no matter of class, social standing, sexuality, religion, race. There is a club in every parish in the country and it has a huge responsibility in its social capital in terms of what it can do to promote change in Irish society and I'm so happy that this is happening finally after all these years that we're seeing a campaign like this being rolled out.”
Research carried out by the GPA in 2022 among 714 inter-county players found that 99% would be supportive of an LGBTQ+ team-mate if they came out.
Yet, despite that, no inter-county male player has done so since former Cork goalkeeper Donal Óg Cusack.
A number of leading inter-county female footballers and camogie players are open about being members of the LGBTQ+ community and 69% of female players are ware of an LGBTQ+ team-mate, while only 10% of male players are.
On Saturday the 25th of June, 2022, the Gaelic Games family encourage all clubs to show their visibility on pride weekend and express solidarity with those who are LGBTQI+. At the launch are GAA President Larry McCarthy, Ard Stiúrthóir of the GAA Tom Ryan, Diversity and Inclusion officer Ger McTavish, Community and Health Manager Colin Regan, Museum Direction Niamh McCoy, Camogie CEO Sinéad McNulty, Kildare Camogie Player Niamh Hegarty, Donal Og Cusack and Maria Kinsella, GPA, Ladies Gaelic Football CEO Helen O’Rourke, Dublin player Hannah Tyrell, referee David Gough, National Development Officer Vinny Wheelan, Dublin Pride Chairperson and Director Philippa Ryder and Grand Marshal for the Parade Rachel McCoy, GAA Communications, GAA Museum and GAA operations Staff during the GAA, LGFA, Camogie, GPA- Walk with us with PRIDE activity at Croke Park in Dublin. The Gaelic Games Associations would like to invite all to walk with then in Dublin Pride Parade on Saturday, June 25. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
That suggests there’s still a reticence among male players to be honest about their sexuality if they identify as LGBTQ+, which Gough puts down to a still prevalent fear factor.
“Nobody has broken the mould just yet and there is that fear that they are going to be treated somehow differently,” he says. “When I was growing up, there was no available role models for me to look up to within Irish sport or world sport. We’re in a situation where if I asked you to name five out international male sportstars, you’re going to struggle.
“That’s not the case for female athletes around the world but also in Ireland where we have lesbian athletes within elite sport, soccer, Gaelic games, rugby, boxing, equestrian, the list goes on. But we don’t have them in male sports and it’s just around that fear particularly in teams sports and how they’re going to be treated and received.
“Knowing so many of the inter-county players and the set-ups that they have, I don’t think there would be an issue at all anymore. I used to feel that the dressing room scenario might be causing difficulty with the banter but I’m not sure that culture really exists around the inter-county set-up.
“I think they would be very open and very welcome in having someone from the LGBTQ+ community as part of the team but maybe that would be better answered by some of the players.
“They’re there. I know they’re there. They’re there among Gaelic games, they’re there among League of Ireland as well but maybe they don’t want their private life crossing into the public domain.
“Maybe they don’t want to be that role model, they’re quite happy to play their matches and exist and have their private life as their own and that’s fine. Maybe they don’t feel the need to do it but I feel for younger people coming through that visibility is key.
“There’s also the issue around young LGBT men dropping out of sport. Even though they’re quite capable, they drop out quite early maybe because they don’t like the type of environment or maybe the perceived attitudes towards them in the community. There are a number of things at play, it’s not just a simple answer.”
Inter-county GAA referee David Gough, his mother Jacinta and dad Eugene and singer-songwriter and author Brian Kennedy, right, among the GAA group during the Dublin Pride Parade 2019 at O'Connell Street in Dublin. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
Gough’s own lived experience of being a role model for the LGBTQ+ community whilst also having a high profile in Gaelic games has been a positive one.
Not only does he feel empowered by the support he’s gotten from others in the Association, he also believes it enabled him to become a better referee.
“I never intended to be a role model but when you’re put in the spotlight and one of the few to come out you end up in a situation where you have a responsibility to talk about these issues to try and advance them within the GAA,” he says.
“I have received nothing but the height of praise from the GAA public, GAA fans, teams, managers and my own colleagues in the refereeing community.
“It can be sometimes difficult to be the one that is always banging on the door of the GAA with my rainbow flag looking for more and trying to advance matters. It was wonderful when Ger McTavish came in as a Diversity and Inclusion officer because I felt a great weight lifted off me in that I no longer needed to be that person to be pushing issues within the Association.
“She’s taken up the mantle and she’s doing wonderful work. From a role model’s point of view, everything is positive and it has probably helped me to progress my career within refereeing also.
“I spoke at length about this to John Horan. I can remember sitting in the President's box àfter the All-Ireland final in 2019, and I was almost in tears explaining to him the sort of self-confidence that came from the self-acceptance and that self-acceptance coming from the GAA. That they had finally accepted me and were willing not only accept me but to publicly put me out there as someone we're very proud of.
“I was allowed go on the Late Late Show and then to walk in Pride, that gave me a huge swelling of self-confidence. We often talk, particularly where I work in a school, that people say they want to bring their full selves to work.
“It should be no different on the football field. As a human being, I should be bringing my full self to my job as a referee. In 2019, that was the first time I was allowed do that. I definitely saw a big jump in the standard my refereeing that year.”