Having prided ourselves on making our football club a safe and inclusive environment in which everyone in our community can enjoy football here at AESSEAL New York Stadium, Rotherham United are delighted to be pledging our support to the Rainbow Laces and National Hate Crime Awareness Week campaigns.
The Millers are utilising Saturday's televised Sky Bet Championship fixture with Huddersfield Town to showcase our support for the campaigns and raise awareness of the need to make the sport a game for everyone.
Across the country and the majority of the world, we have made great strides in order to allow individuals to flourish and reach their full potential, but as per Stonewall’s mantra the work will continue until everyone from an LGBTQ+ background feels free to be themselves and live their lives to the full.
As always, players from both teams will have the option of outwardly displaying their support by lacing up their boots with Stonewall’s rainbow laces, with the Millers skipper donning a multicoloured armband for the fixture whilst all four corners of AESSEAL New York Stadium will be adorned by rainbow coloured corner flags.
Of course, here at Rotherham United, we are determined to stamp out all forms of discrimination and hate crime, not just from our game but society as a whole.
This is why, as well as supporting Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign, we are also promoting the good work of South Yorkshire Police and charities such as Remedi during National Hate Crime Awareness Week.
National Hate Crime Awareness Week takes place between the 8th and 15th October and aims to bring people together in order to stand in solidarity with those affected by hate crime and educate people on the different types of discrimination.
Players from our first team squad have been keen to show their support to SYP’s ‘Hate Hurts’ initiative aimed at openly encouraging everyone to stand up and challenge all forms of hate and discrimination.
As part of their ongoing efforts to highlight the need to end social injustice in our society, and indeed, across the world, our first team players will be taking a knee before every game for a third successive season.
Within the squad there remains a committee that believe that the message of the need for equality that the gesture carries is still very much relevant and they will continue to take a knee until such time that they no longer believe it will have an impact.
