Charity launches LGBTQ+ football sessions

Jack Ingrouille hopes the sessions will allow everyone an opportunity "to play a sport they love in an environment that embraces them"

A charity in Guernsey has launched inclusive open to all football sessions.

LGBTQ+ charity Liberate said the sessions would start off as a six-a-side weekly social kick-about but if interest was there it would look to join a league.

Volunteer Jack Ingrouille pitched the idea to the charity and said "it's essential for football and all sports to provide spaces where people of all identities can feel included and safe".

The first free session starts on 14 August between 19:00 and 20:30 BST at the Le Mare playing fields.

Jack, who uses they and them as personal pronouns, said they hoped to form a club in the future that was welcome to everybody and was "steered by those who become a part of it".

They said the idea of starting the football club appealed because they were "desperate to get back to playing football" but were anxious about the environments they used to be a part of.

"I felt I needed to play football in an environment where I know I am accepted and where I can wear my identities on the badge.

"That includes my non-binary identity, but also as someone who is neurodivergent and has chronic mental health issues."

They added they wanted the club "to be a place where people of all genders, all abilities, and all identities can come and play a sport they love in an environment that embraces them".