– Melike Berker contributed to this report
The “Stamp It Out” campaign is a nationwide campaign to prevent prejudice behaviour within university sports clubs, which the University of Lincoln has now adopted.
The campaigned launched on Friday, February 1st, 2013 with the University of Lincoln Students’ Union team letting off 500 balloons outside the SOAP centre.
Support for Stamp It Out has been gained through council meetings, sports clubs, the annual AGM, social media and there are also “Stamp it Out” t-shirts on sale.
Student Christopher James stated that his team “were encouraged to wear the t-shirts even when we’re playing match fixtures at other universities” which shows how strongly members feel about such issues.
He goes on to comment on the power and significance of the student population, “the whole university needs to become involved”.
Sarah Harris and Ben Henderson, members of the university’s canoe and kayak club, argued that there has “never been a problem” within their team, however it is a “positive way to alter attitudes on homophobia whilst concentrating on the sportive aspect”.
Those affected by the issue also raise some good points on the campaign. Liz Thomas, a member of the Lincoln’s LBGT group, said: “It goes beyond politics. It makes the university tackle the fundamental issues and doing this via a mass of the student population and tackling the strong demographic is important.”
Further details about the Stamp It Out campaign, including how to sign the online pledge, are available on the Lincoln SU website.