Perth Parrots Floorball Club played a starring role in this year’s Festival Fortnight.
Festival Fortnight (FF), co-ordinated by LEAP Sports, takes place annually and aims to increase the visibility and participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) people in Scottish sport.
Spanning the last two weeks of June each year, the festival encourages clubs and groups to host events and activities which encourage participation and celebrate inclusion in sport.
Perth Parrots hosted its first event in 2019 and, four years on, the club has grown in both size and influence.
They hosted four events to include a floorball taster session, Parrots Fitness session which involved an informal game of softball and finished with a Sunday hike up Kinnoull Hill.
The “real jewel” in the crown among the Parrots offerings this year was the film premiere of the club’s new short film “Every Time We Play, We Win”.
Every Time We Play, We Win, was made possible thanks to match funding awarded to the club by the ALDI Community Fund and features footage from Parrots training and footage taken during the Scottish Floorball League game with Aberdeen University.
The film also heavily features talking heads from Parrots’ members Frazer Robertson, Rosey Iles, Atlas Martin and Kirsty Welling, who share their experiences of the club and what it means to them.
Frazer, chair of the Perth Parrots, said: “The Parrots sought to commission the film with the goal of helping highlight the importance of an LGBTIQ+ inclusive club in a more rural setting like Perthshire. We hope it helps provide an insight into the sense of community we have created among our flock.
“We are also pleased to see the sport we have come to love feature in the hope it encourages others to take to the rink.”
Hugh Torrance, chair of Leap Sports Scotland, said: “LGBTIQ+ people’s participation levels in sport are comparatively poor.
“A multitude of barriers, often compounded by negative experiences as young people, can mean that sport often doesn’t feel like a welcoming place for LGBTIQ+ people.
“Having visible sports groups and role models encourages our community to be more active, take up running, kick a ball and pick up that floorball stick. It also shows the wider sporting community that we can play and we can excel in sport.
“Perth Parrots are a shining example of positive LGBTIQ+ sporting visibility in the Perthshire community, competing in the Scottish floorball league, and being part of Team Scotland at this year’s EuroGames in Bern.”
Gemma Simpson, sports development officer at Live Active Leisure, added: “Inclusion in sport is all about removing barriers to participation, and when coupled with pro-active behaviours, initiatives and actions, local people from different backgrounds, as well as different abilities will feel welcome, respected and safe in the knowledge that they belong in that club space.
“From working with Perth Parrots Floorball Club for a number of years, inclusion is what the club excels at, and the reason why we identified their club to join our new Sport for Change network.”
