LGBT+ Inclusion in Sports Media (with Jon Holmes)

Richmond Til We Die: A Ted Lasso Podcast

Welcome back to the Crown & Anchor, Greyhounds! In this episode Christian and Brett have a conversation with journalist Jon Holmes. Jon is the founder of Sports Media LGBT+, an organization that advocates for inclusion in media and journalism specifically, and sports in general.
Jon is an experienced journalist and writer, and for many years led Sky Sports’ support for Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign. He launched Sports Media LGBT+ in August 2017 with the idea to harness the power of media and journalism in order to advocate for and amplify the voices of athletes, coaches, officials, administrators, and all others involved in sport who are LGBT+.
In our conversation with Jon, we discussed the origins of Sports Media LGBT+, inclusion in sports media, supporters groups, and football clubs in general, as well as the recent coverage of 17-year-old Jake Daniels, the Blackpool FC midfielder who became the UK’s first active male professional footballer to come out publicly as gay in May 2022.
Of course, Jon is also a fan of Ted Lasso, so we took some time to chat with him about his love for the show, its lack of representation when it comes to gay and queer characters, and the ways in which Ted Lasso (the show and the character) helps to address and dismantle toxic masculinity in sport.
Full show notes can be found on our website: https://www.tedlassopod.com/jon-holmes-sports-media-lgbt-ted-lasso
Richmond Til We Die is an episode-by-episode conversation about the Apple TV+ show Ted Lasso, where we explore the characters, their relationships to each other, and how they're able to make us laugh until we can hardly breathe one moment and then feel with the deepest parts of our hearts the next. When you're here, you're a Greyhound!