Paper short abstract:

Mainstream sports policies that promote diversity and inclusion are at times counter-productive. This paper shows why this is so and studies how Queer sport organisations in the Netherlands challenge dominant binary, cis-normative and heterosexist logics in mainstream sports and policy-making.

Paper long abstract:

Well-intended policies that promote diversity and inclusion in the domain of sports and recreation sometimes come with unintended consequences. Policy practitioners (PPs) in this policy domain construct certain “diversity dilemmas” that can impede diversity and inclusion. In their attempts of “doing diversity,” they prioritise certain diversities over others, reproduce bureaucratic classifications, and anticipate contestation regarding target groups that they expect to lead to public debate. Situated examples of such “diversity dilemmas” the authors of this paper highlight are instances where PPs consider the inclusion of trans athletes as conflicting with the ideal of “fairness.” By thus grounding a “diversity dilemma” in the constructed tension between the inclusion of trans athletes on the one hand and the principle of “fairness” on the other, PPs reinforce a hierarchical gender binary, strengthen dominant discourses of competition and winning, and, in doing so, put in place barriers for diversity and inclusion in sports. Based on document analysis and in-depth interviewing with Queer sport organisers and PPs in the Netherlands, this paper demonstrates how Queer sport organisations challenge dominant forms of “doing diversity” in sports. The authors zoom in on critical forms of (Queer) inclusivity that the Queer sports organisers draw on in their efforts to support safe(r) and more inclusive spaces for Queer people to enjoy sports. Exploring the preconditions of Queer-led policy-making and the alternative forms of sporting sociality such policy-making may engender, the authors bring to the fore forms of world-making that foster more inclusive and transformative spaces for sports and recreation.