This Sunday the Sydney Swans will compete in the eighth official AFL Pride Game for premiership points when they take on St Kilda at Marvel Stadium.
The Swans played Fremantle in the first ever AFL Pride Game in the pre-season of 2015 at Drummoyne Oval. The following year, the club joined St Kilda in playing an in-season Pride Game in Melbourne, then reciprocated hosting the match in 2017 – which marked the first Pride Game in Sydney for premiership points.
Pride Game is a celebration of diversity with inclusion the key focus of the game- 'Everyone is Welcome at the footy'.
Premier Partner HSBC are the official Pride Partner of the Sydney Swans and have this week launched their 'Take Pride in your language campaign - ensuring that people are inclusive and supportive of everyone and can ensure everyone feels safe and welcome at the footy.
LGBTIQA+ Pride is one of the pillars of the club's Diversity Action Plan which was first launched in 2017 and a new DAP was launched in October 2022.
The first of its kind in the AFL, the DAP is a joint initiative of Sydney’s Board, staff, players and community leaders to formalise meaningful commitments in four key areas: disability empowerment, multicultural inclusion, the advancement of women, and LGBTIQA+ pride. It is a roadmap of commitments aimed at strengthening our club and our connection to community through genuine advocacy.
Through the DAP the club work with likeminded organisations who can offer guidance to help us maximise our impact, like Twenty10.
Twenty10 is organisation focused on delivering services for young LGBTIQA+ people. Twenty10 is the largest and longest-running organisation in NSW that works with young LGBTIQA+ people. The organisation provides a range of services including housing, counselling, social support groups and programs. 2024 will be the third year the Swans have paired with Twenty10.
The club also has an official LGBTIQA+ supporter group - The Rainbow Swans.
The AFL team will wear a new Pride Guernsey for Pride Game this Sunday. The eye-catching new guernsey includes all the colours of pride progress as well as retaining the pride rainbow from the club’s original Pride guernsey. The confetti design across the guernsey honours the shapes, history and heritage of the clubs guernsey while celebrating pride.
In 2024, the club also marched for the seventh time in the Mardi Gras Parade after being the first professional sporting team to march in 2018.
