We Care About Not Caring: Jack's Story

Our We Care About Not Caring Campaign continues with stories from Team UOP members. This campaign aims to provide insight into the lives and experiences of members of the LGBTQIA+ community. These honest stories are an example of how sports and physical activity can play a part in providing a sense of belonging and combatting feelings of anxiety. We want to raise awareness for these stories and of the issues they look to challenge. These personal stories are powerful and should start up conversations between you and your friends, family, and teammates. We have also supplied a number of resources below if you are affected by this story.

Tell us about you...

Hey! I’m Jack, I'm 21 years old and I'm a final year undergraduate international business student. Although starting university in the middle of the pandemic, I've been fortunate enough to undertake a study abroad, a placement year and now sit my final year in Portsmouth whilst being a part of UoP Swim + Water Polo.

Have you ever felt or experienced a negative situation due to your sexuality/gender identity within your sport? How did the people around react?

Fortunately for me, I haven’t, people may have passed comments and at times my confident self has taken a step back to avoid attracting attention to myself. I like to think my sport is quite inclusive, people from all backgrounds are welcome.

What do you think Team UoP clubs and members can do better to make their LGBTQIA+ and transgender teammates feel safer within their sport?

To make teammates feel safer and more supported, clubs and members definitely need to promote inclusion and get people talking to each other! At times I find myself being quite shy around boys to begin with as I automatically think they’re not going to be interested in talking to me or just think that I fancy them. But once we start chatting everything is normal!!

If you could meet your younger self what advice would you give yourself?

If I could give myself younger advice I’d definitely just say stick to what you’re doing and continue to have a strong mindset. I’ve consistently tried to do what I think will be best for me and haven’t let anything change that. Being confident and going into your sport is the best way to approach a situation, don’t worry about what people think!