Darren Yates and Ellie Yates, who were instrumental in forming Rainbow Spireites, are working to help members of the LGBTQ+ community feel welcome at games.
Darren explained: “Our main aim is to be that safe space for LGBTQ+ supporters, who don’t want to come to the game on their own.
“It is also to be a critical friend of the club to help them reach into the community more.
“A group like this can really help fans feel welcome at games, and not have to worry about feeling alone or unwelcome.
“Everyone at the club has been brilliant and totally supportive. We were at Chesterfield Pride and the response was really good. People were saying that they were really happy to see the group being formed.”
Outlining plans for the future, Ellie said: “We’re hoping that now we’ve started getting a few members on board, we can start doing some meet-ups and talk to our members to see what they want to get out of the group as well.
“We’ve joined a regional alliance with some LGBTQ+ supporters’ groups. At the moment, we’re just letting people know we’re there and once we’ve got more members, we’ll look at pre-match meet-ups to encourage fans who might not feel safe enough going to games.”
Anyone who would like to get involved with Rainbow Spireites is urged to contact the group online.
“The social media pages have been set up with Twitter being the most engaged one at the moment. Go to @Rainbowspireites, where Chester is pictured signing up as one of our members!
“The membership link is pinned and it’s quite quick to fill in the form online.”
The membership link can also be accessed here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf9tf-VA08Dj0RghpHHebIDZ9oRBDK8Cc9RCiAXv0Qo8od_Yg/viewform?pli=1
