British Cycling and HSBC (and diversity in cycling)

[brommers]

And, although I didn't keep the numbers for this, we had getting on for 20% lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual participation.

How do you know this? did you ask them to fill out a form, or put their hands up asking them about their sexuality, and if you did why? what relevance has it to do with cycling? How would anyone know the sexuality of another rider unless they disclosed it? Where does the discimmination/prejudice come in to it?

 

[S-Express]

How do you know this? did you ask them to fill out a form, or put their hands up asking them about their sexuality, and if you did why? what relevance has it to do with cycling? How would anyone know the sexuality of another rider unless they disclosed it? Where does the discimmination/prejudice come in to it?

More to the point - who gives a sh1t?

 

[swansonj]

More to the point - who gives a sh1t?

Possibly, I would suggest, anyone who really believed:

... that equality and diversity run through pretty much everything that BC does at grass roots level - and rightly so.....

 

[S-Express]

To me though (and to a lot of others too, I suspect) equality and diversity are just things that happen while we are busy getting kids on bikes. I suspect that is the position that we should all be aiming for. I personally have no interest in anyone's skin colour or sexual orientation. Maybe you and others here should try looking at it that way.

 

[swansonj]

To me though (and to a lot of others too, I suspect) equality and diversity are just things that happen while we are busy getting kids on bikes. I suspect that is the position that we should all be aiming for. I personally have no interest in anyone's skin colour or sexual orientation. Maybe you and others here should try looking at it that way.

And that is what I think it is that you don't get. If you think that I&D are things that "just happen" - then they won't happen.

 

[S-Express]

And that is what I think it is that you don't get. If you think that I&D are things that "just happen" - then they won't happen.

They happen if you have a mindset which sees past disability, colour and other overt signs of 'difference'. Sounds like you still have some way to go, unfortunately.

 

[swansonj]

They happen if you have a mindset which sees past disability, colour and other overt signs of 'difference'. Sounds like you still have some way to go, unfortunately.

Oh, I readily acknowledge that I have a long way to go on my own I&D journey. But, probably, not in the direction you are suggesting

 

[velovoice]

How do you know this? did you ask them to fill out a form, or put their hands up asking them about their sexuality, and if you did why? what relevance has it to do with cycling? How would anyone know the sexuality of another rider unless they disclosed it? Where does the discimmination/prejudice come in to it?

Because we chat? Because we're friends? See each other socially? Meet each other's significant others, children, etc?

No, no one has ever filled out a questionnaire. There are other ways of knowing stuff.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I'm effectively standing up for BC against a group of people

Personally I don't think you are being very effective at all.

 

[S-Express]

Incorrect interpretation of the word 'effective'. Having said that, I don't feel that my assessment of them is inaccurate in any way. You are obviously free to differ.

 

[Dogtrousers]

More to the point - who gives a sh1t?

I do, for one.

If the Fridays was yet another collection of sinewy blokes droning on about bikes then I wouldn't be a member. Whether @dellzeqq engineered it to work out that way it has, or whether it "just happened" I don't know. But I do care.

 

[S-Express]

But I do care.

You care about the diversity of the riding group. If it wasn't diverse enough, would you not go with them?

 

[Dogtrousers]

You care about the diversity of the riding group. If it wasn't diverse enough, would you not go with them?

I ride with them because it is a brilliant club.

If it wasn't so diverse it probably would not be much good. It would probably be like some other clubs that I've known - consisting largely of sinewy blokes droning on about bikes. Nothing wrong with that, and (for me at least) not an actually bad experience. But not very interesting.

 

[coffeejo]

You care about the diversity of the riding group. If it wasn't diverse enough, would you not go with them?

Sincere apologies if this is a rhetorical analogy if we're not meant to answer but I've done the whole "young woman joins a club and becomes the only female member *and* the only one under fifty to participate* thing and while I've don't have a problem with men over the age of fifty (a good number of them are even my friends), it's not easy being the odd one out. And talking of out, it's also difficult not knowing if you're the only one who is LGBT and what their response will be if you say that you are. (And yes, there have been times when I've had the should I / shouldn't I debate with myself and then heard someone make a homophobic "joke" which nobody condemned, and been grateful that I kept my mouth shut.)

 

[S-Express]

No offence, but you two seem obsessed by what divides us, as opposed to what unites us. Cycling clubs are all about cycling (or at least they should be - yours are obviously the exception) - if you are riding a bike, then that should be all thats matters.

I'm trying hard to sympathise with you, but I can't help thinking that the issues you mention could all be easily be resolved by you simply 'not giving a sh1t what anyone else thinks and getting on with your life in any way you like.'