"Sports hold the potential to help us let go of the ideas and prejudices we have about each other."

Denmark is taking a stand against homophobia in sports with a multimedia campaign involving top male and female football players.

The Danish Football Association has teamed up with the Players Association, Amnesty International Denmark, LGBT Denmark, and Danish Football Fan Clubs on the campaign, which includes players wearing rainbow armbands and shoe laces, and appearing in rainbow face paint on bus posters. Members of pro teams also marched in Copenhagen Pride in August.

Stolte over at jer i @koebenhavner kan se landshold sige fra overfor homofobi i nyt samarbejde https://t.co/NCdIjqWiYy #FodboldForAlle pic.twitter.com/zbC7CqtaIw — Dansk Boldspil-Union (@DBUfodbold) August 28, 2017

“We want to send a clear message to everyone in the football world, ” said FC Copenhagen captain Mathias “Zanka” Jørgensen, who is participating in the #FootballForAll campaign. “Homophobia is a problem that we must take seriously. We are very happy that we can thus contribute to the fight against it.”

“I do not understand how we can have a stadium of 25,000 people screaming homophobic or sexist slurs, and everyone just shakes their head,” Joergensen told Reuters. He hopes the campaign makes inroads against homophobic chants, as well as in the locker room and on the field.

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Søren Laursen, chairman of LBGT Denmark, says targeting football is a way to reach a broad section of society: “In sports associations, Danes cross the normal dividing lines we have in society. Sports hold the potential to help us let go of the ideas and prejudices we have about each other.”

He adds that getting pro teams and big players involved “is a signal to the whole sporting community to follow suit.”