“We are a sport for all Australian's” : exploring the non-performativity of institutional speech acts around LGBTI+ diversity in Australian sporting organisations

![CDATA[LGBTI+ rights have been widely discussed in Australian society. The recent postal survey surrounding marriage equality resulted in many sporting organisations making public 'institutional speech acts' (Ahmed, 2012) surrounding their commitment to LBTI+ diversity. This paper explores the non-performativity of several leading sports organisations' institutional speech acts and their commitment to LGBTI+ diversity; drawing upon the work of Ahmed (2012; 2017) and Cunningham (2008; 2011 a; 2011 b; Melton & Cunningham, 2014). This paper reports on social media and policy analyses of the organisations and their public support and institutional commitment to LGBTI+ diversity. We find that the claims made by several sporting organisations around their institutional commitment to LGBTI+ diversity have not been supported by actions. The disjuncture is particularly apparent when national benchmarking criteria, such as the Pride in Sport Index are considered. This paper argues that the organisations are playing 'institutional catch up' regarding their commitment to LGBTI+ diversity. Here, there are distinct differences between what the institution says they do, and what they actually do. We argue that a lack of institutional commitment to LGBTI+ diversity is displayed through 'non- performative institutional speech acts' (Ahmed, 2006; Bury, 2015). These speech acts are not supported by deeds, have no impact, and serve to contradict the public commitment to LGBTI+ diversity. We conclude by contending that if sports organisations are to improve their Pride in Sport Index scores, they must enact policies which seek to make their sport more inclusive for LGBTI+ Australians across all levels of sport.]]