Promoting Unity in Diversity Through Integration of LGBTIQ+ Issues at the Borders of Classrooms and Sports Fields: Be Different Together Through Our Differences!

Introduction

Parity, unity, diversity, discrimination and inclusion are five sides of a dilemma where abandoning stereotypes leads to the emergence of new stereotypes. Even in the Olympian context. However, practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind, is a human right and a Fundamental Principle of the Olympic Movement, the International Olympic Committee (IOC). To build bridges between people and communities, inclusion, diversity and equality are all integral components of the work of the IOC, with non-discrimination being one of the founding pillars of the Olympic Movement, which is reflected in the principle 4 of the Olympic Charter:

In spite of the discourses that structure the norms to be valued within sports cultures, an educational masterpiece is constantly to be developed with the youngest populations who are struggling with a double existential challenge: on the one hand to be by adults through the achievement of optimal performance and on the other hand by themselves in connection with the emergence of a sexual identity that can take different forms. When the “Plays of Love” meet the “Games of Love”, psychosocial changes are to be taken into account when the bodies of adolescents are the seat of physiological upheavals. In this chapter we are particularly interested in these cultural spaces that welcome adolescents to enable them to practice physical activity for competitive, fun and/or educational purposes. The notion of reception is particularly questioned with regard in particular to adolescents “Transgender and Gender Nonconforming” who need specific psychosocial support adapted to understanding the dynamics underlying the emergence of minority sexual orientations among adolescents. It is from a multicultural context specific to Belgium that we will first focus on two essential missions that sports cultures cannot ignore: sports education and sexual education. This will be an opportunity to question the relevance of the acronym LGBTIQ+ that does not forget the singularities of the development of adolescent sexual orientations. This will then be an opportunity in a second time to consider that the “person with minority sexual orientations” is the future of sporting humanity when they become assumed and singular. After the presentation of some Francophone and Flemish recommendations that are at work in Belgium, the conclusions of this chapter will propose the opening of a space of possibilities towards a new relationship with the body and the technology that allows us to redraw the joints between the masculine and the feminine. Thus, the metaphor of the Cyber Athlete offers an interface where a creature of “social reality” and a creature of “imaginary reality” rub shoulders. Surely a solid bridge to connect the unity and the diversity of transsexualities and trans@sexualities. Described as a hybrid and transitional sexuality, which bridges cybersexuality and incarnated sexuality, these emerging forms of trans@sexualities influence the metamorphoses of contemporary gender identity (Tordo, 2020). Thus, we will conclude our remarks, by way of opening this chapter to other perspectives that are developing in sports cultures and school cultures around the dimensions of digital humanities and augmented reality. It will then be an opportunity to work in anticipation in order to identify new obstacles or new resources that will allow optimal support for adolescents in their quests to achieve a successful identity transition.