‘I felt lonely in sports’

Richard Morris is one of the people behind the creation of Racing Pride. The pilot spoke about the reasons for founding the initiative that seeks to engage the LGBTQ+ community in motorsports and how it all began.

June is known as LGBTQ + Pride Month. With this in mind, Aston Martin has announced a partnership with Racing Pride in F1 and will lead several initiatives to raise awareness and inclusion in the sport. Also, this weekend, at the French Grand Prix, he will have the initiative logo on his chassis.

Morris, a British pilot, was the one who came up with the idea to create the expedition. The competitor, a member of the community, stated that he felt like the only LGBTQ+ in motorsport, even though the scenario wasn’t real, and decided to change reality.

“I wanted to start Racing Pride because as a driver, I didn’t feel like I could carry myself into the sport in general, except for some people around me, until I had been in motorsport for a while. I hid who I would try to adapt to the sport. My friend just avoids talking about relationships.” F1MANIA.

“When I was growing up, I didn’t have successful models of LGBTQ+ pilots, and even Danny Watts and Hurley Haywood, who had recently come out, did so after their retirement. I was worried about whether some people would accept me, fearing that I wouldn’t fit in with the image that was The driver is supposed to get it for the teams, sponsors and fans.”

“I felt very isolated because I am the only gay in sports and I realized I didn’t have to be. I also think that most people in sports are really good, tolerant and receptive – we just needed to provide more visibility, open up conversations and make it easier, and give people a way to show support to members of a community The meme”.

“Other sports here in the UK such as football and rugby have already been involved in campaigns such as Stonewall’s Rainbow Lasso, but there was nothing like this in motorsports directly related to the sport before Racing Pride,” he added.

“So I posted on my social media about being gay in sports: how it wasn’t easy and how I thought it would be cool to have something to promote LGBTQ+ inclusion in motorsport. This caught the attention of some of the people working on integrating the sports community. And we started having some meetings including Stonewall UK, and we came up with the idea for Racing Pride.” F1MANIA.