Historically within sport there has been a noticeable exclusion of the Rainbow community. Previous research shows that instances of homophobia, sexism, and transphobia are widespread within most sporting contexts. To redress these issues, sports organisations are increasingly expected to promote social inclusion in local communities by creating and enforcing equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) policies, and through leading by example in their own practices. 

Applying the concept of Big ‘D’, little ‘d’ discourses (Gee, 2015), this project examines how wider social Discourses related to gender and sexuality are reproduced in everyday talk within a sports organisation. By analysing language use within this setting, we gain a deeper understanding of how, and potentially why, Discourses of transphobia, homophobia, and sexism are still prevalent. 

Using approaches from Linguistic Ethnography, particularly those developed by the Wellington Language in the Workplace Project, and working in collaboration with a regional sports organisation in New Zealand over a period of 3 months, my analysis draws on a dataset comprised of ethnographic fieldnotes, workplace documents, and ca. 25 hours of audio-visual recordings of naturally occurring workplace interactions (e.g., office small talk and team meetings) alongside follow-up and debriefing interviews with participants. Initial findings suggest that despite EDI policies and guidelines that emphasise inclusion, at a micro level there are recurring discourses of exclusion on the basis of gender, age, and status, each indexing and reinforcing wider societal Discourses of discrimination. While this organisation makes a public commitment to inclusion in sport, I argue that they are trying to build a house on cracked foundations.