Ibrox Pride: Supporters group spreading message that football is for all

One of Scotland’s leading LGBTQ+ supporters clubs admits it still feels unsafe for their community to attend football matches but says strides have been made to tackle homophobia in the stands.

Ibrox Pride is the official LGBTQ+ fans group of Rangers and aims to spread the message that the beautiful game is open to everyone.

Set up five years ago, the group has provided a place and a voice for its members and a welcome place for people who might have otherwise found going to watch football to be too much of an intimidating prospect.

Patrick Ba-Tin, the group’s secretary, told STV News they wanted to show that football stadiums could be a place for all.

“We sort of provided a safe space to be together without that sort of maybe laddish culture or negative culture that sometimes comes alongside football,” he explained. “I think sometimes these spaces seem really intimidating or like that they’re not for us.

“And that’s obviously not true at all. Everybody likes sport. I often hear this, that gay people don’t like football or don’t like rugby or whatever. That’s just entirely not true.”

The group’s co-chair Clara McKechnie found the group when she suffered abuse on a trip to watch her team.

“I’ve been a season ticket holder at Ibrox since 2021 and I had been going at the games just on my own since moving to Glasgow,” McKechnie said.

“I joined Ibrox Pride actually after an incident at one of the games where I was, sort of homophobically abused, and I reported that to the club and to Ibrox Pride and that’s when they were there to really support me through that.

“It made me feel safe in continuing to come to games at a time that could have made me sort of fall out of my love for football and this club.”

The group were invited as special guests of the club at their recent Premiership match against St Mirren where Rangers dedicated the game to Football v Homophobia’ campaign.’s month of action, and the group’s flag was seen flying above Ibrox.

However, replies to a social media post from the club displaying the flag showed that bigotry is still a very real issue for the game and for the fans.

Rangers’ head of fan engagement Greg Marshall emphasised the club’s commitment to making Ibrox a place for everyone and anyone, and applauded the group for their efforts.

“We’re all Rangers in here,” he said. “Everyone getting together.

“The fact that over the last couple of years you’ve seen the growth of Ibrox Pride and the work that they do. It’s really impressive.

“We as a football club want our fans come to see the team and enjoy themselves as much as they can.”

While there have been major steps forward in attitudes in recent years, and Ibrox Pride have made their own significant contribution at their club, the group still stress that there is a long way to go.

“It’s certainly better,” Ha-Tin said. “You certainly hear a lot less than of any sort of hate crime compared to what you used to.

“It’s obviously not perfect just yet.

“And it comes up and down in waves and, maybe we are going for a bit of a tougher time now than we were maybe two or three years ago. “

McKechnie agreed, and added that the club’s backing and support was important and positive as everyone looks to make progress.

“I think what I would say is people still feel unsafe coming to games,” she said.

“So whether or not is better or worse, the perception is that it’s not safe for some people to come to.

“We need to be here to change that perception.

“We’ve got close links with the club, so if anything ever happened that made anyone feel unsafe, we can speak to the supporters’ liaison officers like, immediately.

“And we need people to set an example and really show that, you know, homophobia is unacceptable and that LGBT people belong in sport and belong in football.”

This article is part of a series from STV Sport marking LGBTQ+ History Month, examining the current climate within Scottish football.