Everton is continuing to demonstrate its commitment to equality and diversity by becoming one of the first football clubs to sign up as a Stonewall Diversity Champion.

Stonewall is Europe’s leading charity for lesbian, gay, bi and trans equality, working with more than 750 organisations to help them further strengthen their commitment to the LGBT+ community and ensure they offer an environment where everyone can be themselves.

As Stonewall Diversity Champions, Everton and its official charity, Everton in the Community, will receive expert consultation from Stonewall, and together will review current polices, practices and staff training. Staff will also have access to best practice case studies and seminars, resources and toolkits, and Everton will be listed on the Proud Employers careers site.

The announcement of the Club and charity’s engagement with Stonewall comes as people across the world prepare to mark International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia on Sunday 17 May.

Everton recently achieved the Advanced Level of the Premier League Equality Standard (PLES) and signing up to Stonewall’s Diversity Champions programme is part of the Club’s continuing commitment to ‘All Together Now’, ensuring equality and inclusion for all. 

In December 2018 Everton launched ‘All Together Now’, its campaign to celebrate diversity and increase awareness of everything done by the Club and Everton in the Community to promote equality.

The successful campaign is part of Everton’s brand presence online and on matchdays. Through the campaign the Club has achieved a number of firsts, such as becoming the first Premier League club to be named a Disability Confident employer, the first professional English club to use its Women’s team to launch a kit and the first football club in England to register its buildings as breastfeeding friendly, signing up to the Babies and Mums Breastfeeding Information and Support Initiative (‘Bambis’) Quality Mark.

Everton supports Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign each season, where rainbow armbands are worn by team captains, while a Rainbow Laces pitch flag, rainbow-coloured ball plinths, corner flags and substitution boards are used to back the initiative.

Everton and Everton in the Community also take part in the annual Liverpool City Region Pride celebration and the Club works closely with Rainbow Toffees, an Everton Supporters Club for the LGBT+ community. The Club and its official charity have also recently launched an LGBT+ network for staff.

Kim Healey, People Director at Everton Football Club, said: “As ‘The People’s Club’, we are proud to become a Stonewall Diversity Champion. Everton is a football family that is open to all, and we are committed to embedding inclusivity into everything we do.

“We are looking forward to taking our commitment to the LGBT+ community to the next level by learning from and working with Stonewall, incorporating their best practice into everything we do. We want to continue to ensure that everybody that comes into contact with our Club and charity feels welcomed and can be themselves.”  

Robbie de Santos, Stonewall’s Director of Sport, said: "We are thrilled to welcome Everton as Stonewall Diversity Champions. We’ve seen lots of progress on LGBT inclusion from across football with our Rainbow Laces campaign, but to make this last we need organisations to step up and show their commitment to supporting LGBT communities throughout their work. That’s what Everton have done today. We look forward to working with them to help further LGBT equality across football, and help make sport everyone’s game."