Here at Dulwich Hamlet we are proud to be at the forefront of making football welcome for all, and continue to take a stance against homophobia in football.

'Football V. Homophobia' are designating February as a month of action to spread the word...and here at Champion Hill we will show our support by running a series of articles throughout the month here on our official Club website.

We have invited JACK SPEARMAN, leading on community initiatives on behalf of the Dulwich Hamlet Supporters Trust to pen the pieces, and here is his first one:

It's February once again which means LGBT History month. One of the key reasons for this month is to help raise awareness on issues affecting the LGBT community and working to make areas such as football clubs a safe space for members of the LGBT community. Whether that be just spectating or volunteering within the club. We have also been active in promoting the work of the 'Football V. Homophobia' campaign.

Last season we focused a lot of work on tackling homophobia in the stands and on the pitch with a number of fantastic initiatives. Back in September 2014 we were one of the first non-league clubs to wear the Rainbow Laces to show our support for the Gay Football Supporters Network. We continued this work into October where alongside FARE we produced two Anti-homophobia banners to support FARE's 'Football People Action Week'. One of these banners is a permanent fixture at Champion Hill and in November the other was presented to our friends in Hamburg at Altona 93 to show both our clubs commitment to eradicating homophobia from football. We also sold a number of button badges with a similar design here and in Hamburg with all donations going to anti homophobia charities such as Education Action Challenging Homophobia.
This work all culminated in February last year for LGBT History month, with two huge events. We had the ground-breaking friendly against Stonewall FC, the Gay World Champions. This was an amazing evening with everyone coming together and raising around £2,000 for Elton John Aids Foundation.
Last but not least was our game against the Met Police where we welcomed members of the LGBT community with free tickets to the game. The work we did received UK wide recognition with articles in publications such as the Guardian, Telegraph and FourFourTwo. I think as club we can be very proud of what we achieved last year.

The work that everyone throughout the Club did on these initiatives, from individual fans, through to the Football Club Committee and the Supporters Trust Board was acknowledged by no less than the Ryman League themselves when Dulwich Hamlet were awarded the Barry East Trophy in reward for all of this type of community work, at last summer's Annual General Meeting of the Isthmian League.

This year a lot of time and focus has been spent on responding to the refugee crisis, from an independent initiative led by some of our fans called 'Dulwich2Dunkirk' to the upcoming friendly with FC Assyria. However that shouldn't mean we don't continue to support and promote this message. For LGBT history month this year we will be publishing an article each week on LGBT history or issues in football to show Dulwich Hamlet's continued solidarity with the LGBT community.