Play With Heart: A Campaign to Make Sports Safe and Welcoming for All
- Ren Dawe
- May 5
- 4 min read
You Can Play is excited to launch a Pride effort like no other in the sports industry: the Play with Heart Campaign, designed with education, safety, and cultural shift in mind.
What is the Play With Heart campaign?
The Play With Heart campaign is the world’s only Pride swag line that doubles as educational outreach—each item features a QR code linking directly to resources that help keep LGBTQ+ athletes safe in sports.
Adopted by professional teams and rooted in lived athletic experience, these high-quality, ethically made materials aren’t just rainbow-soaked merch—they’re conversation starters, policy tools, de-escalation strategies, and symbols of solidarity. Whether you're on the field or in the stands, Play With Heart sends a clear message: LGBTQ+ people belong in every game, every league, and every locker room.
Origins of Play With Heart
When I came out as trans in the middle of my rafting career, I was terrified of how my peers might react. Though I was fortunate that my fellow raft guides supported me and my transition, we all had to tread with caution to keep me safe just for living authentically.
At times, my colleagues had to conceal my identity because we all understood the risks—being "out" could cost me my job, my sport, maybe even my life, and the thing I loved most: being out on the water, helping people, and chasing the next best wave.
One of my fellow guides once said something to me after a commercial trip that requested no women or queer guides be assigned to their group, only to have me (a trans man) as the only available Trip Leader and main point of safety, and the one most qualified for the job. The raft guides on that trip had to omit my identity very carefully, and I had to hide my compression top under a few layers of neoprene, and pray that nobody noticed if my voice cracked while barking safety instructions before we hit the water.
"It’s so unfair you have to live this way,” he said, “when you’re out there, you just give it everything you have. Who cares who you paddle for, or what’s under your PFD? You’re out there paddling with your whole heart."
That comment stuck with me—and ultimately shaped my path. When I retired from commercial and competitive boating, it was a major reason I joined the You Can Play team. Since then, I’ve testified before public health committees in Colorado to protect LGBTQ+ youth in sport, taught thousands of sports professionals about LGBTQ+ safety and acceptance, and I’ve helped develop inclusive policies now adopted by international sports organizations—benefiting not just trans and queer athletes, but everyone who shows up for their team, their sport, and their community.
What Does "Play with Heart" Mean?
To me, playing with heart means showing up fully, even when it’s risky.
It means that fairness equals access and not just exclusion.
It means centering respect–for yourself, your teammates, and your opponents.
It means knowing that how you play matters more than who you play for.
It means loving your sport enough to fight for your right to be in it.
That’s why I’m proud and honored to have helped develop this year’s Pride campaign.
From hockey rinks to hiking trails, LGBTQ+ sports aficionados are showing up, speaking out, and reshaping what leadership and teamwork look like. Together, RMEQ and You Can Play are not only advocating for policy change—they’re building safer, more joyful environments for queer and trans athletes, fans, and youth to thrive. This collaboration isn’t just a campaign—it’s a movement. One that insists authenticity is not a liability, but a strength. And it starts with showing up for one another, on and off the field.
The Scoreboard for LGBTQ+ Safety in Sport
As of 2025, over 35 U.S. states have introduced more than 100 bills seeking to ban or restrict transgender athletes—especially youth—from participating in sports. Laws like Idaho’s “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” and Florida’s version of the same name have set chilling precedents, requiring invasive gender verification and encouraging schools to police identity instead of promoting youth’s participation in sport. These bills don’t protect fairness or expand opportunity in women’s or children’s sports—they weaponize fear to exclude and erase anyone who doesn’t fit within rigid gender norms, sometimes with lethal repercussions.
Ironically, trans and queer athletes are only controversial in federal policies, and rarely on the playing fields themselves. The Play With Heart campaign has already been adopted by pro athletes and major leagues all over the continent, underscoring this truth: LGBTQ+ people don’t just belong in sport—we are essential to it and wanted in it.
Sports leaders and athletics professionals are tired of being used as pawns in political culture wars, and are rejecting attempts to control and erase those participating in the games we love. These discriminatory policies don’t reflect the values of the athletic community they claim to protect.
So here's what you can do to settle the score:
Join the Campaign
If you believe in this mission and this cause, here’s how you can join the campaign:
Grab your Play With Heart merch and wear it to your next game https://www.youcanplay.org/playwithheart
Scan the QR code and learn how to protect and advocate for LGBTQ+ folks in your sport and community.
Take a photo or video and tag @YouCanPlayTeam and tell us what Playing with Heart means to you.
If you can play, you can play. So you might as well play with heart.
コメント