A new supporters' group, Rainbow Tractors, has been launched for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Town fans.

The new group, which is supported by the official ITFC Supporters Club, TWTD, Ipswich Town Ist, Turnstile Blues, the Gay Football Supporters Network and the Football v Homophobia campaign amongst others, outlined its role in a press release.

“Our aim is to provide support for LGBT supporters — especially by creating a safe environment, increasing awareness and working with the club to do more to increase awareness.

“We have noted the great work done at other clubs such as York City recently staging a day against homophobia when they hosted Southend United.

“In particular we’ve noted the development of the Proud Canaries group at Norwich City that has been endorsed by Stephen Fry and feel if they can do it so can we.

“Over the years there have been numerous incidents involving Ipswich Town supporters. Homophobic chants against Justin Fashanu, verbal and violent attacks against openly gay Town fans and low level homophobic and transphobic abuse used against players. Incidents like these create a barrier between the LGBT community and team sports.

“Welcoming the LGBT community into football can help the club grow by welcoming more supporters and increased participation from minority groups. Football has a powerful voice and influences how people behave. The established Kick It Out campaign against racism is a great example of this.

“At Ipswich we need more people to attend the games; we want a great atmosphere, with all football fans comfortable to come along and support their club.

“Over the last decade things have got much better. Portman Road has become a much more welcoming place. Rainbow Tractors has been set up to build on this and encourage inclusiveness by working on overcoming homophobia and transphobia and welcome a greater diversity of Ipswich Town support.”

Rainbow Tractors can be followed on Twitter, are on Facebook can be emailed via RainbowITFC@gmail.com, while their membership webpage is here.

Photo: Action Images

DoctorPolski added 14:59 - Feb 27 Haha this is awesome! But we can't just sing "come on you blues" any more, we'll have to go through the whole rainbow... :p
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December1963 added 15:07 - Feb 27 Good luck to all concerned. our game is for everyone and long may that continue but did they really have to put green and yellow together on the background of our badge!!!!!!
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blueoxford added 15:07 - Feb 27 All good I'm just not keen on the green and yellow being so close to the Suffolk punch...
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Marcus added 15:10 - Feb 27 I was thinking of adding an arrow and the comment "sorry about the proximity of the yellow and green, but I can't redesign a rainbow"
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Rentaghost added 15:13 - Feb 27 Bet loads of fans cant wait to put on their dress and lippy.
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Special_A added 15:16 - Feb 27 Great news and hopefully this becomes part of every club. It's all about supporting the same club regardless of personal differences or preferences. On a lighter note: What did the gay horse (bluey) say........??? Haaaaay :) (Just a joke people-i'm a supporter of the club and new group)
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Marcus added 15:22 - Feb 27 Well, bluey hasn't said neigh.
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Marcus added 15:34 - Feb 27 @Rentaghost - feel free
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mutters added 15:37 - Feb 27 good news, well done for setting this up. agree though, we could do without the Grreen and Yellow on our precious badge, esepcially next to each other.
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JewellintheTown added 15:42 - Feb 27 @Rentaghost - That's cross dressers, mate. Unless of course you're already a woman, in which case that's a given. Like Marcus said, whats stopping you doing that if you're a bloke though anyway? I'll be watching for you now.
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eMeM added 15:43 - Feb 27 Just out of curiosity, are all local based fans supportive to homo-propaganda?
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Fatboy added 15:53 - Feb 27 Why not have red, yellow, pink, green, purple, orange, blue as in the song? Even my young son knows yellow and green should never be seen without a colour inbetween!
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dude added 15:54 - Feb 27 I actually prefer this badge. It has more color darling.
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Marcus added 15:56 - Feb 27 The rainbow flag is part of the LGBT movement, a signature. While I can add a comment/joke about it I'm not going to change the colours around.
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dannysigma added 16:09 - Feb 27 Excellent stuff - about time!
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homer_123 added 16:22 - Feb 27 I'm assuming heterosexuals can join.
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superkevinwilson added 16:39 - Feb 27 Any groups for us who just like the opp. sex
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nitroblue1970 added 16:40 - Feb 27 This story reminded me of a very old TWTD days satirical feature from years back following the clubs much maligned "ladies day".....ITFC GAY day, bring a "gay" to the game and they receive a free lily...or something like that eh Phil?
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BYRNE_16 added 16:48 - Feb 27 I am against the labelling of anybody. It doesn't matter where you go, what you do or you support, if you're white, black ,Asian, Heterosexual or LGBT. Everyone from every background should be welcome with open arms without to be labelled with a tag!
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StowTractorBoy added 17:04 - Feb 27 I am absolutely staggered that yellow and green are even on the badge let alone together - unbelievable.
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Marcus added 17:31 - Feb 27 Thanks for the feedback. I've revised the logo
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whosroundisitanyway added 18:14 - Feb 27 You never know, Mick might find his "Femenine side" Oh no, get that image out of my head!
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thebeat added 18:15 - Feb 27 I just dont get this kind of thing. Im not anti gay in fact as i see it they are a fully fledged part of our society these days. What i dont understand is they say they want to be accepted and treated the same as everybody else but then create groups like this which then points them out as different. Your either a Town fan or ur not, ur not a straight town fan or a gay town fan surely?

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superkevinwilson added 18:49 - Feb 27 Totaly agree with you Thebeat. we are all town fans nothing else should come into it.
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Marcus added 18:55 - Feb 27 TheBeat - absolutely. However there are still incidents where people experience and hear abuse at games. Also there's still a them and us attitude in the LGB&T community. The point of this is to try to bridge that game and provide support should something happen at a game. Similar things could have been said about the Kick It Out campaign yet it was still needed to be there. Nationally the GFSN (Gay Football Supporters Network) and the FA's 'Football v Homophobia' campaign th

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