Prague Pride 2026: How social sciences contribute to understanding LGBTQ+ issues
The recent tragic events at the Christopher Street Day march in Berlin remind us that prejudice and hatred towards LGBTQ+ people are not a thing of the past in society. It is in these moments that awareness, empathy and a scientific perspective on issues of diversity and human rights are all the more important.
How do social sciences view these topics? In the week when the human rights festival Prague Pride begins, we bring you a selection of professional works by our academics from FSV UK, which deal with the topics of equality and inclusion.
How the media portrays transgender sportswomen
In a study, experts from the Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism Kateřina Turková, Alice Němcová Tejkalová, Anna Hrbáčková and Veronika Macková analyzed how the Central European sports media portrayed transgender sportswomen in 2023. The research showed that the media mainly framed them as a problem – either as an attention-grabbing spectacle or as a threat to women’s sports and women in general. The media spoke of them as cheaters, men or “imperfect women” who disrupt traditional gender categories. The study, titled Celebrification of transgender sportswomen through critical media coverage: the first step towards acknowledgement in Central European countries, was published by the prestigious magazine Celebrity Studies.
The authors qualitatively examined online sports columns of the most widely read newspapers in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The results showed that the media often ridiculed transgender sportswomen or presented them as “against nature” and as a threat to women’s sports. Attention was also focused primarily on the issue of fairness and the impact of transgender women’s participation on biological women.
You can read more in the article on the ICSJ website, or directly in the study which is available online in the open access mode.
LGBTQ+ in Czechia: diversity, games and coming out at a later age
Jaroslava Hasmanová Marhánková from the Institute of Sociological Studies and Tereza Fousek Krobová from the Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism presented their research on topics related to the LGBTQ+ community in an episode of the De Facto podcast. The discussion focused on the diversity of experiences of LGBTQ+ people in the Czech Republic, queer themes in computer games, and coming out in later life.
“On the one hand, society is of course becoming more tolerant and liberal. Because queer themes are visible in public discourse and discussed, many people may realize that they have no problem with it. And students are also much more open-minded when I compare them to the generations I taught 10 years ago,” Tereza Fousek Krobová said in the podcast. “At the same time, the gap between women and men is widening in the younger generation, where we see a much greater degree of conservatism. On the other hand, it must be said that we have also witnessed a number of positive changes in the legislative field recently. It is not a black and white story,” added Jaroslava Hasmanová Marhánková.
How is the attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community changing in the domestic public space? Do queer characters appear in computer games? And how is life for LGBTQ+ seniors in the Czech Republic? You will find out in the podcast transcript here.
