The Culture of Leadership

66. Championing Courage to Drive Meaningful Change

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Martin Stark has earned the title of “champion” in a multitude of fields including boxing, human rights, and gay rights. He is courageous and speaks up for what is good and fair. In today’s episode, I get a bit of a peek behind the curtain of the immense pressures and fears that people in the LGBTIQ+ community face in simple everyday life experiences. Martin is an eloquent speaker and speaks openly about the difficulties he faced as a gay teenager in a world where gay slandering and “homophobia” were the norm. 

Martin is passionate about opening the eyes of sporting authorities around the racism, sexism, and homophobia that exist in their systems, and to that end, he is organizing the World Gay Boxing Championships, scheduled to take place in Sydney Australia in February 2023. 

Martin is an inspirational human who makes it his mission to change the world, one speaking opportunity at a time because he believes that helping people understand each other is the key to ending hatred.

Discussion Points

• Introducing Martin Stark
• Making connections with people
• Martin’s tattoos
• Martin’s health struggles and courage
• Life before coming out as gay
• What is “homophobic”?
• How can we make a difference as heterosexuals?
• The people around Martin 
• Why boxing?
• The important skills Martin uses to advance discussions about discrimination 
• What does LGBTIQ+ stand for?
• The importance of pronouns to the LGBTIQ+ community 
• Martin’s “coming out” story
• The World Gay Boxing Championships
• What has had the greatest impact on Martin’s leadership journey

Resources

Brendan Rogers Website

Brendan Rogers LinkedIn

The Culture of Things Podcast Website

The Culture of Things LinkedIn

The Culture of Things Facebook Page

The Culture of Things YouTube Channel

The Culture of Things Instagram 

World Gay Boxing Championships Website

Martin Stark Instagram

Martin Stark LinkedIn

If you have any questions for Brendan around this episode or generally around culture, leadership, or teamwork, feel free to contact him here.