Gay footballers have stayed silent about their sexuality for fear of the backlash including taunts from opposing fans. But with attitudes finally changing two Premier League stars believe the time is right to come out. A source said: “The stigma has completely gone, and the public are far more accepting. “At this level of football, being gay is almost the final frontier. “It has always been such a macho game and, unfortunately, perhaps more than in any other sport, there can be an aggressive mob mentality in the stands. “But finally the tide is turning and more and more sports people are openly gay.” The two players – including an England international – have told family and friends, and are being supported by their clubs and the Football Association. We are not revealing their names. They would become the first ever players to publicly announce they are gay while in the top flight of English football. The stars are thought to be planning to go public before the start of next season. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/england-player-another-premier-league-6693874 I wonder who they are? Also respect them for coming out.
Read a rumour this morning that one could be Ox, but to me it doesn't matter being gay or not, they just need to be good at football.. hopefully when out the fans on the terraces will realise that sexuality isn't important these days.
As I said to my dad. It doesn't really matter if a person is gay or not. But this is a big thing for football.
Shouldn't need to be brave, but is because opposition fans are not exactly known for holding back in chants.
Your right Beefy I work with a few gay people and no one bats an eyelid.........but in the football world they are in the public eye.........I think most fans will be grown up about it, however the minority will give some stick.
I think most people have become more accepting....after all most (if not all of us) will have gay friends. If all gay footballers came out and everyone knew that one of their own players (if not more) was gay, the chance of cruel taunts would diminish. Look how the crowd's attitude to black players has changed in our lifetime.
A source said: “The stigma has completely gone, and the public are far more accepting." It'll prove interesting to hear the response from the terraces after they've revealed themselves. If the 'source' hasn't realised that the stigma hasn't gone yet that person needs to get amongst the ordinary people more. There are still plenty of knuckle draggers about.
The real key will be which of us will point out those that inevitably will shout something, in an "I'm only joking mate" way, to stewards, or tell them to cut it out. That will be the tricky bit. Gay or not gay. Black or not black. White or not white. Man or woman. Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Bhudist. None of it should matter. Sadly, some people will make it matter.
Let's hope that we are in 2015 now and this is behind us in all but a minority. A person's sexuality, colour, religion doesn't matter. It's how that person behaves as a human being towards others.
I would certainly echo exactly what you say. However, we have newspapers and the wider media prepared to make an issue of this sort of thing instead of realising it for what it is, which is essentially a non-event. It's not as if it is nobody's business but the person involved. It might be even less than that. It might be as mundane as somebody making a cup of tea. Obviously the newspapers will proclaim it that they are bringing us the news as some particular breakthrough for gay people, and the education of society, but really they're doing it to sell newspapers because a sporting celebrity is about to announce something unusual, and I suspect their interest is little more than that. The open thinkers, the educated and the least bigoted all got past this stage long ago. Like you say, we live in 2015, so let's hope the rest are catching up.
Crazy to think that homosexuality was essentially illegal 50 years ago. Society has come along way but no surprise that many people are still stuck with an old fashioned mindset. Unfortunately the abuse from the stands will be ever present if they do come out.
I don't know. I can't see a whole stand singing homosexual abuse at one player. The Brighton "we can see you holding hands" was a bit different as not directed at one individual. That said I can see some abuse from individuals much like racism is still present if you sit near the wrong people.
Yeah, I suspect the crowd/on-the-pitch is not going to be a problem. There will be a few religious protesters, maybe. And perhaps some low-level "tee-hee, he's gay" kind of chants. Which isn't to say it's right, but not something a professional footballer can't handle. There are enough non-homophobes who won't have it, plus other chants to be sung, and stuff going on on the pitch that you couldn't get sustained, really nasty chants going. There will for sure be some jerks in the stands who will offend those around them, but it probably won't be heard by the players on the pitch. Internationally, could be a different story, though. The major issue is going to be off the pitch, on social media, or walking down the street. Places where the gutless assholes can make themselves heard.
There could be some on-pitch problems too. I half expect an incident going down the tunnel or after a heavy challenge. Any reporter asking a question about it should immediately be thrown out the press conference, with a dig to say it doesn't matter. Id like to see every Premielr League team warmed up in tops with this on that back: "I might be Gay... ... So what?"
I don't have a problem if a person is gay. What I do have a problem with is, all this coming out Nonesense. Sorry people your sexuality is of no consequence to me. Gay or straight I don't need to know or even want to know. Announcing it in my view is just asking for trouble. Why do we have to know????
It's not a question of us having to know. The issue is about people having to keep their nature secret, or feeling that they have to, in order to avoid ridicule or worse. Imagine having to keep a large part of yourself secret from your teammates, and sometimes your own friends and family; that could be a crippling psychological burden. In 5 years time I expect we'll all wonder what the fuss was all about; but until someone does have the courage to speak out, and give the wider football community the chance to be supportive in the way the rugby community was to Gareth Thomas (was that the guy?), then that last step towards acceptance can't be made. Finally, it would be exceptionaly naive to think that prejudice is now completely a thing of the past. It still exists and still needs to be challenged.
