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Championship Player to Come out as Gay

Discussion in 'Bristol City' started by wizered, Jul 7, 2019.

  1. wizered

    wizered Ol' Mucker
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    Championship player to come out as gay after telling club manager and chairman
    There are no active professional male footballers in England who are openly gay

    A man who claims to play for a Championship club says he is set to publicly come out as gay in the near future.

    'The Gay Footballer' Twitter account, which was created last week, has over 6,500 followers and is purported to belong to a second-tier player.

    There are no active professional male footballers in England who are openly gay.

    Only two active players have ever come out in English football; former Nottingham Forest and Norwich striker Justin Fashanu who faced extreme prejudice when he came out in 1990 and, in 2013, American international Robbie Rogers declared his sexuality after being released by Leeds United.

    A statement posted from the account on Sunday said the player's identity would be revealed once he has prepared himself for the announcement.

    "This afternoon I requested a meeting with both my manager and the club chairman," the statement read.
    "At this meeting I revealed to both gentlemen that I am a homosexual man, I explained that I had only yesterday come out to my family.

    "I sought advice from both men regarding the fact that I not only want to, but will, come out publicly as a proud, confident gay professional footballer.

    The Gay Footballer‏@FootballerGay
    Thank you to all those who have sent supportive messages. Please understand that I only came out to my family in the last few days, I want/need the opportunity to prepare myself, and those around me, before going public. Please be patient with me.
    4:02 AM - 7 Jul 2019

    "As it currently stands, once I have taken the time to give full consideration to how and when I am to make it public, a press conference will be organised by the club, with invitations to be made in due course to both local and national press."

    While the tweets have received a largely positive response, the account holder did flag up some abuse aimed at him since it was opened.

    The Football Association marched at Pride in London for the first time on Saturday while they have backed Stonewall's rainbow laces campaign in recent years.

    Former Aston Villa midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger is one of the most high-profile figures to come out as gay in recent times.

    The ex-Germany international had already retired before making his sexuality public, with the player purportedly behind the Gay Footballer account claiming to be under the age of 23 as he prepares to follow suit.

    "I'm a professional footballer, playing for a club in the SkyBetChamp. I will be revealing my identity soon, but I am a proud gay man, hoping to break the mould. I am under the age of 23, and today I came out to my family. Soon, I will come out publicly," he tweeted on Friday.

    https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/championship-player-come-out-gay-3065643
     
    #1
  2. wizered

    wizered Ol' Mucker
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    Quite a stunning headline in this day and age but I couldn't give a cow's cuss, good luck to the guy, he has got tremendous courage, I have no idea who he is but I wish him well and I hope he get's all of the support he deserves.
     
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  3. It was interesting watching the women's world cup as there were a number of lesbian players including in the England team and no one seemed to give a toss. I think I might also be right in saying the women GB hockey gold medalists in Brazil were the first team ever to have a married couple in the team.
    This guy has huge courage if he follows it through and hopefully he'll either get supported or left alone and recognised for what he does on the pitch and not off it.
    Good luck for your season - would love to see you get up there :)
     
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  4. wizered

    wizered Ol' Mucker
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    I quite agree and thankyou, good luck to you and yours.<ok>
     
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  5. BCFCRob

    BCFCRob Well-Known Member

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    Yeah exactly what wiz said. Fair play to the guy and massive respect to him if/when he does do it. You just know there will be some absolute morons from some clubs who make up chants about him, but hopefully the sensible ones from all clubs (including ours) show their own fans where to go if that’s the case.

    It’s long overdue and does show the immaturity of football fans given how tragic coming out in sport has been previously. Hopefully this is the catalyst towards ‘normalising’ it in football. Massive credit to the player!
     
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  6. Supcon72

    Supcon72 Well-Known Member

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    I don't understand why these are still 'headlines', being gay is no longer a taboo subject, even in football. By making this big announcement beforehand, is going to draw more attention to the individual. Like Wiz and others have said, I don't care if someone is gay or not, it has no bearing on how I view them, so why would this player want the publicity over it.......
     
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  7. BCFCRob

    BCFCRob Well-Known Member

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    This is just not true though is it mate. It might not be taboo to you, but try asking any gay person whether they think they're treated any differently because of their sexuality.

    If it was no longer taboo then we wouldn't be in a situation where there are still no publicly gay footballers in the UK.
     
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  8. ccfcremotesupport

    ccfcremotesupport Well-Known Member

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    It's sad that it makes the news. It shouldn't be an issue.
    Don't think this guy will be the first. Didn't Justin Fashanu come out while he was still playing eons ago?

    Just another area that football lags behind rugby. Players and officials openly gay and no issue.
    And when a player speaks out against gays, he gets sacked by his union.
     
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  9. Supcon72

    Supcon72 Well-Known Member

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    My point was, why does this person feel they have to 'announce' this? It is part of everyday life and truth be told, very few people care about a person's sexuality anymore, so why make such a big issue over something they have struggled to be comfortable with being out there in the public domain - it makes no sense. It's just publicity for the sake of it.
     
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  10. BCFCRob

    BCFCRob Well-Known Member

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    It's a pretty big thing considering the last person to do this in British football ended up killing himself. Statistically there should be ~100 gay professional footballers in the UK and yet there are none that are known. Why is that? The reason for the 'announcement' is to show everybody that it is okay to be gay, but clearly most are far too scared to tell anyone for fear of abuse or for fear of wrecking their career. Announcing it will inevitably start a snowball effect of others finally being comfortable enough to be themselves in the public eye. It's a very brave thing to do imo.

    You say very few people care but the Twitter account of this gay player has thousands of followers and it has started discussions on many messageboards. Of course people care. And until it is normalised more by people doing these announcements, people will still care.

    I'm not gay myself so it's impossible to say for sure, but most of the anecdotal struggles I see/read are from people who have had to 'cover up' or 'suppress' their sexuality, which cannot be healthy. If that means having to spend a lifetime pretending you're something else just because society says you must be, then that must be a pretty horrible feeling... that you're 'too weird' for society to accept you properly. The more it is normalised, the less people will care that it's different, and the better things will be for all :).
     
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  11. RedorDead

    RedorDead Well-Known Member

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    I can see both sides of this argument. As Supercon says why the need to announce it in today’s times where it’s perfectly accepted.
    But as Rob says maybe the first does need to announce it to allow others to admit it to their team mates.

    One thing that I don’t agree with Rob, is thankfully time has moved on in such that the tragic case of Justin Fashano is in the past and won’t be repeated.

    Rugby is the perfect example of moving on.

    Some will struggle with it, and mock but that is their problem and only they can change it.
     
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    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 8, 2019
  12. smhbcfc

    smhbcfc Well-Known Member

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    Every football fan in the country needs to support this young man
     
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  13. BCFCRob

    BCFCRob Well-Known Member

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    I hope so mate but let's not forget that it's not just about how the football world accepts them. A big chunk of it was most likely due to the fact that John Fashanu basically disowned him, and then there were subsequent allegations of course... But yeah, even if the football world accepts them, there are plenty of families that would still disown a gay person and that could send them down a bad path. Not to sound in any way derogatory or racist or anything, but often the background of a family can have a heavy influence on this imo, be it due to religion or whatever.

    Fair play to the guy anyways, I just hope that the football world can grow up and be mature in this instance :).
     
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  14. johngalleyfan2

    johngalleyfan2 Well-Known Member

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    what has taboo got to do with how they are treated differently ..? taboo is "banned" ….. and in this country and many others is not it is a separate form. An understanding of the English language often helps :emoticon-0145-shake
     
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  15. RedorDead

    RedorDead Well-Known Member

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    Taken from the Cambridge dictionary.

    https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/taboo


    See highlighted bit at foot of snippet which I would assume Rob is alluding towards.


    taboo
    noun [ C ]
    subject, word, or action that is avoided for religious or social reasons:

    In this society there is a taboo on/against any sort of public display of affection.
    He would not hesitate to break any taboo.
    More examples


     
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  16. Oldsparkey

    Oldsparkey Well-Known Member
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    Just my fivepennorth. Don't understand all the hoo-haa about this. He's either a footballer who's gay, or a gay who happens to play football.

    The stance seems to be it's more controversial to be the former rather than the latter and therefore special mention should be made. It's a personal matter for this guy and other than that should be viewed as unimportant in the wider world. Sounds harsh, but you won't stop idiots chanting - he'll just have to live with it and get on with his life.

    Of far more relevance are the "gay" coaches in the game who've had (and probably some still have) access to young impressionable and vulnerable youngsters. These are the bastards who need sorting, not an individual who is just ligitimately involved in his sexuality.
     
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  17. AshtonRed

    AshtonRed Well-Known Member

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    I don’t give a monkeys cuss about a players sexuality, neither do I assume someone’s straight because they haven’t stated what their preference is.

    I understand to this individual it’s a big deal, and as such I hope he gets the support he needs.

    Statically there must surely be many more footballers that are gay than we are aware of, but is it really any business of ours to know , I don’t think so.
     
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  18. johngalleyfan2

    johngalleyfan2 Well-Known Member

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    And therein is the answer … we in this country have NO taboo over homosexuality/ lesbianism..... so whats the big deal?

    statistically speaking I guess you are correct …:emoticon-0105-wink:
     
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  19. RedorDead

    RedorDead Well-Known Member

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    Please don’t be so naive in thinking that, you know full well that some people still can’t accept it.
     
    #19
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  20. BCFCRob

    BCFCRob Well-Known Member

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    Well that backfired didn't it JGF. Standard...
     
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