Problem is football is seen as a 'mans sport' and a few believe gay men aren't really men, so for a footballer to come out as gay while still playing would be huge. He would have the idiots in the crowd as well as the idiot players insulting him. This plus it being in the public eye in the first place means hardly any players or former plays actually come out.
It's a real shame, but at the same time I hope it encourages others to 'come out' if they're hiding it. Taking a break from the sport is wrong but I respect him for what he's done.
It's actually pretty flattering. Same as if a girl you're not interested in comes onto you, it's nice to feel wanted but you can politely decline.
Who cares? What is this modern trend that we have to know the ins and outs of everyones love life? I'm sure there's plenty of ****s playing the game and plenty of team mates who know it. When it comes to saints I'm only interested in whether they can play not whether they prefer blokes to chicks. About 20 years ago I had a work mate who came out. Made some big announcement one day and everyone was like " tell us something we don't know". He then got all upset that his coming out was not a big deal to everyone and people just "whatever" and carried on as normal. He was the one making a big deal out of it and everyone else , having already put him in that bag years ago, just carried on as if nothing had happened. Same with this guy. " you're gay, good for you. Now stfu about it."
Sorry Beddy, maybe ignorant is the wrong word. I just got the impression you hadn't really thought your argument through. I don't think Rogers has made a big announcement though, he's merely put a notice on his blog in much the same way any other young man might do when he has found himself. It's only because he is a public figure that this notice has garnered such attention, and that's not really his fault. Your relative may not have made a "big announcement" and that's fine too. But not everyone is the same, and as I said, I don't think it's at all unusual to announce this kind of thing on a blog, for example. I think it's every person's right to decide the manner in which they want to make their sexuality known, and many people appreciate the gesture even if you don't.
I would politely decline by knocking him out. It is different. Surely he should be talking to you about your interests before coming on to you. He should pick up the signals you aren't a bird man before trying to seduce you. If an ugly chick comes on to you, you can put her on the back burner for later. After a few pints and a blank evening you may change your mind.Whereas a blokes a no full stop
Sorry but I think that's rubbish. The reason is that there just aren't any openly gay footballers but there are almost certainly gay footballers who feel they can't come out. It's old fashioned attitudes and prejudice which has made football not a welcomining working environement for gay footballers. We know about the straight footballers girlfriends so unless we decide that we don't know anything whatsoever about footballers then it's good for the game for players to come out. When they do this will give others the courage to do so untill finally it is no longer a talking point and it is a sport and profession open to all.
Only if you're massively insecure. Years ago, my girlfriend and another friend of hers decided that they wanted to go to a gay club for their respective birthdays. We're talking "chubby guys in mesh shirts dancing on risers" here. Being 6' tall and at the time roughly 130 lbs, I was fairly popular. One guy stopped in front of my girlfriend and I, looked me from head to toe and back again, then turned to my girlfriend, nodded, smiled and walked on. It was, as Mr. Nice said, pretty damned flattering. Once you accept that gay people are, y'know, normal people and aren't going to rape you the second your back is turned, you quickly discover that there's no need to get defensive and start throwing haymakers. Unless you're concerned that you're only a pint away from taking them up on the offer.
Don't talk nonsense man. If a bloke comes onto another man, without even having the decency to find out if he's available to blokes, then he deserves a right hander.
Gay people "come on" to other people in the same manner that straight people do. They don't wrestle you to the ground and lower their heads toward your lap, they start up conversation. At some point early in that conversation, if you go ahead and mention your wife/girlfriend or simply that you're not interested, they will stop coming on to you. At no point during that sequence are you in any danger of having your arse penetrated, so the only reason to engage in fisticuffs is insecurity.
This is quite possibly the most ignorant, bigoted and down-right stupid comment I've read on this site.
I lost IQ points reading this post - it's probably the most outright misogynistic and homophobic thing I've read on this site. Well done for getting them both in a single post. You must either be incredibly insecure in your own sexuality or just a jackass. The jab about "putting ugly chicks on the back burner" is particularly offensive - objectification stopped being ok decades ago. I'll let your threat of homophobic violence speak for itself.
Thank you for backing my point up. My point, if you bothered to read it, was that any bloke that came onto another bloke WITHOUT checking he was gay, is asking for a right hook. Your point is that they don't, so that's great. I assure you and the other posters who take this holier than thou attitude, that I have absolutely no issues at all with gays. Have been married to the same chick for many years, so all this women hating pony is wide of the mark as well. See, its some of you lot who are dinosaurs. To a modern man like me this footballer coming out is no big deal. I don't want to hear about it any more than I want to hear about becks giving posh the corn beef rocket. Its no big deal, he likes blokes, great. End of
I don't think you're being old fashioned at all. In fact, I think you're being the very opposite. I can only hope that everyone will have this attitude towards sexuality in the not-too-distant future, but currently homosexuality is still frowned upon by a lot of people, so it's understandable that gay people feel like they have to stand up for themselves and really shove this "gay and proud" mentality into the faces of those who scorn them. Only when homophobia is eradicated will sexuality be a non-issue.
They might not approach with "excuse me sir, are you gay?" But like any sentient being, they tend to take a hint, much as if you approach a girl who turns out to be involved with someone, she will (hopefully) tell you that she is not interested rather than applying a Taser to your forehead. There's two components to it. First, the difference with your scenario above is that the act of coming out is something that gay people do mostly for themselves, not for your benefit. Had a close friend growing up who came out, where it wasn't a question of him being in the closet, but rather getting to the point where he accepted that he was gay...the difficulty there wasn't a fear of being shunned or any such thing, as no one around him had any qualms about it (and largely knew, anyway), it was the fact that he didn't particularly want to be gay. Because while the stigma isn't what it once was, there's still the sense that you've drawn the short straw in life, and there's a finality to coming out that cannot be an easy decision. Second, there really are very few athletes who have come out, at least in team sports. Had he not retired simultaneously, Rogers would be the only one of which I am aware in all of the major men's sports leagues (now that Gareth Thomas has retired). There have been, likely, thousands of gay athletes o'er the years, but almost to a man they stayed closeted until their retirement, because you have morons like the San Francisco 49ers cornerback who declared during the Super Bowl press day that gays wouldn't be welcome on the team. When someone like Rogers comes out, if nothing else it demonstrates to every teammate that he's had in the past, and every opponent that he's played against, that a dressing room doesn't devolve into anarchy and buttsex the moment a gay person walks through the door.
Err no. If a guy came onto me I would politely turn him down but I would be as flattered as if it had been a girl. Why would I want to punch him?
Flattered, you are joking right? If I came onto one of my daughters 18 year old friends, would she be flattered or offended. I doubt whether she would politely turn me down. It would be inappropriate, as would a gay man coming on to me.
You're introducing context that isn't otherwise present, though; if you came on to one of your daughter's 18 year old friends, it would have all of baggage of the fact that you are the father of her friend. Neutral situation: if you sat down next to a random, age-appropriate woman at a bar, and struck up a polite-but-slightly flirty conversation, would you expect her to be polite in her dismissal, or violent?
