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Why would there need to be openly gay footballers? No-one gives a shit.

 

Smoggies get called Paedos, Cockneys are wankers, Scousers are thieves, Mido is a terrorist, so fuck....this is football not the opera. :frantic:

 

Aye right! More than likely they would be scared of getting dogs abuse by the fans in the stands for their sexuality. You could absolutely guarantee that everyone would give a shit if a footballer came out, they would use it as a weapon to beat the bloke with.

 

Yup. Nail on head Blef.

 

As for people whingeing about the FA doing this campaign instead of x, y, z more relevant action, they've had this on their agenda for the past 3 years and have been putting it off and putting it off as they basically don't feel that 'Football' is ready for it. The PFA asked all of the Premiership teams if they would volunteer one of their players to star in a club-centric video for the campaign, but obviously no-one stepped forward as they knew that they would be labelled as 'gay' by opposing fans just for being in the video, irrespective of their actual sexuality.

 

For those people questioning why this is needed at all, look at the sorry plight of Justin Fashanu - there's no evidence to suggest that 'Football' has moved on since then (see the Xisco thread title and related comments), why supporters of a team have any interest in the supposed sexuality of their players is a mystery to me, but it could suggest homophobic elements (alternatively, some people are trying to eye up a date..!)

 

You seem far too interested in this Stu ;)

 

And that sort of reaction is the problem.  No way is anything the FA do going to have any impact on this at all.

 

Indeed, but they have to be seen to be trying at least. Gay-rights campaigners know of several high-profile players who are scared to come out, but can't go to the PFA for support because the infrastructure isn't there to deal with them. Unlike the "Lets Kick Racism Out of Football" campaign, there isn't an obvious group of players who you can ask to figurehead the campaign for equality.

 

Team England were asked but said that they didn't have time to do it...they did have time for Sport Relief (another worthy campaign, but you wonder if the time spent filming that will have as much of an impact as Beckham, Rooney and Rio all 'standing up' for sexuality).

 

By the way, this shouldn't be about promoting homosexuality, but explaining that a person's sexual preference doesn't matter to anyone else, if Carlton Cole likes to dress up in women's clothing, or Wayne Rooney has an affinity towards older women, it doesn't make a difference to their abilities as a footballer.

 

The players won't speak out because of "Brand Image" concerns. Shocking, tbh.

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Why would there need to be openly gay footballers? No-one gives a shit.

 

Smoggies get called Paedos, Cockneys are wankers, Scousers are thieves, Mido is a terrorist, so fuck....this is football not the opera. :frantic:

 

Aye right! More than likely they would be scared of getting dogs abuse by the fans in the stands for their sexuality. You could absolutely guarantee that everyone would give a shit if a footballer came out, they would use it as a weapon to beat the bloke with.

 

Yup. Nail on head Blef.

 

As for people whingeing about the FA doing this campaign instead of x, y, z more relevant action, they've had this on their agenda for the past 3 years and have been putting it off and putting it off as they basically don't feel that 'Football' is ready for it. The PFA asked all of the Premiership teams if they would volunteer one of their players to star in a club-centric video for the campaign, but obviously no-one stepped forward as they knew that they would be labelled as 'gay' by opposing fans just for being in the video, irrespective of their actual sexuality.

 

For those people questioning why this is needed at all, look at the sorry plight of Justin Fashanu - there's no evidence to suggest that 'Football' has moved on since then (see the Xisco thread title and related comments), why supporters of a team have any interest in the supposed sexuality of their players is a mystery to me, but it could suggest homophobic elements (alternatively, some people are trying to eye up a date..!)

 

You seem far too interested in this Stu ;)

 

And that sort of reaction is the problem.  No way is anything the FA do going to have any impact on this at all.

 

Indeed, but they have to be seen to be trying at least. Gay-rights campaigners know of several high-profile players who are scared to come out, but can't go to the PFA for support because the infrastructure isn't there to deal with them. Unlike the "Lets Kick Racism Out of Football" campaign, there isn't an obvious group of players who you can ask to figurehead the campaign for equality.

 

Team England were asked but said that they didn't have time to do it...they did have time for Sport Relief (another worthy campaign, but you wonder if the time spent filming that will have as much of an impact as Beckham, Rooney and Rio all 'standing up' for sexuality).

 

By the way, this shouldn't be about promoting homosexuality, but explaining that a person's sexual preference doesn't matter to anyone else, if Carlton Cole likes to dress up in women's clothing, or Wayne Rooney has an affinity towards older women, it doesn't make a difference to their abilities as a footballer.

 

The players won't speak out because of "Brand Image" concerns. Shocking, tbh.

 

I agree with everything you say, except that I think the reality it's a complete waste of time.

 

It needs to be driven by the players, not imposed upon them & there's absolutely fuck all chance of that happening.

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Alot of people seem to believe that there are numerous players at each club that are struggling with their sexuality and are scared to come out. Could it possibly be the case that there are very few, if any, high-profile gay footballers?

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Just reading this thread and some of the moronic remarks shows why there needs to be a campaign. Justin Fashanu would be heckled and chanted at today just as he was in his playing days. As for saying there probably aren't any gay footballers, FFS of course there are gay footballers, but which gay footballer in his right mind would come out if he was subject to the ignorance displayed here and everywhere football related?

 

 

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Alot of people seem to believe that there are numerous players at each club that are struggling with their sexuality and are scared to come out. Could it possibly be the case that there are very few, if any, high-profile gay footballers?

 

Statistically, if you take one of the lower estimates of 5% of the population, if all the Premier League teams are playing one weekend, out of the 222 players that make up the starting 11, there are 11 players, one full team, who are homosexual playing that weekend.  Now, it's possible that gay young men don't tend to go into football as a profession as much (possibly because of the fact professional football is a pretty hostile environment to gay people) so the numbers could well be lower.  But so low that none of those players playing on that weekend is gay?  Even going on to include the high profile players starting on the bench for the top half clubs?  I really doubt it like, there's no way there aren't high profile premier league players who are gay, for some reason they feel the need to hide it.

 

And when I say hide it I don't mean that the alternative is to march onto the pitch with a rainbow flag shouting "gay rights now".  There are lots of players who we know have female partners, whether it's because of media circus stuff like Rooney and Coleen or Cheryl and Ashley or more mundane stuff like program profiles "He lives in Essex with his wife, two children and four dogs and enjoys fishing."  The BBC has an internal magazine called Ariel and they do profiles of people that work in the company, and in a similar way they did a profile of BBC Jane Hill in which she matter of factly stated her family situation in the same way, that she lives with her partner Sara and her dogs etc.  The Sun's take on it was of course to splash across the pages "BBC Lesbian shock!  Jane STUNS male fans by announcing she's a lesbian!!" and of course all the comments beneath the article were "Why's she flaunting it, I don't go around telling people I'm straight, they should keep it to themselves etc."

 

The media and fan furore if it was a footballer who didn't hide his homosexuality in the same way would be off the chart, so I don't really think people can say it's not a big deal any more.  It's hardly the 50s but there's still a way to go before people can just get over it.

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I don't see why all gay people in general would feel the 'need' to come out. It might just not be that important to a person. Not everybody will be eaten up with guilt feeling they're living a lie. They might just think, what the fucks it got to do with anyone else? I'm sure most people don't go around flaunting what they do in the bedroom or what their fantacies are. There probably more people in the closet, than people who who are out. They probably just don't find the need to tell everyone. Everybody keeps things about their lives to themselves without it eating them up, so I'm sure its the same for gay people who don't let others know.

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It's probably pretty difficult to live your life normally without people noticing that your girlfriend is actually a boy.

 

It's not a case of shouting out that they're gay, but the fact they have to actively hide it.

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I don't see why all gay people in general would feel the 'need' to come out. It might just not be that important to a person. Not everybody will be eaten up with guilt feeling they're living a lie. They might just think, what the fucks it got to do with anyone else? I'm sure most people don't go around flaunting what they do in the bedroom or what their fantacies are. There probably more people in the closet, than people who who are out. They probably just don't find the need to tell everyone. Everybody keeps things about their lives to themselves without it eating them up, so I'm sure its the same for gay people who don't let others know.

 

There's a middle ground between "flaunting" your sexuality and not actively hiding it though, and it's that area that most heterosexual footballers can comfortably occupy and which homosexual footballers don't seem to be able to - a heterosexual footballer can say in an interview that they live with their partner Jane on a farm somewhere or turn up to an awards ceremony arm in arm with them without the expectation that it'll be front page news the next day and next time they step out onto the pitch they'll get a load of shit.

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My mate nearly got bummed yesterday during our 5-a-side game. They should start at grass roots level.

 

:nope:

 

:lol:

 

Wonder how long Ash considered what he'd typed before the BackSpace key was furiously bashed.

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Just reading this thread and some of the moronic remarks shows why there needs to be a campaign. Justin Fashanu would be heckled and chanted at today just as he was in his playing days. As for saying there probably aren't any gay footballers, FFS of course there are gay footballers, but which gay footballer in his right mind would come out if he was subject to the ignorance displayed here and everywhere football related?

 

 

 

If there are so many gay footballers scared of the abuse they would get from fans, how many have came out since retiring from football?

 

As for saying Justin Fashanu would still be heckled, how do you come to this conclusion? Personally I don't see the point of having an anti-homophobia campaign as there "might" be gay footballers who "might" be abused.  Why not have an anti-transexual campaign incase Jimmy Bullard has a fanny.

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My mate nearly got bummed yesterday during our 5-a-side game. They should start at grass roots level.

 

:nope:

 

:lol:

 

Wonder how long Ash considered what he'd typed before the BackSpace key was furiously bashed.

:lol: Nah genuinely, my mate went through the back of someone so he grabbed him, tried bend him over and pull his shorts down. Rubbed himsel....

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My mate nearly got bummed yesterday during our 5-a-side game. They should start at grass roots level.

 

:nope:

 

:lol:

 

Wonder how long Ash considered what he'd typed before the BackSpace key was furiously bashed.

:lol: Nah genuinely, my mate went through the back of someone so he grabbed him, tried bend him over and pull his shorts down. Rubbed himsel....

 

You're typing that with one hand, aren't you.

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Guest Phil K

Whats this all about?, I wish gay rights groups would just piss off. People being gay isn't a big deal anymore, it's accepted so stop shoving it in our faces.

Even in modern terms when you call someone gay your not refering to their sexuality but are just really saying their lame or uncool, it now no longer has nothing to do anyone's sexuality. 

Couldn't agree more.

It CREATES "homophobia" not the opposite.

 

Its mouthy quango-employees responsible for crap like this.

People who know NOTHING about anything, and claim to be experts.

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Alot of people seem to believe that there are numerous players at each club that are struggling with their sexuality and are scared to come out. Could it possibly be the case that there are very few, if any, high-profile gay footballers?

 

Statistically, if you take one of the lower estimates of 5% of the population, if all the Premier League teams are playing one weekend, out of the 222 players that make up the starting 11, there are 11 players, one full team, who are homosexual playing that weekend.  Now, it's possible that gay young men don't tend to go into football as a profession as much (possibly because of the fact professional football is a pretty hostile environment to gay people) so the numbers could well be lower.  But so low that none of those players playing on that weekend is gay?  Even going on to include the high profile players starting on the bench for the top half clubs?  I really doubt it like, there's no way there aren't high profile premier league players who are gay, for some reason they feel the need to hide it.

 

And when I say hide it I don't mean that the alternative is to march onto the pitch with a rainbow flag shouting "gay rights now".  There are lots of players who we know have female partners, whether it's because of media circus stuff like Rooney and Coleen or Cheryl and Ashley or more mundane stuff like program profiles "He lives in Essex with his wife, two children and four dogs and enjoys fishing."  The BBC has an internal magazine called Ariel and they do profiles of people that work in the company, and in a similar way they did a profile of BBC Jane Hill in which she matter of factly stated her family situation in the same way, that she lives with her partner Sara and her dogs etc.  The Sun's take on it was of course to splash across the pages "BBC Lesbian shock!  Jane STUNS male fans by announcing she's a lesbian!!" and of course all the comments beneath the article were "Why's she flaunting it, I don't go around telling people I'm straight, they should keep it to themselves etc."

 

The media and fan furore if it was a footballer who didn't hide his homosexuality in the same way would be off the chart, so I don't really think people can say it's not a big deal any more.  It's hardly the 50s but there's still a way to go before people can just get over it.

 

Good post.

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I wonder if a new anti-racism campaign would provoke such uneasy and irritated responses

 

No because it is obvious that some racism is still prevelant.....

 

Not half as obvious as it is that homophobia is rampant.

 

Against whom?

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