The gay footballer on twitter

[Didcotox]

I hope this is a genuine account and not a sick joke.

A championship footballer came out to his family a few days ago and told his manager and chairman yesterday.

We could very well have our first openly gay player soon in the modern era. All the best to him.

 

[Northstandboy]

I hope this is a genuine account and not a sick joke.

A championship footballer came out to his family a few days ago and told his manager and chairman yesterday.

We could very well have our first openly gay player soon in the modern era. All the best to him.

I had the same hope as you.

Just announce it, do not make it into a big publicity stunt. He is having another meeting with his club on Sunday, then a press release at some point.

 

[Foley]

If it is true let's hope quite a few come out quickly afterwards.
There are obviously lots of gay men playing in the various leagues. This shouldn't be all about one guy coming out and all of the publicity he will have to put up with on his own.

 

[Wallop]

Whatever happens, it's a sign of real progress that this individual is even considering this. I remember on a few occasions when we were playing away at Kidderminster (late 90s/early 00s I think), they had a player with a peroxide blonde haircut who had the chant 'Gayboy, Gayboy' directed at him for a lot of the game. It was sort of accepted at the time or at least people didn't feel brave enough to complain about it in any numbers. I honestly couldn't see that happening now.

Stats suggest it's 1 in 10 people who are gay and so that's about 3 in every first team/U23 squad.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

There were quite a few players in the WWC who were gay (as mentioned by the BBC in relation to them being keen to raise LGBT issues) and it wasn't a big deal. I'd hope in the current climate it wouldn't be a big deal in the men's game either. I suspect though that they will have to suffer a few chants etc from a few of the Neanderthals who still seem to feel that bigotry about race, colour etc are still an absolutely hilarious and original thing to shout about...

 

[Gary Baldi]

If it is true, and there is no reason to doubt it on face value, I'm glad a player has taken the step with his family and club and will be able to talk openly about their sexuality. The final big taboo in football will be gone.

I have no doubt a few brainless idiots will come out with the some brainless "banter" at games, but the vast majority of football fans will have no issue or even better, be proud he is doing it.

 

[dickwalton1964]

Why is it even news worthy ? In this day and age everyone is accepting of everyone’s sexuality and surely fussing about it just highlights something that should be normal and acceptable.

Everyone appears to want acceptance of it so surely just leave it be. I really don’t get the fascination of what someone, not known on a personal level, gets up to in his or hers time away from their public persona.

 

[Didcotox]

Why is it even news worthy ? In this day and age everyone is accepting of everyone’s sexuality and surely fussing about it just highlights something that should be normal and acceptable.

Everyone appears to want acceptance of it so surely just leave it be. I really don’t get the fascination of what someone, not known on a personal level, gets up to in his or hers time away from their public persona.

Everyone is not accepting of everyone’s sexuality. I think that’s the point. The fact that no player has come out as gay whilst still playing speaks volume that there is still a huge stigma around sexuality in football.
My 13 year old son came out to me a few months ago. It really hammered it home to me how huge a thing it is. I really struggled when I advised him to keep it quiet at school as I did not want him to be alienated. I met with the head teacher at his school and even in this day and age the advice is to not broadcast it.
I have huge respect for this fella and when he does tell the world. In my opinion, it will be a massive step forward for society.

 

[Foley]

Hopefully. Some people will consider the topic is not even worthy of mention as sexuality should not be an issue, but I think the more barriers are publicly broken down the better.

I agree that some may not consider the topic worthy and indeed it shouldn't be.
But as we know there are NO current professional footballers in England who have come out. So as we all know it is an issue until those barriers are broken down (hopefully this is the start).

 

[Essexyellows]

If said person wanted to make a genuine impact then JFDI, no need to start a storm in a "twitter" tea cup just tell the world.
There seems to be more of a "stigma" amongst players than there is on the terraces...............now that is odd!

 

[Wallop]

If said person wanted to make a genuine impact then JFDI, no need to start a storm in a "twitter" tea cup just tell the world.
There seems to be more of a "stigma" amongst players than there is on the terraces...............now that is odd!

I wonder if that's the case. There certainly doesn't seem to be an issue at OUFC amongst the fans but can we be sure that's the same at all clubs? There was quite a variation in tolerance of racism between different terraces which took many years to eradicate and even now it sometimes appears albeit very rarely e.g. Sterling at Chelsea last year.

 

[Whingit]

I remember hearing 'gay boys gay boys' and 'does your boyfriend know you're here?' Not that long ago. I wouldn't be surprised if there are players that have already come out to teammates, but aren't yet ready to go public.

 

[Discoland]

I remember hearing 'gay boys gay boys' and 'does your boyfriend know you're here?' Not that long ago. I wouldn't be surprised if there are players that have already come out to teammates, but aren't yet ready to go public.

I remember it being sung a couple of seasons ago against Scunthorpe I think because the Keeper was playing in an all pink kit.

 

[dickwalton1964]

Everyone is not accepting of everyone’s sexuality. I think that’s the point. The fact that no player has come out as gay whilst still playing speaks volume that there is still a huge stigma around sexuality in football.
My 13 year old son came out to me a few months ago. It really hammered it home to me how huge a thing it is. I really struggled when I advised him to keep it quiet at school as I did not want him to be alienated. I met with the head teacher at his school and even in this day and age the advice is to not broadcast it.
I have huge respect for this fella and when he does tell the world. In my opinion, it will be a massive step forward for society.

My issue is with the highlighting of it, who really cares whether someone’s son is gay, straight or whatever. It has or should have no relevance.

The world is full of gay people. Great, get on with it but the rest of the world doesn’t need to know. Just like the rest of the world doesn’t need me shouting from the rooftops that I fancy my wife.

I don’t think this player will get any grief. Society has moved on and there’s an openness like never before and rightly so. If he is lauded as some ground breaking hero then we really are taking ten steps backwards.

 

[Didcotox]

My issue is with the highlighting of it, who really cares whether someone’s son is gay, straight or whatever. It has or should have no relevance.

The world is full of gay people. Great, get on with it but the rest of the world doesn’t need to know. Just like the rest of the world doesn’t need me shouting from the rooftops that I fancy my wife.

I don’t think this player will get any grief. Society has moved on and there’s an openness like never before and rightly so. If he is lauded as some ground breaking hero then we really are taking ten steps backwards.

Think you are hugely wrong. It’s a massive taboo subject in football and I think you’re naive to think otherwise. In an ideal world it shouldn’t matter but we don’t live in an ideal world.
If a guy comes out as gay in the world of football it will be massive.
To compare it with saying you love your wife is somewhat ignorant. You telling the world you love your wife will in no way have the same consequences as the first professional footballer telling the world he is gay.
As I have said earlier, my son recently came out and the impact it will have on his life is huge, and he doesn’t live his life in the public eye.
What I will concede is that there is little need to highlight it anonymously first, just announce it.

 

[Gary Baldi]

Hopefully. Some people will consider the topic is not even worthy of mention as sexuality should not be an issue, but I think the more barriers are publicly broken down the better.

Some fans still think throwing bananas at black players is funny...

The fact a player is willing to come out, will hopefully, make others more comfortable to come out, further normalising the fact that football has gay and bisexual players who play the sport. The bigots won't be able to take it, but so what.

 

[RCYellowRC]

It's fake

 

[dickwalton1964]

Think you are hugely wrong. It’s a massive taboo subject in football and I think you’re naive to think otherwise. In an ideal world it shouldn’t matter but we don’t live in an ideal world.
If a guy comes out as gay in the world of football it will be massive.
To compare it with saying you love your wife is somewhat ignorant. You telling the world you love your wife will in no way have the same consequences as the first professional footballer telling the world he is gay.
As I have said earlier, my son recently came out and the impact it will have on his life is huge, and he doesn’t live his life in the public eye.
What I will concede is that there is little need to highlight it anonymously first, just announce it.

Didn’t Justin Fashanu come out as gay nearly 30 years ago ?

We all moved on from that pretty quickly and that was in a much more tense era in terms of acceptance.

 

[Didcotox]

Didn’t Justin Fashanu come out as gay nearly 30 years ago ?

We all moved on from that pretty quickly and that was in a much more tense era in terms of acceptance.

Once he had retired. Not whilst he was still playing iirc
Just googled it. Killed himself when he was 37 after coming out towards the end of his career. Paid 75k by his brother to keep it quiet. Guess he didn’t get over it as quickly as you @dickwalton1964

 

[Didcotox]

It's fake

Not sure. I think this George idiot is pretending to be the tweeter.

 

[dickwalton1964]

Retired or not it was still way harder for Fashanu 30 years ago than it will be for this player now hence him ultimately taking his life. I don’t know the history surrounding his suicide but my guess is that ‘coming out’ back then had at least some impact in the turmoil he was going through.

This unnamed player is going to be attributed almost hero status in the media and beyond and it will probably enhance his status in the game, irrespective of his talent.

In my opinion the two are incomparable. One was cornered into committing suicide, the other will be hero worshipped in a modern day society that tends to embrace these situations with outpourings of endless support.

 

[werthersoriginal]

This whole discussion shows how much society has come in (in some ways) in the last ten years.

 

[Basham Wonderland]

This forum tends to represent most corners of society and I've never seen an anti gay sentiment on it. Nor are there any anti gay or disapproving comments on this thread.

This appears to be a non issue.

 

[Essexyellows]

Problem with "social media" is that its easy to set up a fake profile, post a message then that gets ripped into by trolls & ejits on the net.

Does that make it easier to come out or harder? I don`t know.

I would rather the player just did it through a more stable/reputable media and that`s that.

In my younger days I`ve happily sung along to homophobic/racist/misogynistic songs at the football.....not because I am any of those things, but its part of the learning curve of life as to what is acceptable or not...... it makes you think and I wouldn`t do it now................I`ve "grown up" !


Unless it`s Swindon.........then its allowed. ? ?

 

[Oufc28]

Whatever happens, it's a sign of real progress that this individual is even considering this. I remember on a few occasions when we were playing away at Kidderminster (late 90s/early 00s I think), they had a player with a peroxide blonde haircut who had the chant 'Gayboy, Gayboy' directed at him for a lot of the game. It was sort of accepted at the time or at least people didn't feel brave enough to complain about it in any numbers. I honestly couldn't see that happening now.

Stats suggest it's 1 in 10 people who are gay and so that's about 3 in every first team/U23 squad.

Pretty sure that player was Bo Henriksen, a quality striker in the lower leagues for a few seasons. Remember the chants too, always easy to remember because the roof was so low at kiddy that away fans could make so much noise.

 

[LondonRoader]

Once he had retired. Not whilst he was still playing iirc
Just googled it. Killed himself when he was 37 after coming out towards the end of his career. Paid 75k by his brother to keep it quiet. Guess he didn’t get over it as quickly as you @dickwalton1964

I think you have to be a bit careful the way you have linked those two together, we were not so aware of mental health issues then as that we are today.

 

[gingerox]

 

[Marked Ox]

I'm waiting for it be advertising a new LBGT+ clothes shop or something a bit like the 'Angel skeleton' in a Simpsons episode that was a marketing ploy for a new Shopping Centre.

 

[Peterdev]

Two of my cousins are gay, one I suspected years ago and he is now happily married to another man. My nephew went to a gay wedding recently and enjoyed it very much, Paul Gambaccini was one of the guests too.
Gay people in my experience have a lot of positives. One of which is their creativity, and one which I have had first hand experience is their generosity and kindness.
It was always bad years ago. Not only was it difficult to admit being gay, it was also hard not to be the target of homophobic crime.
There must be hundreds of gay professional footballers yet to come out

 

[werthersoriginal]

It is important that gay people come out if they feel able to. As a result most of us now know some gay people and it’s no longer an odd’ other thing. There may not be hundreds of gay pro footballers - but there will certainly be several