joey barton - gay footballers

[brightn'ove]

BBC News - The silence over gay footballers

Brilliant article, with a short clip of Justin Fashanu's niece talking to Joey Barton about how little progress has been made to eradicate homophobia from football.

I was a little surprised to see joey barton speak openly about homosexual players, he raises a good point, it isn't just the fans which put pressure on players not to come out, but it is the 'archaic' (being the word he uses) managers, the dinosaurs that reside over football who are still maintaining the hostility towards gay players.

Hes gone up in my books, but he is still a c*nt

 

[Danny-Boy]

Albion should take the lead in my opinion by encouraging one of their squad to "Come out". But which one?

Seriously the home of homosexual tolerance should not be afraid to take the lead into this field.

 

[Hotchilidog]

Good stuff from Barton there. Despite some of his more erratic behaviour he clearly does have a brain up there somewhere. It really is astonishing that sport in general (not just football) has still to throw off the shackles of prejudice when so many other aspects of public life no longer have an issue with a persons sexuality.

 

[Nathan]

Good stuff from Barton there. Despite some of his more erratic behaviour he clearly does have a brain up there somewhere. It really is astonishing that sport in general (not just football) has still to throw off the shackles of prejudice when so many other aspects of public life no longer have an issue with a persons sexuality.

But its not just sport, Hollywood and TV is the same.

Tom Cruise*
George Clooney*
Simon Cowell*






* Hollywood actors / TV people. Just saying.

 

[brightn'ove]

Albion should take the lead in my opinion by encouraging one of their squad to "Come out". But which one?

Seriously the home of homosexual tolerance should not be afraid to take the lead into this field.

I agree, i was speaking to somebody at university who was talking about Gary Speed and the rumours about his suicide, and we ended up talking about justin fashanu and how as the 'gay capital' of europe our football club should be at the forefront of trying to get this crap kicked out of the game. He also made a good point that in order to get people to take even the slightest bit of notice we need to be in the premier league, not just for one season but a sustained run. It would get peoples heads up and people would start taking notice.

 

[halbpro]

Albion should take the lead in my opinion by encouraging one of their squad to "Come out". But which one?

Seriously the home of homosexual tolerance should not be afraid to take the lead into this field.

I'm not sure the necessarily encouraging an individual to come out is the best way, but more just Gus and Tony sitting down with the players and saying something like "Look if any of you wished to come out the club would stand completely behind you and give you our full support." I think giving the support is essential, but it's a personal decision for anyone football player or not.

 

[beorhthelm]

Albion should take the lead in my opinion by encouraging one of their squad to "Come out". But which one?

what, even if none of them are gay? should we just designate a gay player? maybe the FA would take a lead from this and insist on a quota.

 

[Aseros]

I'm not sure the necessarily encouraging an individual to come out is the best way, but more just Gus and Tony sitting down with the players and saying something like "Look if any of you wished to come out the club would stand completely behind you and give you our full support." I think giving the support is essential, but it's a personal decision for anyone football player or not.

What a fantastic meeting that would be.

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

I think we should implement a transfer policy to only sign homosexual players, or at the very least bi-sexual.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

maybe we could implement a athletic bilbao system where we only sign gay players........or players of gay heritage

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

Albion should take the lead in my opinion by encouraging one of their squad to "Come out". But which one?

Seriously the home of homosexual tolerance should not be afraid to take the lead into this field.

maybe we don't have any

 

[gruntage]

I still think baron is a c@nt but he has definately gone up in my estimations. As he said, more straight players need to speak up about the issue to make it clear that its perfectly fine for players to be gay, which would provide immeasurable support to any gay players who want to come out.

 

[sydney]

Albion should take the lead in my opinion by encouraging one of their squad to "Come out". But which one?

Seriously the home of homosexual tolerance should not be afraid to take the lead into this field.

oh my goodness , your cutting whit leaves me , occasionally dumbfounded ,you are truly a comedic juggernaut .........that is it for the moment.

 

[mikes smalls]

Barton aside, from a sports marketing point of view I think an openly gay footballer playing for a top team could make millions from endorsements.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

There are obviously some gay players at some clubs the law of averages would dictate that.

But like others have said we may not have any gay players to our club at the moment.

 

[Dirk Gently]

I'm sure the majority of gay players know who the others are, so I think the best option would be for a number of players across the game to come out together. That way it'd break down the tribalism and using homophobia as an extension of verbally abusing a specific team - it's harder to abuse a gay player when your own team has them.

Then again, back in the late80s/early 90s when racism issues were at least being tackled I did hear an outraged supporter complain about another team's supporters by saying "and they were really racist to our darkies" ....

 

[Nathan]

I'm sure the majority of gay players know who the others are, so I think the best option would be for a number of players across the game to come out together. ....

What all holding hands?

Do you also think they go to the same club 'gay footballers only' nights?

Or just chat each other up during a game?

 

[The Large One]

The Albion Roar - 28th January (The Justin Campaign)

 

[halbpro]

I'm sure the majority of gay players know who the others are, so I think the best option would be for a number of players across the game to come out together. That way it'd break down the tribalism and using homophobia as an extension of verbally abusing a specific team - it's harder to abuse a gay player when your own team has them.

Then again, back in the late80s/early 90s when racism issues were at least being tackled I did hear an outraged supporter complain about another team's supporters by saying "and they were really racist to our darkies" ....

That would probably be the best way of tackling it, bring everyone together at once. A strong show makes it easier as well, I would imagine for anyone coming out it can't be easy let alone someone in the public eye. Coming out with others together seems like it might make things easier for any who chose to come out (although by no means easy).

 

[upthealbion1970]

BBC News - The silence over gay footballers

Brilliant article, with a short clip of Justin Fashanu's niece talking to Joey Barton about how little progress has been made to eradicate homophobia from football.

I was a little surprised to see joey barton speak openly about homosexual players, he raises a good point, it isn't just the fans which put pressure on players not to come out, but it is the 'archaic' (being the word he uses) managers, the dinosaurs that reside over football who are still maintaining the hostility towards gay players.

Hes gone up in my books, but he is still a c*nt

The programme makers were at the Amex a few weeks ago (can't remember which game), myself and BrightonBoysOnTour were interviewed for it.