8% of football fans would not watch their team with a gay player

[pishhead]

I find the most distressing thing about that stat is that the 8% are seemingly "winning" this battle; else we'd have had some players come out already.

Why should they "come out" it's absolutely nobodies business.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Its not as if any players are going to have sex on the pitch during the game, so why does it matter who they fancy and why should anyone need to be interested?

 

[BBassic]

Why should they "come out" it's absolutely nobodies business.

At no point did I say anyone should or should not do anything. Don't put words in my mouth.

My point is that if people want to come out yet are afraid to do so then it is likely down to this 8% of people highlighted in the poll.

 

[Stat Brother]

Its not as if any players are going to have sex on the pitch during the game, so why does it matter who they fancy and why should anyone need to be interested?

It's the feelings that prospect might bring up, that's worrying the 8%ers.

 

[Coldeanseagull]

The 8% can be vociferous when sitting/standing in a crowd, how many would openly voice their feelings as an individual?

 

[The Albion Roar]

If he can score goals for fun or defend for his life does his sexual preference matter? I dont think it does and after the initial ' coming out' nobody would care. Did it stop people supporting Martina Navratilova?

For whatever reason women's sport is far more enlightened.

Navratilova is one example of many women sports stars who have come out. There are openly gay women footballers who plays for England.

If only men's sport - or rather, those within it who wish to make a big deal out of very little - could see this issue as socially irrelevant. It's only an issue possibly for the same reason that someone's sexuality actually matters to an insecure, frightened homophobe, when the reality is is shouldn't.

 

[spring hall convert]

Am I the only person a little heartened by this? I thought it would be a fair bit more than 8%. It certainly would have been 20 years ago.

I'd be very interested to see an age breakdown of the 8%.

 

[sydney]

gutter press tactics.........not intent on dividing the community pretty much down the middle with the brexit debacle we now have "poll groups" churning out statistics that divide the community even further gay / straight ....pro gay footballers/anti gay footballers/those who are ambivalent......my personal attitude towards the whole issue is i don't actually have any flying f@@ks to give .....there are far more important issues at hand and this type of bollarks is just a distraction......imho

 

[The Albion Roar]

Why should they "come out" it's absolutely nobodies business.

In that sense, you're correct.

But you could flip the question and ask - assuming we were in a more enlightened society - 'why shouldn't they come out?' It would still be nobody's business, but the social stigma would be irrelevant when making that statement.

 

[Napper]

8 % probably about reflects society I guess.

In pubs and workplaces up the land you always will get people who dislike it

 

[The Albion Roar]

gutter press tactics.........not intent on dividing the community pretty much down the middle with the brexit debacle we now have "poll groups" churning out statistics that divide the community even further gay / straight ....pro gay footballers/anti gay footballers/those who are ambivalent......my personal attitude towards the whole issue is i don't actually have any flying f@@ks to give .....there are far more important issues at hand and this type of bollarks is just a distraction......imho

This isn't about dividing 'gay communities' from 'straight communities' - I've no idea where you got that from. You can't extrapolate that from those sets of figures.

Fair enough you don't give a toss about whether a player is gay or not - none of us should have to.

But to say there are 'far more important issues', would only ever depend on your viewpoint of society. If one in 12 fans can't accept gay players - even in their own team - what chance would someone who is gay have watching football? I can think of some gay friends who won't come to the Albion because they're still judging the dog's abuse they believe they'd get on their experiences of growing up in the 1970s and 80s.

From that survey, it appears some other knuckle-draggers haven't moved on.

Why should anyone who is gay be made to feel excluded from something they like - football in this instance - just because they're gay? So if you have far more important issues to concern yourself with, fine. But to those who are made to feel revulsed or intimidated by homophobic abuse (which can easily become personal, or even violent), I'd suggest that's a far more important issue than you're prepared to give credit for.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Interesting that you didn't stop at the following




but needed to put a caveat onto your statement.

Logically therefore if they don't have great ability you have an issue with their sexuality.

Don't be so silly. You're clearly either on a wind up or looking for something that isn't there. My feeling is that if someone is good enough for a position, they should be employed. Their sexuality should not come into the equation as it is irrelevant.

 

[Triggaaar]

8% of football fans would not watch their team with a gay player

Damn straight.

 

[fat old seagull]

Well I support BHA come what may, if the whole squad was gay, and they won the league I'd even shower with them! Though I'd probably keep my pants on...cant be too careful.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

8 % probably about reflects society I guess.

In pubs and workplaces up the land you always will get people who dislike it

Your post is quite right. It doesn't matter how much you promote Gay Rights and so on, you will always get people who will not accept it. The worst thing people can do is start telling others what we should and shouldn't like, it actually makes things worse.

 

[The Albion Roar]

Your post is quite right. It doesn't matter how much you promote Gay Rights and so on, you will always get people who will not accept it. The worst thing people can do is start telling others what we should and shouldn't like, it actually makes things worse.

That implies education has no value.

People aren't born homophobic - it's a learned trait. It can be unlearned.

 

[Buzzer]

I wouldn't watch a gay footballer have sex. Quite happy to see him kick a football about though, providing it's not part of some sordid S&M bondage role-playing that the club didn't tell me about when I bought my match ticket.

 

[Return of the Rev]

Well I support BHA come what may, if the whole squad was gay, and they won the league I'd even shower with them! Though I'd probably keep my pants on...cant be too careful.

And there we have the homophobic thin end of the wedge

 

[The Albion Roar]

Well I support BHA come what may, if the whole squad was gay, and they won the league I'd even shower with them! Though I'd probably keep my pants on...cant be too careful.

 

[Paul Reids Sock]

I have only read bits and pieces of this thread however just to add my thoughts. I think that the 8% is a little high for people that would genuinely not attend matches.

There are plenty of racist fans in football, even in our club. And yet they still turn up, it may be to shout abuse at people of a different colour or to support them while they are in 'our' shirt. Look at the Albion, we have a black manager, yet there are racist fans that turn up and cheer LuaLua, Bong et al. However the second an opposition player of colour gets the ball out comes the racism. A guy in the South against Preston had no problem with our players and then one of their lads was running from the midfield 'Take out the Black C*nt'.

So in short, I think the same people would still go to football, but 8% (or less depending on how swayed the BBC were with their focus group) would not agree with the personal life of a player that they had previously liked, and possible half would vocalise it if they misplaced a pass or were on the opposition.