Gay Gooners – The Arsenal supporters' group spearheadg clivy football | Football | Metro News

Contents:

• GAY GOONERS CELEBRATE 10 YEARS AS ENGLAND’S FIRST LGBT FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS CLUB
• ARSENAL ‘GAY GOONERS’: BIGGT LGBT FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS CLUB THE WORLD
• ‘THIS MUNY CHANGED MY LIFE’ ARSEBLOG NEWS TALKS TO GAY GOONERS FOR PRI
• GAY GOONERS
• ARSENAL’S GAY GOONERS AMONG ENGLISH LGBT SOCCER FAN GROUPS PHG FOR CLN
• THE GAY GOONERS: SEAN MONCRIEFF TALKS TO THE LARGT LGBTQ FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS GROUP ENGLAND
• RABOW LAC: GAY GOONERS -CHAIR GRATEFUL FOR CLUB'S YEAR-ROUND SUPPORT AHEAD OF ARSENAL VS NEWSTLE MATCH
• 'WE LOVE FOOTBALL AS MUCH AS ANYONE ELSE' - HOW THE GAY GOONERS AND ARSENAL ARE TACKLG HOMOPHOBIA
• EXCLIVE! ARSEBLOG NEWS SPEAKS TO GAY GOONERS ON THEIR 5TH ANNIVERSARY

GAY GOONERS CELEBRATE 10 YEARS AS ENGLAND’S FIRST LGBT FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS CLUB

Gay Gooners exists to provi a social group for LGBT+ Arsenal fans, alli and their iends to meet up, provi a safe and welg space, and mpaign to kick homophobia, biphobia and transphobia out of football.

Gay Gooners’ patron and lifelong Arsenal supporter, edian Matt Lus says he is “immensely proud of and grateful to the club” for s support for the group and how “young gay fans now feel clud by the club a way my generatn never uld”. The club works directly wh members of the Gay Gooners to tackle anti-LGBT+ discrimatn football by vg members to take part cln trag for staff. To celebrate, we ved members of GayGooners to share their experienc of Pri month, tellg what means to have been the first football club reprented at a Pri march.

When a handful of found the GayGooners 2013, Arsenal was the first Premier League club to have an official LGBT supporters group. When we started, homophobic and transphobic abe was still monplace at grounds and on social media, and sometim we uld feel like we were alone. In 2022 I will be attendg my first ever Pri London, and I am so proud to be a part of the GayGooners ntgent for this important event.

ARSENAL ‘GAY GOONERS’: BIGGT LGBT FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS CLUB THE WORLD

Wh football fandom is often still taboo to be out and a same-sex relatnship, and recent months members of GayGooners have been abed and asslted for a simple thg as wearg rabow lac to a game, or holdg their partner’s hand.

It’s up to fan groups like ours to show the world that ’s ok to be Gay, Trans, Non-Bary, Pansexual, Queer, anywhere on the LGBTQI+ spectm and love the game.

‘THIS MUNY CHANGED MY LIFE’ ARSEBLOG NEWS TALKS TO GAY GOONERS FOR PRI

The support of the Arsenal fay - om the club, fellow fans and the iends who make up the GayGooners - at Pri n never be unrstated.

We are makg Arsenal for Everyone, every day - through allyship, through visibily and through thoands of GayGooners beg their thentic selv whether Gay, Lbian, Bi, Trans, Ace or Queer.

Gay Gooners has three simple objectiv: stamp out homophobia football, provi a safe fom for LGBT people to enjoy Arsenal, and act as a social group – jt like any other fans’ anisatn. Last weekend, the club alongsi our LGBTQ+ supporters’ group, GayGooners, celebrated Pri by participatg a seri of events, culmatg the Pri In London Para, wh the highlights available to view above.

GAY GOONERS

After their open-top, double-cker float received a special send off om Mikel Arteta and some of our men’s first-team squad, the GayGooners partied alongsi club lleagu and Arsenal Women’s players Jen Beattie, Jordan Nobbs and Cal Foord, as they ma their way through the packed, lourful streets to soak up the ftivi.

Gay Gooners aim to rid football of the surg that are homophobia, biphobia and transphobia (Picture: Metro/Arsenal/Getty)‘I don’t give a toss that you’re LGBT, you’re an Arsenal fan and you hate Spurs! That is the roundg msage om the -chair of Gay Gooners, Arsenal’s official supporters’ group for LGBT+ fans, Carl Fearn, who wants all fans to be treated equally, no matter their sexualy or genr. Gay Gooners is the official Arsenal supporters’ group for LGBT+ fans (Picture: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Imag)‘I was married for 12 years before I me out, ’ says Fearn.

ARSENAL’S GAY GOONERS AMONG ENGLISH LGBT SOCCER FAN GROUPS PHG FOR CLN

Gay Gooners, who have garnered over 1, 100 members all seven ntents sce the group’s ceptn 2013, are helpg to create a safer environment for LGBT+ fans. It’s a social group for LGBT+ Arsenal supporters and their iends to provi a safe space which they n meet up, share tickets, anise trips to away gam and mpaign to rid football of the surg that are homophobia, biphobia and transphobia. The Gay Gooners banner was unveiled by club legend Pat Rice MBE (Picture: Getty)What’s so special about the group is how has been embraced by Arsenal.

The north London club display the Gay Gooners banner at the Emirat Stadium and ve members to take part cln trag for staff, while the group reprent the Gunners at the annual London Pri para. Arsenal are vtigatg homophobic abe om fans durg a Premier League clash agast Brighton April, where two supporters were ejected om the Emirat Stadium. In the last week of the 2021/22 mpaign, Gay Gooners noted three cints volvg transphobia and homophobia directed towards members of the group.

Carl Fearn wh Arsenal mast Gunnerss (Picture: Getty)Fearn nonts homophobic abers his own diplomatic way, spe standg at over 6’4″ stature, and rells a particularly fond scenar which an aber turned to an ally. He rerc the pot that alli are val, revealg that around 10 per cent of Gay Gooners members intify as straight, but are nohels val supportg the group and speakg out agast discrimatn.

THE GAY GOONERS: SEAN MONCRIEFF TALKS TO THE LARGT LGBTQ FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS GROUP ENGLAND

‘We met up a bar and I was so exced bee I had a flag ma for the game which had the Gay Gooners logo on and at the bottom: “Proudly on tour”. Jake Daniels is the first male profsnal footballer England to e out as gay 32 years (Picture: Sky Sports)In May, Blackpool striker Jake Daniels beme the first male profsnal player English football to e out as gay sce Jt Fashanu 1990.

Patrice Evra recently opened up on the homophobic views aired by some of his former Wt Ham team-mat, claimg they would ll for a gay player to leave the club and refe to share a post-match shower room wh them. Fearn feels footballg thori such as the FA, FIFA and UEFA are somewhat plic that gay footballers are unrreprented posns of power.

‘They brg up this issue of showerg wh gay people and ’s like, “Don’t flatter yourself a gay man don’t tomatilly thk every man on the pla is God’s gift”. If you’re om a certa untry playg for a certa large football club and one of the players me out, the backlash that you might get even though you’re not the gay player might be as bad as what a gay player might get anyway. Gay Gooners were the first official LGBT Supporters Club English football and, wh over 1, 600 members currently, they are the largt the untry.

RABOW LAC: GAY GOONERS -CHAIR GRATEFUL FOR CLUB'S YEAR-ROUND SUPPORT AHEAD OF ARSENAL VS NEWSTLE MATCH

Tim Stillman sat down wh -chair Carl Fearn and members Selena Chambers and Lucy about why Gay Gooners remas such a val muny for LGBT Arsenal fans. Last season, the club started playg a vio the stadium featurg several members of Gay Gooners, as well as Aaron Ramsdale and Kim Ltle, outlg a zero-tolerance approach to homophobic abe the stadium. “I was a pub jt when stadiums re-opened after vid and I heard some horrible homophobic and antisemic abe and the landlord said they didn’t really know how to handle .

“The suici rate among the LGBT muny is far higher than the general populatn, pecially among young gay men and a lot of that is due to that ntuo prsure. “So that homophobic chant or ment might seem like banter but for an LGBT person that’s nstant, that’s another thg to al wh, then there’s another a few mut later, then you read somethg onle or the paper and that prsure builds and people start to thk ‘if people really hate me that much what’s the pot? Lonels is an issue for LGBT people and when you are alone and you are alg wh that, n lead to bad thgs and that’s another one of the reasons we really need a muny like Gay Gooners.

However, Carl is eager to pot out that the Gay Gooners is not somehow exotic nor are the members different om any other Arsenal fans. While the assumptn persists that society gradually liberalis over time, Carl says that homophobia the stands is very much a live issue.

'WE LOVE FOOTBALL AS MUCH AS ANYONE ELSE' - HOW THE GAY GOONERS AND ARSENAL ARE TACKLG HOMOPHOBIA

” (Brighton is one of the ci wh the hight gay populatn Bra and Brighton fans have long been targeted wh homophobic abe om opposg fans).

EXCLIVE! ARSEBLOG NEWS SPEAKS TO GAY GOONERS ON THEIR 5TH ANNIVERSARY

By the time you read this, Arsenal will probably have tweeted about Gay Gooners and London Pri, the annual LGBT ftival central London. Selena says the number of gay women who both play and watch women’s football means that the explosn of the women’s game has led to a greater number of lbian members jog the GGs.

“The way the women’s game has explod this year, we have been able to brg a lot of fans om there so a lot joed this year om the women’s game and now we have a really strong followg of Gay Gooners at the women’s gam gam home and away.