“Gaygooners has changed my life so many ways” | Feature | News |

Contents:

• ARSENAL’S HECTOR BELLER THE VICTIM OF HOMOPHOBIC SLURS AND SAYS OPENLY GAY PLAYER IS IMPOSSIBLE PREMIER LEAGUE
• ARSENAL’S GAY GOONERS AMONG ENGLISH LGBT SOCCER FAN GROUPS PHG FOR CLN
• 'WE LOVE FOOTBALL AS MUCH AS ANYONE ELSE' - HOW THE GAY GOONERS AND ARSENAL ARE TACKLG HOMOPHOBIA
• RABOW LAC: GAY GOONERS -CHAIR GRATEFUL FOR CLUB'S YEAR-ROUND SUPPORT AHEAD OF ARSENAL VS NEWSTLE MATCH
• EXCLIVE! ARSEBLOG NEWS SPEAKS TO GAY GOONERS ON THEIR 5TH ANNIVERSARY

ARSENAL’S HECTOR BELLER THE VICTIM OF HOMOPHOBIC SLURS AND SAYS OPENLY GAY PLAYER IS IMPOSSIBLE PREMIER LEAGUE

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 holds meet-ups near Emirat Stadium before home fixtur, group trips to away gam and anis regular social events. 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”.

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

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. Two Premier League players are a uple and have e out as gay to their teammat, but not yet, reports suggt the Premier League footballers qutn uld e out a documentary currently productn wh Channel follows Gary Leker recently claimg he was aware of two Premier League players who were thkg of g out as gay soon.

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.

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

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. 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.

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. Arsenal striker Vivianne Miema has said that would take an ele male player g out as gay for football to ever accept homosexualy. Miema, who plays ternatnally for the Netherlands, is openly gay and is a relatnship wh Arsenal team-mate Lisa Evans.

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

When asked if she thought a high-profile men’s player g out now would help bat homophobia football, Miema told the Prs Associatn: “Obvly I like to thk so. In 2019, an anonymo Twter er amassed 50, 000 followers, claimg to be an English Premier League footballer who tend to e out gay.

Gareth Thomas, who was the first openly gay profsnal gby unn player, said that he had ntacted the anonymo player to offer “support”.

It’s disuragg what has happened to Beller and ’s easy to see why he fells that way about an openly gay player.

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

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. 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. Speakg about their weekend, the GayGooners add: “We are credibly proud of the work we have done wh Arsenal over the years.

As Gaygooners celebrat s tenth anniversary this month, we journey back to the begng to see how the first LGBTQ+ supporters’ group UK football me to be. For Stewart Selby, founr of Gaygooners, the dispary the matchday experienc for some supporters pared to others was startlg. “The homophobic abe at that time that was beg screamed at gam, at our stadium and across football, was ankly disgtg.

Stewart grew up the UK only a few years after homosexualy had been crimalised and was nstantly remd that achievg that much 1967 mt have been a tremendo battle.

Sectn 28, which prohibed the ‘promotn of homosexualy’ schools and lol ernment, was only scrapped as recently as 2003.

He set to work wh then-CEO Ivan Gazidis and Communitns Director Mark Gonnella, explorg how to beg the mammoth task of kickg homophobia, biphobia and transphobia out of our game. In June of that same year, the very first members of Gaygooners rried that momentum all the way to Pri London.

From those ial foundatns, Gaygooners grew throughout 2013, as their supporters’ banner took up s home at Emirat Stadium and our pta Thomas Vermaelen and vice-pta Mikel Arteta wore rabow lac the first awarens mpaign of s kd football. Gaygooners began to hold meet-ups before gam for LGBTQ+ supporters and alli to feel a te sense of belongg. Lookg ahead to the next ten years and beyond, Stewart pays tribute to the achievements of the past whilst regnisg the huge role football still has to play eraditg not jt homophobia, but all forms of racism and discrimatn.

Our CEO Vai Venkatham has paid tribute to Gaygooners as te trailblazers, sayg: “Gaygooners has worked tirelsly to spread the msage that everybody should feel wele at Arsenal. We’re so proud of their ground-breakg work, and everyone at Arsenal wish Gaygooners a very happy 10th anniversary. Among the roughly 1000 profsnal male footballers the top four levels of the English league system, not a sgle one is openly gay.

' " says Dave Raval, a former profsnal soccer referee who's now chairman of Arsenal FC's Gay Gooners. ' How n you expect one man, right the middle of this pch, surround by 60, 000 people, to put his hand up and say, 'Hey, I'm the gay one, ' when not a sgle other person has done so? The Gay Gooners, found 2012, were England's first gay soccer fan group, and they now number more than 600, makg them the largt such group anywhere the world.

Even as the UK has ma huge stris toward LGBT equaly recent s, sual homophobia has remaed part of soccer culture.

Although fans who take part often sist such slurs aren't tend as anti-gay — much like fenrs of the famo "puto" chant — the sual e of homophobic language sends the clear msage that this sport isn't for them. Acrdgly, much of the activist work taken on by groups like the Gay Gooners and the Proud Canari has foced on phg club staff to take such abe serly.

" For years, Brighton supporters have tolerated opposg fans chantg homophobic tnts like "do your boyiend know you're here?

At the urgg of gay supporters, "the club put somethg the program for the prev home match sayg, 'this sort of stuff is not acceptable, '" says Raval. Stewards have to be traed to al wh homophobic abe the same way they now al wh racist abe— namely, by removg the offendg fans om the stadium. Fally, LGBT fans and alli have to feel empowered to speak up when they hear homophobic language, eher directly or through a reportg system.

Homophobia don't only show up stadiums large-sle chants, though — 's also heard sual nversatn between fans. Cunngham rells two men who sat behd her and her girliend the 2009-2010 season at Norwich, who "jt nstantly ed 'so gay' and 'poof' and 'faggot. Although she rells the moment as "awkward, " the uple didn't hear any more homophobic ments for the rt of the season.

Another role gay supporters' groups play is helpg get fans who might feel unfortable stadiums to the door. After a few years, thanks to their work wh clubs — as well as some celebry endorsements — word of groups like the Gay Gooners and the Proud Canari had gotten out.