Jt Fashanu: Bra's first out gay footballer remembered on his birthday | Football News | Sky Sports

Contents:

• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• GIANT MURAL ON NORWICH PUB HONOURS JT FASHANU, ENGLAND'S FIRST OPENLY GAY FOOTBALLER
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY
• JT FASHANU: GAY FOOTBALLER'S LIFE TO BE TV DRAMA
• DEATH OF GAY FOOTBALL STAR JT FASHANU MAY HAVE BEEN SUICI
• ANGLETERRE : JT FASHANU, PREMIER FOOTBALLR OUVERTEMENT GAY HALL OF FAME
• 8 MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS WHO DARED TO COME OUT AS GAY
• ‘FASH’: DRAMA PICTG LIFE OF UK’S FIRST OPENLY GAY FOOTBALLER JT FASHANU MISSNED BY ITV
• JAGUARS STRENGTH COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY
• GAY PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALLER 'VERY LIKELY' TO E OUT NEXT YEAR, SAYS JT FASHANU'S NIECE
• JT FASHANU: BRA'S FIRST OUT GAY FOOTBALLER TO BE DUCTED TO HALL OF FAME
• IT’S 30 YEARS SCE JT FASHANU ME OUT AS GAY
• JT FASHANU: THE FIRST OPENLY GAY FOOTBALLER AND WHY HE IS NOW THE HALL OF FAME
• HOW HOMOPHOBIA CLAIMED THE LIFE AND REER OF JT FASHANU, THE WORLD’S FIRST OPENLY GAY FOOTBALLER
• FIVE THGS TO KNOW ABOUT FIRST OPENLY GAY FOOTBALLER JT FASHANU
• JT FASHANU: BRA'S FIRST OUT GAY FOOTBALLER REMEMBERED ON HIS BIRTHDAY
• JAKE DANIELS BE FIRST UK MALE FOOTBALLER TO E OUT AS GAY SCE 1990

JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

-- Jaguars assistant strength and ndng ach Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach major Amerin men's profsnal sports to publicly e out as gay, tellg he ma the cisn bee he didn't want to hi who he is any longer and to possibly spire others siar 's a cisn and move that drew praise and support om owner Shad Khan, who was a vol and emphatic supporter of a cy ordance that expand protectns on the grounds of sexual orientatn, genr inty and genr exprsn. A giant mural of England's first openly gay footballer has been unveiled on the si of a Fashanu remas the only male profsnal player to nfirm he was homosexual - amid fears he would be "outed" by a natnal newspaper 1990 - and was ducted to the footballg Hall of Fame spe now beg seen as an spiratn the fight agast homophobia and discrimatn sport, the proud Canary took his own life 1998 - wrg his suici note that beg gay and a personaly was "so hard" former Norwich Cy striker, who beme the UK's first black £1m player when he was sold to Nottgham Fort, ntu to be seen as a legend at the Norfolk Champnship "wonr strike" agast Liverpool at Carrow Road 1980 went on to w Match of the Day's goal of the season now his face has taken pri of place on the si of a Canari supporters pub. Jacksonville Jaguars assistant strength and ndng ach Kev Maxen cid on Thursday to e out publicly as gay hop of livg his life whout fear and to spire others.

Before jog Jacksonville’s achg staff, he was a strength ach for the football teams at Baylor and Febary 2022, Maxen reached out to NFL player Carl Nassib, who me out as gay 2021, to seek advice. Image source, Andy Trigg/BBCImage ptn, The mural took the graffi artist eight hours to pleteA mural of Jt Fashanu, the first profsnal football player to e out as gay, has been pated on the si of a pub Norwich.

Fashanu grew up Norfolk and signed for Norwich the late source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Former Norwich Cy striker Jt Fashanu me out as gay 1990 while still playg profsnal football"He means a lot to a lot of people, pecially Norfolk, " said Christian Hodgkson, landlord of the Fat Cat and Canary on Thorpe Road, close to the cy centre stadium. Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Jt Fashanu was brought up by foster parents a village near Attleborough NorfolkA new drama is to explore the life of Jt Fashanu, the first top-flight profsnal footballer to e out as gay. After such early promise wh his home club, he sred jt three league goals his first season at Fort and was nonted by manager Brian Clough over his viss to gay clubs.

GIANT MURAL ON NORWICH PUB HONOURS JT FASHANU, ENGLAND'S FIRST OPENLY GAY FOOTBALLER

Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Equal rights mpaigner Amal Fashanu, pictured as a child wh her uncle Jt (left) and father John, ma a documentary about the issu he facedAs the first profsnal footballer to e out as gay while playg - and the only one to do so until Jake Daniels this year - Fashanu's trailblazg bravery more than 30 years ago cemented his place as an in to LGBTQ+ football fans and mpaigners. Fashanu, a former Dr Barnardo's boy who was fostered at the age of five wh his olr brother John, went on to bee the first £1 ln black footballer Bra when he was signed by Nottgham Fort 1981 aged a famoly difficult relatnship wh the club's then manager, Brian Clough, and Fashanu's renowned temper soon found him out of favour wh the club and he slipped quickly and spectacular fashn om the First Divisn of English football to the backwaters of the Third his own words, Fashanu's failure to achieve the succs his talent served was due, part, to his admissn that he was gay.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY

Jt Fashanu, premier jour profsnnel anglais à avoir revendiqué publiquement son homosexualé en 1990 et qui s't ensue suicidé, entre ce mercredi Hall of Fame. Journaliste, elle s'occupe - x côtés son père qui a fa amen honorable sur s pris posn passé - la Fondatn Jt Fashanu qui lutte ntre l'homophobie, le racisme et l troubl mentx chez l footballrs. Read ThisThe drama will also be shown on ITVX A drama pictg the life of Jt Fashanu, the UK’s first openly gay profsnal footballer, has been missned by ITV.

Fashanu's niece Amal, who ns The Jt Fashanu Foundatn, will receive the award on what would have been her uncle's 59th Foundatn has been set up to highlight the issu of homophobia and other forms of discrimatn both grassroots football and the profsnal game, while also aimg to raise the participatn of LGBT people told Sky Sports News: "I thk he wouldn't believe himself.

"I gus for Jt this would be a great moment and I thk 's a pivotal moment when we are fally regnisg who Jt Fashanu was, not only as the openly gay footballer, but also as a very talented footballer and the first ln-pound black player England. I thk everyone, other dtri, we're very happy to accept is gay or who is whatever they choose to be, but I gus wh football, bee is such a close-kn, dark archaic kd of vibe, 's very difficult. The reactn of Jt's fay was not as supportive as uld have been when he me out, said Amal, but time - and talkg - has helped, wh brother John a tstee of The Jt Fashanu Foundatn foc on awarens and tn, wh key areas of support mental health, homophobia and racism add: "My Dad fely regrets that.

JT FASHANU: GAY FOOTBALLER'S LIFE TO BE TV DRAMA

To this day, he’s the UK’s only top-tier male football star to clare his homosexualy while still playg this untry, ” said human rights mpaigner Peter Tatchell who was a close personal iend of Fashanu om 1981-85. “Even if (Jt) Fashanu had chosen to e out The Voice rather than The Sun, I doubt his receptn would have been any more sympathetic, ” noted Gay Tim media lumnist, Terry Sanrson, at the time.

But nearly a later, ultimately me at a tragic price - Fashanu took his own life, wrg his suici note that beg gay and a personaly "is so hard" the first black man to tra football clubs for a fee of £1 ln, Fashanu is remembered by many to be a trailblazer English football for more than one reason.

DEATH OF GAY FOOTBALL STAR JT FASHANU MAY HAVE BEEN SUICI

Cred: PAA promisg young striker, Fashanu imprsed as part of the Norwich Cy amy and signed his first profsnal ntract December 1978, aged a month - and jt before he turned 18 - he was ma his first league appearance for Norwich and would tablish himself as a regular John Bond's young forward's eye for goals soon ught the attentn of bigger clubs, wh his stunng volley agast Liverpool voted Goal of the Season strike is still nsired one of the bt goals ever sred at Carrow Road, Norwich Cy's home are more female footballers openly gay or bisexual than male players? Cred: PAA clearly talented player, Fashanu's reer perhaps should have clud more trophi, goals and England potential was certaly curtailed by football's - and society's - unwillgns to accept Fashanu's sexualy, even before he publicly me 's said that Clough, nsired one of the greatt managers of all time, did not take kdly to Fashanu's his tobgraphy, he looks back at a time he nonted the young striker after mours he spent time gay bars.

ANGLETERRE : JT FASHANU, PREMIER FOOTBALLR OUVERTEMENT GAY HALL OF FAME

Cred: PAFashanu is nsired by many the game as a the first black man to mand a seven-figure fee and the first profsnal footballer to e out as gay, he broke through two ceilgs at a time football hooliganism was at s this day, he is still the only profsnal top-level footballer to e out publicly Jt Fashanu Foundatn, found by his niece Amal, works to nont prejudice wh football, supports those sufferg wh mental health issu and has a special foc on the LGBT Fashanu spoke of her uncle's admissn to the Hall of Fame. However, he ntued to disrpect his brother’s memory when he claimed a 2012 terview wh talkSPORT rad that his brother was not gay but merely a fame-obssed attentn-seeker.

8 MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS WHO DARED TO COME OUT AS GAY

By g out The Sun, he hoped s reporters would cease houndg him: “I genuely thought that if I me out the worst newspapers and remaed strong and posive about beg gay, there would be nothg more that they uld say. However, the book, Stonewall 25, Jt claimed that he me out bee he was distrsed by the tragedy of a 17-year-old gay iend who had been forced out of his fay home by homophobic parents, and who subsequently mted suici: “I felt angry at the waste of his life and guilty bee I had not been able to help him. Jt was closeted back then and found immensely difficult to be gay the macho, straight world of football — not to mentn the strs of livg a secret gay life while unr the glare of the media spotlight.

‘FASH’: DRAMA PICTG LIFE OF UK’S FIRST OPENLY GAY FOOTBALLER JT FASHANU MISSNED BY ITV

A Gay Tim ver issue 1991 said: “The Sun dragged out the tale wh tillatg stori of sexual enunters wh unnamed MPs, football players and pop stars, which, he claims, were largely unte. "'Ups and Downs', wh s theme of snak and ladrs, is a metaphor for the turbulent, peripatetic life of one of Brish football's most mythic figur, who would have celebrated his 58th birthday on is among those helpg to keep Fashanu's memory alive at this time of year, wh Febary the signated month of actn for Football v Homophobia, known as The Jt Campaign when was found 2008. As the game enunters h, high-profile cints of racism and homophobia - forms of discrimatn that afflicted Fashanu throughout his life - Yat' art ntu to spark important nversatns for all age groups.

Fashanu's nfince, cultivated Norwich, was nspicuo by s absence fans hoped Fashanu would fd his goal touch, but stead he found God, addg another layer of plexy to his stggle to accept that he was gay.

He hadn't e out at that time as beg gay and although we knew the sre and so did our players, he was terrified about how people - and the media particular - would react if he ma public.

JAGUARS STRENGTH COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY

Eight years later, the knee jury meant his reer was limpg om club to club, and by now acctomed to a certa level of celebry, his personal life was a mody he was fally willg to was an evable sualty - Fashanu would claim to Gay Tim the followg summer that tall tal the Sun article about affairs wh unnamed Tory MPs and pop stars were largely unte - but was the ostracism that hurt him personally. As an advote for change, he has also brought the LGBT-clive msag of The Jt Campaign and Football v Homophobia to fans, clubs, unty FAs and other anisatns for well over a Jt he knew was always sg. The anti-gay Sectn 28 had been troduced jt three years prevly, while the untry was still the grip of the HIV / AIDS crisis - the day after Fashanu signed for Torquay, Freddie Mercury passed away.

At a lock-up garage Shoredch, east London, Bra’s first £1 ln black footballer, bt known for beg the only Brish player to have clared himself gay, cid his life was no longer worth livg.

GAY PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALLER 'VERY LIKELY' TO E OUT NEXT YEAR, SAYS JT FASHANU'S NIECE

He says that Fashanu would have a place Brish parliament now, such was his strength of urage, his lucidy and the multiplicy of opprsn he experienced as a gay black footballer’s fierct crics, however, would ntend that Fashanu may only have recently emerged om a long stt a prison cell the Uned Stat. The laws, effectively banng sexual relatns between gay people, were enshred unr the same “Unnatural or Perverted Sexual Practic Act” that clared illegal to have sexual relatns wh an animal. In a suici note, Fashanu sisted that his sexual ntact wh the young man was nsensual and he also exprsed fears that he would not receive a fair trial as a black gay man agast a whe plaant the US state.

He offered to pay his brother not to e out and, when Jt did so anyway, John scribed his gay siblg as an “utter stranger” and said he would not share a post-match shower wh Jt if they were on the same team. In 2018, he nced he had acted like a “monster” yet only 2012, he angered those the gay muny who grew to admire Jt when he alleged that his siblg had never really been gay. The tabloid media, turbocharged by a Conservative ernment that monised gay people unr law and stigmatised the muny s rhetoric, prid over alarmg levels of tsn.

One lumnist the black muny newspaper The Voice said he “belonged to Satan” as part of a vastatg spread of verage, cludg a ont-page terview wh his brother John, unr the headle of “My Gay Brother is an Outst”. This report tails the rarely told story of the spirg black gay activists who waged a year-long mpaign to secure fairer verage for Jt and black lbian and gay people Bra.

JT FASHANU: BRA'S FIRST OUT GAY FOOTBALLER TO BE DUCTED TO HALL OF FAME

His gay iends and some former lovers provi a unique and upliftg sight to a voyage of gay disvery that was vibrant, bold and utterly radil for a footballer. Yet equaly remaed, notably around the age of nsent and the right to marry, while broar prejudice was the 1980s, an environment that had already rtricted the eedoms and rights of gay men beme downright hateful. In the Uned Stat, HIV was publicly scribed as GRID (Gay Related Immune Deficiency) for several months 1982, suggtg there was somethg particular to gay people that renred the muny rponsible for the vis.

Cashman, now a member of the Hoe of Lords, was a gay actor the Brish soap opera Eastenrs and his character performed the first gay kiss a Brish soap 1989. The pair met at the London gay nightclub Heaven, where Cashman’s partner, Pl Cottgham, clicked wh Fashanu over their shared love of the backdrop of the was btal. Cashman on a rally the 1980s Manchter (Photo: Reid/Mirrorpix/Getty Imag)The prevalence of HIV among gay men provid nfirmatn bias for the most damagg homophobic trop.

To unrstand the climate Fashanu endured, the verage of natnal newspapers needs to be spelt Febary 7, 1985, The Sun ran a headle that read: “Aids is the wrath of God, says Vir” same newspaper wrote the headle: “Perverts are to blame for killer plague” The People, the edian Bernard Manng argued that gay actors should be banned om televisn, stage, clubs and pubs so they do not “rpt the children”. The Tim wrote a lear edorial argug that “many members of the public are tempted to see AIDS some sort of retributn for a qutnable style of life” were dropped about celebri spected to be gay. Tatchell beme one of Bra’s most famo human rights activists and he endured one of the most homophobic polil mpaigns recent memory, cludg a bullet through his letterbox, when he stood the 1983 Bermondsey pair beme “close”, Tatchell says.

IT’S 30 YEARS SCE JT FASHANU ME OUT AS GAY

He spoke out about the manner which the police targeted gay people, particular how the thori sought to drs provotively outsi gay bars to entice and entrap gay men to sexual ntact for which they uld be is ltle wonr, therefore, that Fashanu regnised the need to be fensive when reports of his viss to gay nightclubs returned to his manager Clough and soon spread like wildfire the Fort drsg room 1982. The next morng, the pair went for breakfast and Fashanu spoke a ltle more openly about his explas: “It was challengg for him, between the Evangelil and Pentestal muni, where was perceived as hard to be Christian and gay.

Bullet pots clu the opposn of “certa church to accept and/or endorse sexually active same-sex partnerships as a legimate form of Christian relatnship” also adds that while evangelil ngregatns should wele sexually active lbians and gay men, “they should do so the expectatn that they will e due urse to see the need to be transformed and live acrdance wh orthodox church teachg”.

“There is a tenncy to thk that if God do not want to happen, then wh God’s help, you n change , perhaps by gog through some cure procs, such as ‘prayg away the gay’.

JT FASHANU: THE FIRST OPENLY GAY FOOTBALLER AND WHY HE IS NOW THE HALL OF FAME

I phoned up my iend, the edor of The Sun Kelv MacKenzie and told him he uld do his own story, nfs he is gay and talk about other footballers, MPs, whatever. The Brixton Rt led to the formatn of The Voice newspaper (Photo: Simon Dack/David Levenson/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Imag)Aaab-Richards, a black gay activist who also worked a support centre for LGBT people, rells: “It was not jt that day. ’”Brown had prevly mpaigned publicly when the Jamain reggae star Buju Banton released a sgle lled Boom Bye Bye 1988 which the sger sang about shootg gay men, pourg acid on them and burng them alive.

HOW HOMOPHOBIA CLAIMED THE LIFE AND REER OF JT FASHANU, THE WORLD’S FIRST OPENLY GAY FOOTBALLER

Brown, for his part, says the only thg that stopped him om killg himself as a teenager was the knowledge that his siblgs were re and need his was the vice-chair of the Lewisham branch of the Natnal and Lol Government Officers’ Associatn (NALGO) and a member of the black and gay uc.

NALGO’s headquarters endorsed a boytt policy on The Voice, which saw advertisers threaten to whdraw fundg om the newspaper rponse to the severy of the homophobia.

FIVE THGS TO KNOW ABOUT FIRST OPENLY GAY FOOTBALLER JT FASHANU

Yet he is able to diagnose some of the nspirg factors that had led to a particularly vehement tone of homophobia wh sectns of black Brish society 1990.

It is te to say there may have been a wir homophobic culture than the whe world at that pot, but arguably that was also bee the whe world had a larger middle class and were, some ways, more sorted. ”Jt Fashanu would later say that his brother John was “gog around wh a crowd of black guys at the time and for them, homosexualy was worse than murr” Aaab-Richards and Brown, there is some endurg sadns, that Fashanu did not embrace the opportuny to nnect wh the black gay muny after growg up predomantly whe surroundgs. The pair believe that spendg more time wh the tersectn of black gay men may have helped Fashanu velop a “more posive iology of self” and he may have found “kdred spirs”.

Aaab-Richards did manage to nnect Fashanu wh a younger black gay man, who was a football votee and keen to speak to the ’s fal attempts were, sadly, unsuccsful as he reached out to ntact Fashanu the fal few weeks of his life.

JT FASHANU: BRA'S FIRST OUT GAY FOOTBALLER REMEMBERED ON HIS BIRTHDAY

In May 1991, he joed Cashman for a BBC documentary, where a seri of gay and lbian people om different walks of life addrsed homophobia over a dner party. When he attend the terview wh The Voice newspaper durg the same summer, the journalist Abayo rells how Fashanu brought an attractive whe man along wh him, who he prumed to be the footballer’s boyiend at the Hanwell, a receptnist at Gay Tim 30 years ago (he is now a non-executive director at the publitn), reunts: “Back then, Jt was a regular visor to the offic and we always chatted.

“I expected him to tell me to piss off, ” says the former Gay Tim employee Terry Deal, who anised the everyone, should be said, has entirely fond memori of Fashanu’s arrival on the scene. ”His former Wt Ham team-mate Leroy Rosenr admted recently how he “left that void of homophobia to grow” bee he did not speak out when players walked out of the post-match bath as soon as Fashanu stepped said: “I knew why they’d got up and walked out and so did Jt and I didn’t know what to say. In se fil ma available to Baker, Fashanu is alleged to have told li to the vtigators, nyg that he was a gay man and nyg sexual ntact when first terviewed by the officer.

JAKE DANIELS BE FIRST UK MALE FOOTBALLER TO E OUT AS GAY SCE 1990

Those who spoke to Fashanu between his return to London at the end of March and his ath at the begng of May scribe a sred and isolated Tell, an acquatance of Fashanu, saw him the Coleherne Arms gay pub Earls Court, London. Ted Brown, the black gay activist who untered The Voice’s homophobic verage but did not have a personal iendship wh Fashanu, says: “If he had been hetersoexual or whe, the disptn to his reputatn would have been nothg pared to that of a black gay men.

”Jay Lemoni, a black gay man who has worked sports cln projects and plays for Stonewall FC (an LGBT-iendly football team London), says people his posn craved an example while growg up. Photograph: Pl Dennis/TGS Photo/ShutterstockDaniels’s revelatn is a strikg landmark that when men’s football is more engaged wh social issu than any recent time, but still unable to ce progrs LGBTQ reprentatn wh the year Alai Uned’s Josh Cavallo beme the only male top-flight profsnal footballer the world to e out as gay, but others are yet to follow. In six months the men’s World Cup will be played Qatar, where homosexualy is illegal, and Cavallo revealed to the Guardian he would be “sred” to play at the tournament, the pnacle of world English football specifilly, the shadow of the talented and unfulfilled Fashanu still lgers over the game.

The England ternatnal me out at the end of his reer and was to take his own life eight years later, Fashanu, Jt’s niece, who ns a charable foundatn his name, said that Daniels’s cisn would “e as a huge fort to the many footballers at all levels of the game still secretly livg as gay and who still feel unable to e out”.