Zanr Murray is first current Sttish profsnal player to e out as gay | Football | The Guardian

Contents:

• FOOTBALLER MURRAY 'BLOWN AWAY' BY SUPPORT AFTER G OUT AS GAY
• ZANR MURRAY: GALA FAIRYAN ROVERS STRIKER BE FIRST OPENLY GAY STTISH PROFSNAL
• JAKE DANIELS BE FIRST UK MALE FOOTBALLER TO E OUT AS GAY SCE 1990
• DPE S BT TENTNS, FOOTBALL REMAS UNWELG OF GAY FANS
• STTISH PRO SOCCER PLAYER ZANR MURRAY OUT AS GAY
• ZANR MURRAY: GALA FAIRYAN ROVERS STRIKER BE FIRST STTISH SENR FOOTBALLER TO E OUT AS GAY
• CRAIG NAPIER AND LLOYD WILSON: STTISH REFERE E OUT AS GAY BID TO 'CHANGE CLIMATE' FOOTBALL
• GAY PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALLER 'VERY LIKELY' TO E OUT NEXT YEAR, SAYS JT FASHANU'S NIECE
• STTISH FOOTBALL REFERE CRAIG NAPIER AND LLOYD WILSON E OUT AS GAY
• JAKE DANIELS: BLACKPOOL FORWARD BE UK'S FIRST ACTIVE MALE PROFSNAL FOOTBALLER TO E OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY
• ZANR MURRAY IS FIRST CURRENT STTISH PROFSNAL PLAYER TO E OUT AS GAY

FOOTBALLER MURRAY 'BLOWN AWAY' BY SUPPORT AFTER G OUT AS GAY

Gala Fairyan Rovers striker Zanr Murray has bee the first Sttish senr footballer to e out as is the first openly gay player the men's profsnal ranks Stland sce Jt Fashanu wh Airdrie and Hearts the 30-year-old Lowland League player follows the example of refere Craig Napier and Lloyd Wilson June. "Murray said that remag the closet was "playg havoc wh my life", so "I put a post on my social media tellg folk I was gay".

English striker Fashanu moved to Airdrieonians three years after g out as gay before later playg for Heart of Midlothian and remas the only openly gay player to play Stland's top tier.

ZANR MURRAY: GALA FAIRYAN ROVERS STRIKER BE FIRST OPENLY GAY STTISH PROFSNAL

Blackpool forward Jake Daniels ma what Murray scrib as his "amazg" cisn May, closely followed by the two Sttish refere, but the Gala striker is disappoted there are no platforms offerg support to young gay male footballers. "Of urse there are gay footballers our game and I have had lots of players get touch sayg they have read my post and they n't believe how strong I am by dog this, " Murray said.

Media ptn, 'I want to spire young men to be themselv' - Zanr MurrayIs football homophobic and what n we do if is? My cisn last September to bee the first male Sttish senr footballer to e out publicly as gay was not an easy or quick one. I knew I was gay and I fought agast .

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

Image source, Craig Brown - SNS GroupImage ptn, Zanr Murray sr agast Schie Junrs the Sttish CupThe were the sorts of nversatns young lads have - about girls, beg tough, playg hard, and the language ed to scribe gay men was not what you would ll were jt boys and didn't know any better but did set me apart om my gog out on the pch was my relief, I slowly turned away om the game and gave up on my dream of playg football my 20s I started playg serly aga, buildg up through smaller teams. 5% of the UK male populatn intifi as gay or bisexual. So wh more than 1, 000 profsnal male footballers Stland you'd expect about 35 of them to be gay.

DPE S BT TENTNS, FOOTBALL REMAS UNWELG OF GAY FANS

In the urse of filmg the documentary I've heard first-hand ttimony om fans, amatr players, and my iend the referee Lloyd Wilson, about how homophobic language mak them feel.

A survey last year showed only 6% of gay men take part team sports. And many say 's homophobia that's stoppg them jog is a problem here, so how do we tackle ? This season, the Sttish Football Associatn troduced Disciplary Rule 81, which rults a 10-match ban for any player or club official who engag homophobic abe, or any other form of discrimatory behavur and around has been ed 22 tim this season.

And 17 of the have been bee of a homophobic slur or a homophobic actn on or around the field of play.

STTISH PRO SOCCER PLAYER ZANR MURRAY OUT AS GAY

The SFA and the chary LEAP have a "Football vs Homophobia" strategy, which I support. I'm now signed to Bonnyrigg Rose, fulfillg my dream of playg the profsnal has been an amazg six months for me, but I'm not llg on other gay male players to e out. The Blackpool forward Jake Daniels has end s of silence wh men’s football to bee the first player the UK to e out as gay sce Jt Fashanu 1990.

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”.

I, personally, am not even particularly offend by the moment; I jt fot that this was what was like, that spe the years of rabow lac and pta’s armbands, Sttish football – that is, men’s Sttish football – still has a problem wh homophobia. Ined, jt over half of Sttish football fans surveyed by the Equaly Network 2017 reported wnsg homophobic behavur at a football ground. And yet while the polici agast homophobic language rema as strgent as that agast racism, the realy of enforcement is is, I thk, partly bee of the way homophobic language has imbedd self so eply to the Sttish vernacular as to seem almost nocuo.

ZANR MURRAY: GALA FAIRYAN ROVERS STRIKER BE FIRST STTISH SENR FOOTBALLER TO E OUT AS GAY

In all my algs wh him he had never said an unkd word or treated me any way differently bee I was gay.

Gay people are largely treated as llateral damage. I jt want to watch the people pot to the notable absence of any openly gay football players a major league as proof of the hospable environment. He hung himself after beg acced of sexually assltg a 17-year-old boy the state of Maryland (where all homosexual acts were, at that time, illegal) his suici note stated: “I realised I had already been prumed guilty.

” However, I thk is fair to say that football clubs themselv are more welg plac to gay players than they ever were Fashanu’s time. Even if the prence of Malky Mackay as the SFA’s performance director – a man wh a known history of sual homophobia – is hardly hearteng, the environment for homosexual players is unniably more welg than ever has been. A gay football player would not only have to al wh the evable hecklg of the opposn fans, but also wir society’s need to celebrate them for an attribute they never had a say ; a facet of their character that, unlike their skill as a player, didn’t take years of graft and trag.

CRAIG NAPIER AND LLOYD WILSON: STTISH REFERE E OUT AS GAY BID TO 'CHANGE CLIMATE' FOOTBALL

The dilemma any prospective gay footballer fac is that their reer would be overshadowed by their story. Whoever choos to bee the first openly gay profsnal male football player the UK would be fallg on a sword that would bleed them of their privacy. Bee until young gay players n see themselv the Premier League all but the strongt-willed will hang up their boots prematurely.

Nobody should have to sacrifice their personal fort orr to prove that a gay player’s life don’t have to end tragedy. How is anyone expected to report homophobic language when the victims of s damage rema anonymo? A gay footballer might have given me hope.

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

An openly gay footballer wouldn’t jt benef the LGBT muny; would benef football. SNP's John Nilson, the shadow secretary for digal, culture, media and sport, said was "shockg the 21st century" that gay footballers do not feel supported enough to exprs what their sexualy is and nmned football admistrators for not dog enough. Retired footballer Thomas Beattie, formerly wh Hull Cy, me out publicly as gay last month.

He has said he believ fans are the reason why no current profsnals have e out as gay.

STTISH FOOTBALL REFERE CRAIG NAPIER AND LLOYD WILSON E OUT AS GAY

US women's soccer star and talisman Megan Rapoe peted for her untry the World Cup last summer, durg Pri month, along wh the 39 other proudly gay players the tournament. Mr Nilson, 59, who beme the first BBC work televisn prenter to e out as gay when a prenter on BBC Breakfast 1999, has told the Digal, Culture, Media and Sport mtee that the first current footballer to e out stood to ga massively fancially - but appeared to be not enough.

"I have a iend who is an agent and he told me the first gay footballer would make an absolute fortune bee big pani would want to be associated wh the first footballer to e out. "What seems to me, speakg as a gay man myself, is that footballers are an enormoly privileged posn.

JAKE DANIELS: BLACKPOOL FORWARD BE UK'S FIRST ACTIVE MALE PROFSNAL FOOTBALLER TO E OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY

When I was on this select mtee 2015, and remend a homophobia sport quiry which we did, there were no gay footballers out and here we are five years on and there are still no gay footballers out. READ MORE: Mark Smh - I know there are gay footballers Stland bee I tried to nvce one to go public. Zanr Murray, a pro soccer player Stland, says the great time he had gog to a Pri event this year nvced him to e out as openly gay.

Media reports say Murray is the first Sttish senr soccer player to e out as gay. All three men me out this sprg as gay.

ZANR MURRAY IS FIRST CURRENT STTISH PROFSNAL PLAYER TO E OUT AS GAY

Sce g out, Murray has heard om other gay athlet, he told the Sun, provg the power of publicly beg out. “I know there are other gay men playg football Stland, the leagu, and I hope this giv them strength to speak out.

A uple of sportsmen have msaged me wh support, and I had no ia they were gay.