Josh Cavallo is one of the few male top-level footballers to e out as gay : NPR

Contents:

• MEET THE 16 OUT GAY AND BI FOOTBALL PLAYERS THE NFL’S 103-YEAR HISTORY
• ‘I HAVE BEEN FIGHTG MY SEXUALY’: A-LEAGUE MEN PLAYER JOSH CAVALLO OUT AS GAY
• THE 39 CURRENT NFL PLAYERS HAVE ALL PLAYED WH AN OUT GAY TEAMMATE
• RAIRS’ CARL NASSIB ANNOUNC HE’S GAY, AN N.F.L. FIRST
• THREE GAY FOOTBALL PLAYERS FEATURED NFL NETWORK SEGMENT ON CARL NASSIB
• 8 MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS WHO DARED TO COME OUT AS GAY
• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• JOSH CAVALLO BE ONE OF THE FEW PROFSNAL MEN'S FOOTBALLERS TO E OUT AS GAY
• WHY ARE THERE STILL NO GAY PROFSNAL ASSOCIATN FOOTBALL PLAYERS MEN’S MAJOR LEAGU? REVISG THE VIEWS OF FOOTBALL FANS THE UNED KGDOMWHY ARE THERE STILL NO GAY PROFSNAL ASSOCIATN FOOTBALL PLAYERS MEN’S MAJOR LEAGU? REVISG THE VIEWS OF FOOTBALL FANS THE UNED KGDOMWHY ARE THERE STILL NO GAY PROFSNAL ASSOCIATN FOOTBALL PLAYERS MEN’S MAJOR LEAGU? REVISG THE VIEWS OF FOOTBALL FANS THE UNED KGDOMWHY ARE THERE STILL NO GAY PROFSNAL ASSOCIATN FOOTBALL PLAYERS MEN’S MAJOR LEAGU? REVISG THE VIEWS OF FOOTBALL FANS THE UNED KGDOMWHY ARE THERE STILL NO GAY PROFSNAL ASSOCIATN FOOTBALL PLAYERS MEN’S MAJOR LEAGU? REVISG THE VIEWS OF FOOTBALL FANS THE UNED KGDOM
• NFL ACH BE FIRST MALE ACH MAJOR U.S. MEN’S PRO SPORTS TO E OUT AS GAY
• MOVG TO GAY IDAHO? THG TO KNOW BEFORE RELOTG HERE AS AN LGBT PERSON.

MEET THE 16 OUT GAY AND BI FOOTBALL PLAYERS THE NFL’S 103-YEAR HISTORY

Amerin former Leeds player Robbie Rogers also announced he was gay on retirg 2013, before returng to the field wh LA Galaxy and wng the MLS Cup to bee the first openly gay male athlete to w a major profsnal team sports tle the Uned 2019, former Newstle Jets player Andy Brennan beme Atralia’s first profsnal male footballer to e out while still playg the game. Wh that experience, solid veteran learship, a ach Kliff Kgsbury who has ld gay football player Stt Frantz, and a ont office that has monstrated an embrace of LGBTQ people, is easy to make the se that an out gay player wh the Cardals would be weled. I actually hope that like one day vios like this and the whole g-out procs are jt not necsary, but until then I’m gog to do my bt and my part to cultivate a culture that’s acceptg, that’s passnate, ” before addg that he would donate $100, 000 to The Trevor Project, a nonprof group that foc on suici preventn efforts among lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer and qutng youth.

”Michael Sam, an all-Amerin fensive leman at Missouri, had been viewed as the most likely to acquire that distctn when he announced he is gay before he beg chosen by the Rams the seventh round of the 2014 N. The Dallas Cowboys signed Sam to their practice squad, but he never played a regular season Otero/Associated PrsSam’s draft stat was seen as a barometer of whether the climate of men’s pro sports was beg more acceptg of gay athlet, particularly bee Febary 2014 the N.

He played for ne seasons wh the San Francis 49ers and four other teams the 1960s and 1970s, and has sce bee an activist and an ambassador for the Gay Gam, a quadrennial sportg Simmons was the send former player to announce that he was gay, dog so 1992 after his reer wh the Giants and Washgton Football Team had end. ”In recent years, the league has publicly supported Pri Month through promotnal efforts like changg official social media avatars to clu rabows and supportg the You Can Play Project, which provis rourc to enurage clivy youth sports, even as some players have ma rogatory statements about gay people wh ltle penalty or supported groups that oppose gay Wewerka for The New York TimIn 2013, Chris Culliver of the San Francis 49ers and Chris Clemons of the Seattle Seahawks ma offensive ments when asked about the prospect of havg a gay teammate. Otherwise, we create a pattern of celebratg an athlete’s bravery while also cuttg their reer off at the exampl offer utnary Michael Sam told the world he was gay, he was drafted the seventh round 2014, the lowt pick of any SEC fensive player of the year.

‘I HAVE BEEN FIGHTG MY SEXUALY’: A-LEAGUE MEN PLAYER JOSH CAVALLO OUT AS GAY

“To fast forward to my last football game my senr year and have end wh ‘NFL 360’ there to clu me a story celebratg the first openly gay football player NFL history is still really unbelievable to me.

Their experienc are universal, ways good and bad, for many LGBTQ people — Pick talkg about the pa om the ial rejectn by her mom; O’Callaghan discsg suicidal thoughts before beg rcued by a therapist; Rapoport’s touchg rellectn of g out to NFL Commissner Roger Gooll by approachg him at a Super Bowl event holdg her girliend’s hand and Gooll’s se upon seeg ; Saffold discsg growg up Black and gay on the South Si of Chigo “where there are rampant levels of homophobia” and Strer on how he ed to worry “about how bad my life might be after I me out.

As the World Cup go on a untry where homosexualy is illegal, many global football fans are havg to reckon wh the sports' soccer remas one of the most popular sports around the world, very few players have been able to e out and enjoy a succsful reer afterwards. -- 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.

THE 39 CURRENT NFL PLAYERS HAVE ALL PLAYED WH AN OUT GAY TEAMMATE

In a survey of 3, 500 associatn football fans nducted by members of the rearch team over a ago, most participants predicted that at least one gay football player would feel fortable enough to disclose their sexualy publicly by 2014, and that many other players would follow this lead the followg years. A sample of 2663 participants revealed: (a) 95% would wele openly gay players, meang by implitn, football culture is a more gay-iendly environment than wir society; (b) Participants attributed the ntued silence of gay players to football’s gatekeepers e.

RAIRS’ CARL NASSIB ANNOUNC HE’S GAY, AN N.F.L. FIRST

Ined, spe masculy beg an important ponent of social scientific knowledge, was not until the 1980s that creasg amic attentn was paid to analyzg masculy, homophobia, and sexualy male ntextualizg the social and cultural environment, Raewyn Connell (1987) advanced Hegemonic Masculy Theory, which she prented as an tramascule hierarchil stcture that reward boys and men wh the most social pal and advanced posn by aspirg to one hegemonic archetype of masculy. Lotg gay men at the bottom of this hierarchil stcture, Connell stated how culturally and enomilly margalized boys and men uld advance their posn by exaggeratg practic of vlence, homophobia, and sexism. For example, an article published by Uned Prs Internatnal unr the tle “Can Gays Play Soccer, Germans Wonr, ” Tom Seibert (1990) quoted Dseldorf player Michael Schuetz’s reactn to the g out of Jt Fashanu: “One wouldn’t play that hard agast someone like that, bee there would be a certa fear of AIDS.

” This led to Anrson (2009) scribg the perd as one of “homohysteria” (the fear by boys and men of the assumptn they were gay a highly homophobic culture that was also reflectg the wir societal ncerns of HIV/AIDS beg rried by gay men). Acrdg to Anrson (2009), homohysteria nsisted of three variabl: (1) a greater awarens of homosexualy as a sexual orientatn; (2) wispread cultural disapproval of homosexualy; (3) the public prentatn of heterosexualy by boys and men to avoid the assumptn that they were gay, due to the cultural nflatn of femy wh male heteronormative and homophobic culture football operated was largely unchallenged until the begng of the twenty-first century (Anrson, 2002).

THREE GAY FOOTBALL PLAYERS FEATURED NFL NETWORK SEGMENT ON CARL NASSIB

Anrson veloped this theory after studyg var groups of young sportg men and argued that the hegemonic form of nservative masculy that Connell’s theorizg propagated did not expla cultur where there was evince of creasg homophobia. In later work, Anrson (2011b) suggted that the chang to masculy were part of more fluential cultural chang that clu the wispread e of the ter; how the media has expand and the fluence they have; the rise and succs of femism; the creasg promence of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) fluence, particularly ncerng social ntact heterosexuals creasgly had wh “out” gay men and lbians. This was met wh support om high-profile dividuals, cludg Gordon Taylor, Chief Executive of the Profsnal Footballers’ Associatn (the profsnal players’ tra unn), who illtrated: “The Premier League didn’t thk was a big enough issue…we believe the time would be more appropriate when crowds are a b more civilised” (BBC Sport, 2010) and Max Clifford (at the time, one of the most proment Brish public relatns advisors) claimg that December 2009 he had advised two Premier League players to rema the closet bee football “remas the dark ag, steeped homophobia” (Harris & Godw, 2009) Taylor’s ments illtrated the lack of amic attentn paid to football fans and homophobia and led to Cashmore and Cleland (2011, 2012, 2014) llectg the rpons of 3500 fans om 35 untri across the world via an onle survey that addrsed this exact topic area.

For other fans, this was also a reflectn of chang to masculy, as exprsed by this Manchter Uned fan: “Footballers are global, metrosexual people, is impossible that some of them aren’t gay…’s an all-male tra played ont of crowds of thoands wh all s exponents held up to this lofty ial, but now misplaced, ncept of masculy” (Cashmore & Cleland, 2012, p.

Although the vast majory of fans stated support for any gay player, there were orthodox views prent the 7 percent who would not support a gay player, such as this rponse by a Sunrland fan: “Football is no place for queers. ” For other fans, tradnal fns of masculy retaed a strong prence their expectatns of players, as highlighted by this Chelsea fan:The fact of the matter is that sport is not mastream society, but a rarefied, narrow segment of society where masculy is highly prized and stereotyp about homosexualy are at their most acute. If a footballer who had played ten years of hard-tacklg Premier League football me out I thk he would be roundly dismissed as a ‘girly man’, plete disregard of the ten years he played at the top level, simply bee of the voracy of the feme stereotype attached to gay men.

8 MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS WHO DARED TO COME OUT AS GAY

In fact, tradnal views surroundg heterosexualy were publicly exprsed by leadg figur such as the Print of Croatian football, Vlato Markovic, who stated 2010 that while he was charge, no gay players would reprent the natnal team as “only healthy people play football” (Connolly, 2010), while the former FIFA Print, Sepp Blatter, was quoted as sayg that gay fans “should rea om any sexual activi” (Magrath & Anrson, 2017) if travelg to the 2022 World Cup Qatar (where homosexualy is illegal).

Exampl like this were reflective of 80 percent of participants Cashmore and Cleland (2011, 2012) who felt that although is now the mory, homophobia will ntue to prevent any player om g out than blame the fans for the lack of openly gay players, Cashmore and Cleland (2012), 84 percent of fans argued that the mercial nature of football was the ma reason for the lack of openly gay players, wh 45 percent of blamg agents and 46 percent blamg clubs for fear of damage to the brand and potential earngs. The views were supported by the openly gay chairman of the FA’s anti-homophobia advisory group, Peter Clayton, who stated that clubs and agents are “aaid of the potential mercial ramifitns” should any player e out (Harris, 2011).

At one end of the mol is “homophobic language” (language ntag pernic tent wh a negative social effect that seeks to gra or margalize a person or behavr through an associatn wh homosexualy), while at the other end of the mol is “pro-gay language” (language ntag a posive social effect through more clivy toward homosexualy). Tyg this mol together, McCormack, Wignall, and Morris (2016) refer to the “ICE matrix, ” referrg to the tent, ntext, and effect when judgg the utily of homosexually themed history of football is one that fans see themselv as active ntributors helpg their team to victory and part of this is the advantage they n ga by harassg, distractg, and timidatg opposn players (Cashmore & Cleland, 2011, 2012) wh chants and songs.

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

Magrath (2018a), for example, tegoriz this football language to three broad narrativ: (1) supportg, celebratg, and attemptg to enurage a team to sportg succs; (2) nfirmg llective inti as “fans” of a particular club, often by nigratg another; (3) vilifyg match officials or opposn personnel for thwartg their team’s some s, however, this language be paradoxil, as fans claim to support for an openly gay player, yet engage discrimatory behavr. ” Ined, durg the Premier League match between Leicter Cy and Brighton and Hove Albn durg the 2017–18 season, two fans were arrted for homophobic chantg although Ramsay and Davi (2017) outle that the number was closer to 50 out of a crowd of 32, 000. Other recent rearch has also foced on the greater plexi of homosexually themed chantg football outsi of the UK (see Rodriguez, 2017) well as at match, sce the early twenty-first century the number of platforms available on the ter has transformed the opportuny to engage synchrono (batg and rpondg to onle munitn real time) and asynchrono munitn (batg and rpondg to onle munitn outsi of real time).

417) illtrated about the growth of onle platforms relative to the culture of football fandom: “they n reveal the extent of homophobic language, mascule pal and heterosexual inty operatg an environment that is wily assumed to be homophobic. 694) claimed that unntted homophobic posts were evince of a “performance of hegemonic masculy” that “seemed to be mutually rerced or policed by subsequent postgs, possibly meang that the ma board serv as a haven for men tryg to atta mascule pal and acceptance om like-md peers.

JOSH CAVALLO BE ONE OF THE FEW PROFSNAL MEN'S FOOTBALLERS TO E OUT AS GAY

Although orthodox views were prent, he found that any posts emed to nta pernic homophobic tent were often challenged or ntted wh ments focg on any gay player’s on-field performance, not their sexualy. To provi an example of this for the purpos of this chapter, below is the nttatn of a homophobic post ma on a Cardiff Cy fan msage board by Cardiff Cy fan 20 that is then challenged by other fans who lote their thoughts wh wir social and cultural chang (Cleland, 2015a, p. This, they argued, was further evince of personal and social change, wh homophobic language almost non-existent on a culture that has ntaed tradnal fns of masculy sce s ceptn as a regulated sport the neteenth Role of the MediaThe reprentatn of masculy, homophobia, and sexualy by the media sce the start of the twenty-first century has played another important role creasg cultural homophobia male football (Magrath, 2018b).

Sce the negative verage given to Jt Fashanu’s g out (Gaston, Magrath, & Anrson, 2018), the athetic verage given to morn footballers such as David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo has led to the emergence of what are referred to as “metrosexual” men (a man who displays behavrs and styl stereotypilly associated wh homosexualy). In an analysis of prt media verage the month followg Hysén g out, Cleland (2014) analyzed 17 tabloid and broadsheet articl that provid a feature on him and found that the verage and reprentatn were further evince of a cultural shift the way the tradnal prt media engaged wh masculy, sexualy, and homophobia. Of urse there is simply the powerful msage that Atk is sendg out—not only that he is gay, but perhaps even more signifintly that football the UK today is fact largely acceptg of LGBT people, wh only pockets of abe and homophobic ‘banter’.

423) scribe ele football as an “impregnable world”—Liam Rosenr, Kev Nolan, Eddie Howe, Joey Barton, and Anrs Lgaard are exampl of recent high-profile players or managers who have publicly lent their support for a gay profsnal footballer to e out of the closet.

WHY ARE THERE STILL NO GAY PROFSNAL ASSOCIATN FOOTBALL PLAYERS MEN’S MAJOR LEAGU? REVISG THE VIEWS OF FOOTBALL FANS THE UNED KGDOMWHY ARE THERE STILL NO GAY PROFSNAL ASSOCIATN FOOTBALL PLAYERS MEN’S MAJOR LEAGU? REVISG THE VIEWS OF FOOTBALL FANS THE UNED KGDOMWHY ARE THERE STILL NO GAY PROFSNAL ASSOCIATN FOOTBALL PLAYERS MEN’S MAJOR LEAGU? REVISG THE VIEWS OF FOOTBALL FANS THE UNED KGDOMWHY ARE THERE STILL NO GAY PROFSNAL ASSOCIATN FOOTBALL PLAYERS MEN’S MAJOR LEAGU? REVISG THE VIEWS OF FOOTBALL FANS THE UNED KGDOMWHY ARE THERE STILL NO GAY PROFSNAL ASSOCIATN FOOTBALL PLAYERS MEN’S MAJOR LEAGU? REVISG THE VIEWS OF FOOTBALL FANS THE UNED KGDOM

Others, however, such as Arsenal player Héctor Bellerín, Chelsea player Olivier Giroud, and former German natnal team pta Philipp Lahm, have urged gay players to rema the closet, bee the football dtry remas a hostile environment for sexual om this anecdotal evince, we might pot toward evince om football at other levels. Perhaps most signifintly, Magrath’s (2017a) rearch has examed attus toward homosexualy among English Premier League amy footballers (see also Magrath, Anrson, & Roberts, 2015; Roberts, Anrson, & Magrath, 2017).

Intertgly, asi om their often-simple claratns of support for social and civil equaly for sexual mori, some players even spoke of the “extreme lengths” they were willg to go to if a gay teammate was beg homophobilly victimized. Th, although there were no openly gay players the settgs, the fdgs suggt “the hypothetil clivy articulated by the men serv as a roadmap for when one of their teammat do e out” (Magrath, 2017a, p. It is perhaps most strikg, however, that where gay athlet were once the recipients of vlence, pecially sport (see Pronger, 1990), ostensibly heterosexual teammat now speak of adoptg the same measur support of posive attus also had an effect on the young men’s exprsn of masculy.

Beg a gay player who is eher ntractually obliged or selected by their untry to travel and participate football activi is therefore a problematic proposn; one which is likely (at least) ntributg factor to the lack of openly gay players European football’s top leagu. Their foc was ially rtricted to racism—an attempt to remove the wispread racist abe, which was a key part of the English game the 1970s and 1980s (Cleland, 2015b, 2016; Cleland & Cashmore, 2014, 2016)—but broaned beyond this to clu all forms of discrimatn, cludg homophobia, 2012.

NFL ACH BE FIRST MALE ACH MAJOR U.S. MEN’S PRO SPORTS TO E OUT AS GAY

Concerns om key figur wh the anizatn are evint, too; 2016, s chairman, Greg Clarke, stated that, “I don’t thk we have rrected the problem [of homophobia football] yet” and, nsequently, he “wouldn’t remend” a gay player g out of the closet as they would suffer “signifint abe” (Herbert, 2016) FA’s anti-homophobia polici have also been severely cricized. Fronted by former gby unn ternatnal, Gareth Thomas, and Brish Conservative Member of Parliament, Damian Colls, there were proposals for “homophobic and transphobic abe [to be] on par wh racial abe at sportg events” (BBC, 2018)—effectively outlawg such abe.

ConclnIn the se of the culture of Brish football surroundg masculy, homophobia, and sexualy, we have prented evince that attudal change is genue wh a more enlightened culture of important stakeholrs that clu fans at match, fans engagg onle platforms, amy players, and media journalists.

MOVG TO GAY IDAHO? THG TO KNOW BEFORE RELOTG HERE AS AN LGBT PERSON.

Of urse, our rearch fdgs do not pture all fans’, players, ’ admistrators, ’ or journalists’ views and we make no claim that homophobia has been fully eradited, but we argue that is reflective of Bman (2005) when he scribed how people are creasgly operatg more fluid stctur—which he terms liquid morny.