Unnamed Premier League footballer reveals he is gay letter but says he n't go public | UK News | Sky News

Contents:

• WHY THERE ARE STILL NO OPENLY GAY FOOTBALLERS THE PREMIER LEAGUE
• WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS
• I LONG FOR A DAY WHEN GAY FOOTBALLERS LIKE ME AND JOSH CAVALLO DON’T NEED TO BE SO ‘BRAVE’
• EVRA: THERE ARE AT LEAST TWO GAY PLAYERS AT EVERY FOOTBALL CLUB
• GRAEME SOUNS EXPLAS WHY THERE ARE NO OPENLY GAY FOOTBALLERS THE PREMIER LEAGUE AND REVEALS TNAL VIS TO BRIGHTON PRI PARA
• WHY ARE THERE NO OUT GAY FOOTBALLERS?
• WHY IS AFL THE ONLY PRO SPORT TO NEVER HAVE AN OPENLY GAY MALE PLAYER?
• ‘I HAVE BEEN FIGHTG MY SEXUALY’: A-LEAGUE MEN PLAYER JOSH CAVALLO OUT AS GAY
• CARL NASSIB IS THE FIRST ACTIVE NFL PLAYER TO COME OUT AS GAY
• UNNAMED PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALLER REVEALS HE IS GAY LETTER BUT SAYS HE N'T GO PUBLIC
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST GAY MALE NFL COACH
• JOSH CAVALLO: ONLY OPENLY GAY TOP-FLIGHT MALE FOOTBALLER SAYS FIFA’S ‘ONELOVE’ ARMBAND BAN HAS MA HIM FEEL ‘EXCLUD’
• JOSH CAVALLO BE ONE OF THE FEW PROFSNAL MEN'S FOOTBALLERS TO E OUT AS GAY
• THREE GAY FOOTBALL PLAYERS FEATURED NFL NETWORK SEGMENT ON CARL NASSIB
• ‘NO WORDS’: GAY ATRALIAN FOOTBALLER JOSH CAVALLO LLS OUT HOMOPHOBIC CROWD ABE
• RAIRS’ CARL NASSIB ANNOUNC HE’S GAY, AN N.F.L. FIRST
• 7 GAY NFL FOOTBALL PLAYERS
• GAY FOOTBALLER JOSH CAVALLO WOULD BE ‘SRED’ TO PLAY AT WORLD CUP QATAR
• 'THE NFL NEED THIS': HOW CARL NASSIB'S G OUT AS GAY N CHANGE FOOTBALL AND SOCIETY

WHY THERE ARE STILL NO OPENLY GAY FOOTBALLERS THE PREMIER LEAGUE

Nearly 25 years after Jt Fashanu took his own life, followg years of homophobic abe, Brish football still has not had another openly gay player the top flight.

The armband was never much of a gture, but would have been a small act of fiance at the tournament beg award to Qatar, where homosexualy is punishable by imprisonment and some s, ath.

Consir the se of (heterosexual) Graeme Le Sx, who played for Chelsea and England the 1990s and 2000s and was brand “gay” for admtg he read The Guardian.

WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS

The clubs and the FA have ma efforts to improve the culture wh iativ such as Kick It Out, which mpaigns agast discrimatn and Football v Homophobia, backed by the FA, which offers support to fans, grassroots teams and top-level clubs. When Nashville Predators prospect Le Prokop me out this week, was the first time an active player unr ntract to an NHL team had ever publicly acknowledged they were gay. Overnight, Prokop's announcement doubled the number of out gay athlet currently playg the untry's four major men's sports — football, basketball, baseball and hockey.

Gay male athlet face cultural barriers Part of the reason for the lack of out gay players men's profsnal sports uld be that there are jt fewer of them the game.

"Gay men are a fe rource, so they n't exist great numbers every quarter, " Magrath told "Gay men are overreprented some areas, and as a nsequence are gog to be unrreprented sports. Magrath helped thor a study that found that male athlet who me out as gay while still playg sports were largely met wh acceptance by their teammat.

I LONG FOR A DAY WHEN GAY FOOTBALLERS LIKE ME AND JOSH CAVALLO DON’T NEED TO BE SO ‘BRAVE’

NBA player Jason Colls, who me out 2013 while he was still playg the league, later told NPR " went great" when he scribed the perd after announcg he was gay. After Michael Sam beme the first openly gay athlete to be drafted to the NFL 2014, then-Miami Dolphs safety Don Jon tweeted "horrible, " rultg penalti and a spensn.

There are key differenc the cultur of men's and women's athletics While few active players the major men's sports leagu have e out, many female profsnal athlet have said publicly that they're gay, om U. Instead I grew up hearg thgs like “Oh, that’s so gay”, gay beg ed as a word to reprent somethg distasteful, somethg that someone didn’t like.

It was not only graed me that football and beg gay was a no-go, but beg gay self was agast the g out, you first mt learn to accept yourself for who you are. Sportg associatns like the PFA (the players’ unn) have an important role helpg gay players, and was the PFA who helped facilate my g out. 'I'm a footballer and I'm gay': A-League player Josh Cavallo talks about his sexualy – vioAfter g out durg a trag ssn a player ed a homophobic slur.

EVRA: THERE ARE AT LEAST TWO GAY PLAYERS AT EVERY FOOTBALL CLUB

ESPatrice Evra has claimed there are at least two gay footballers at each club the world, but he believ some of his former teammat were aaid to e out due to homophobic are currently no openly gay players the Premier League, but efforts have been to make English football more clive through the Rabow Lac former left-back, who played for Manchter Uned and Juvent among others, has revealed his own eye-openg experienc durg his playg reer. "Evra's ments e jt days after gay Atralian footballer Josh Cavallo lled out homophobic abe which was aimed at him durg an A-League match on on MbappeThe Frenchman also discsed Paris Sat-Germa star Kylian Mbappe, suggtg he has the personaly of a polician.

HONEST Graeme Souns explas why there are no openly gay footballers the Premier League and reveals tnal vis to Brighton Pri paraPublished: 9:44, 9 Dec 2019Graeme Souns believ football has created an ‘unfortable environment’ for gay players.

GRAEME SOUNS EXPLAS WHY THERE ARE NO OPENLY GAY FOOTBALLERS THE PREMIER LEAGUE AND REVEALS TNAL VIS TO BRIGHTON PRI PARA

Former Wt Ham and Aston Villa midfielr Thomas Hzlsperger beme the first openly gay Premier League player - but he only me out 2014, a year after retirg om the game.

Back June 2020 on his podst Ground, Louis Theroux spoke wh Watford pta Troy Deeney about gay footballers… or more specifilly, the lack of them. Dpe that, Deeney suggted that there was probably one gay or bi player at each club, and both qutned why no footballer had ‘planted their flag’ as out and proud.

In I am the Secret Footballer: Liftg the Lid on the Betiful Game, the narrator (annoygly I still haven’t worked out who is), said fans are one very good reason that gay players would keep their sexual ‘allegiance’ firmly their locker. There are around 35 clubs the UK wh active LGBT fans’ groups, cludg the Gay Gooners (Arsenal), Uned wh Pri (Newstle Uned), and Pri of Irons (Wt Ham Uned). “The Gay Footballer”, a Twter acunt which purported to be a gay profsnal footballer one of the top English football leagu, felt that he was “not strong enough to e out” after ath threats and abe on Twter 2019.

WHY ARE THERE NO OUT GAY FOOTBALLERS?

While the attentn will be mostly posive at first, the UK’s largely right-wg prs are masters at manipulatg language whout beg overtly homophobic.

Gareth Thomas, the first gby unn player to e out as openly gay, had a reporter askg his parents to ment on their son’s HIV stat, before he had chosen to tell them himself. Thomas himself said that the search for the first openly gay Premier League player was a media wch hunt, and that wasn’t creatg an environment where the footballer uld feel safe and protected. Dpe sayg he was ‘ashamed’ that gay players don’t feel safe to e out 2017, former Football Associatn Chairman Greg Clarke suated that homosexualy was a liftyle choice November 2020.

WHY IS AFL THE ONLY PRO SPORT TO NEVER HAVE AN OPENLY GAY MALE PLAYER?

30pmFew people realise the men’s AFL is the only major profsnal male sport the world to never have had an openly gay or bisexual player, even after is why the cisn by the NFL’s Carl Nassib to e out as gay this week while still playg Amerin football ph Atralian football further off the crowd field of cln. Nassib may be the first active NFL player to e out, but he’s actually the 16th gay NFL player sce 1975 – that’s close to the same number of players on an AFL Vegas Rairs fensive end Carl Nassib me out this APThe total visibily of gay or bisexual AFL players be even more ncerng when you nsir the multiple gay and bisexual players basketball, ice hockey, baseball, gby unn, gby league, cricket, soccer, and smaller sports like curlg, hurlg and lacrosse. It also ters many girls, both straight and gay, om playg ntact sports like AFL or rearch has found between 15-20 per cent of female AFL players are not heterosexual.

Visibily is clearly important, particularly to children, but the visibily of male AFL players is a symptom of ser a problem that has long been ignored by the AFL and other erng is extensive evince om Atralia and overseas that gay and bisexual children, as well as heterosexual youth, are beg harmed by systemic homophobic behavurs muny and school sport settgs. That’s not what we boys and girls who me out to others sport were signifintly more likely to report homophobic victimisatn than those who remaed the closet. Ian Roberts, Atralia’s first openly gay athlete, has been llg on sport and ernment lears to protect young people om homophobic abe sce 1997.

This rearch found most activy to addrs this problem is beg driven by small chari, such as Pri Cup or Proud2Play, or muny sport clubs, while the mments ma by the lears of the AFL and the other sports have not been players om the Yarra Glen Football Club take part rearch nducted to better unrstand the drivers and harm ed by homophobic language sport. The club has been at the foreont of tacklg Monash UniversyOne of those papers, published the world’s top sport dtry journal, said erng bodi e rabow-themed social media posts and pri gam to create a false illn (ln) they are takg actn on homophobia, when realy, almost nothg is beg done beyond “lip service or happy talk.

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

Olympic legend Ian Thorpe mpaigned Febary 2020 on the Relig Discrimatn Alex EllghsenThere is no mentn of LGBT people nor of any fundg to addrs homophobia sport. The omissn of LGBT people needs to be urgently fixed and an vtigatn is need to terme why homophobia sport is nsistently ernments and sport lears start prrisg protectg children om harmful homophobic behavurs sport, we’ll be talkg about the lack of openly gay male athlet the AFL and other sports for many years to Denison is a behavural science rearcher at Monash Universy’s School of Social Scienc who vtigat solutns to homophobia sport. A-League Men midfielr Josh Cavallo says he knows there are other players “livg silence” after beg the only known current male top-flight profsnal footballer the world to e out as gay.

Labor senate lear and openly gay woman, Penny Wong, tweeted: “Any young person who is stgglg wh their inty, or feelg exclud or judged, n look today to Josh Cavallo. 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.

“It is astonishg to know that there are currently no gay profsnal footballers who are out and actively playg, not only Atralia, but around the world. Carl Nassib Is The First Active NFL Player To Come Out As Gay "I jt want to take a quick moment to say that I'm gay, " he said an Instagram vio.

CARL NASSIB IS THE FIRST ACTIVE NFL PLAYER TO COME OUT AS GAY

Rairs fensive end Carl Nassib said on Monday that he would not have been able to publicly e out as gay whout the support of the NFL and his teammat. " Nassib is by no means the first gay football player the NFL, but he is the first openly gay active player the league to play the regular season.

UNNAMED PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALLER REVEALS HE IS GAY LETTER BUT SAYS HE N'T GO PUBLIC

Michael Sam me out as gay followg his succsful llege reer and before the 2014 NFL draft, makg him the first publicly gay player to be drafted the NFL. An unnamed Premier League footballer has revealed he is gay an open letter, but isn't prepared to e out star has opened up about the torment of keepg his sexualy a secret and has aimed the letter at thori and fans, scribg how he is takg a "huge step" revealg his sexualy. The unknown star is beg supported by the Jt Fashanu Foundatn, which is n by the former footballer's niece, Fashanu, who played for top flight clubs om the late 1970s to the mid 1980s, was the first profsnal footballer to be openly gay.

Ms Fashanu says there are no openly gay or bisexual male profsnal footballers the untry at prent and this revelatn was a "signifint moment and a posive step forward" tacklg this told Sky News: "The fact this player wanted to wre a letter about this is a huge step forward. "In a Digal, Culture, Media and Sport Select Commtee hearg on 7 July, former England women's team footballer Enla Alo said gay male footballers wouldn't risk g out the public doma bee of the homophobic backlash they would said there are current footballers who have told their teammat they are gay, but add: "The issue really now is that fear of what fans will do and are gog to say, but I don't thk that is as legimate a fear as ed to be bee we're livg a world now where beg gay is somethg that is wily accepted. Kev Maxen, an associate strength ach for the Jacksonville Jaguars football team, me out as gay on Thursday an terview wh the LGBTQ sports-foced webse Outsports.

On the achg si, several female assistant ach the NFL have prevly e out as gay, cludg former San Francis 49ers assistant ach Katie Sowers, there has prevly been no known out gay male head or assistant ach the league.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST GAY MALE NFL COACH

Curt Miller, who is currently the head ach of the Los Angel Sparks, is the first out gay male ach the WNBA, but there have been no out gay ach any of the four major men’s U.

READ NEXTKim Cattrall Repris Her Role as Samantha JonSha’Carri Richardson is the “Fastt Woman the World”Alice Cooper Los Cosmetics Deal After Anti-Trans CommentsYouTube Chef Confs to Murr of Gay Lover. Josh Cavallo, the only openly gay top-flight male soccer player the sport, has told CNN that FIFA’s cisn to ban players om wearg “OneLove” armbands at the Qatar 2022 has ma him feel “exclud.

JOSH CAVALLO: ONLY OPENLY GAY TOP-FLIGHT MALE FOOTBALLER SAYS FIFA’S ‘ONELOVE’ ARMBAND BAN HAS MA HIM FEEL ‘EXCLUD’

Male profsnal athlet e out as the first openly gay players currently participatg their rpective sports, cludg NHL hockey player Le Prokop and NFL fensive end Carl Nassib. “When I returned to football my sophomore year after g out was bee I knew that if I qu football was jt the begng of thgs I would qu or hold myself back om bee I was gay, ” Strer told Outsports.

“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. EST, we see scen of Strer’s last game as a Matea Mtang, terspersed wh him speakg about beg gay football and what Nassib’s g out meant to him. 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.

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

Josh Cavallo, who last year beme the only openly gay profsnal top flight men’s footballer the world, says he has “no words” to scribe his disappotment at beg targeted by homophobic abe durg an A-League Men game over the Alai Uned player me on as a send-half substute durg the Reds’ away game at Melbourne Victory on Saturday night and said afterwards that he had received abe om the crowd at AAMI 22-year-old received acclaim om across the globe October when he me out via Alai’s social media channels. ”Cavallo also said he was targeted after the game on Instagram and ed his own post to ll out the social media platform for the way als wh homophobic abe.

THREE GAY FOOTBALL PLAYERS FEATURED NFL NETWORK SEGMENT ON CARL NASSIB

FirstThe Rairs fensive leman me out a statement posted to his Instagram acunt on Monday, beg the first active player the league to publicly intify as gay. 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. Had jt bee the first of the four tradnal major Amerin men’s sports leagu to have an openly gay active player when Jason Colls joed the Sam left 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.

‘NO WORDS’: GAY ATRALIAN FOOTBALLER JOSH CAVALLO LLS OUT HOMOPHOBIC CROWD ABE

”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. Soon his parents cid to send Harris away om his hometown for further tn to hi is homosexual his retirement om Amerin football, Kwame Harris 2013 publilly revealed of beg a homosexual an terview wh CNN.

The world’s only openly gay top‑flight men’s footballer says he would be “sred” to play at the World Cup tournament Qatar next year bee of the emirate’s harsh ban on homosexualy and legal penalti rangg om floggg to lengthy prison terms and Cavallo, 21, who plays for Alai Uned Atralia’s A-League, received a wave of support om football fans and current and former players last month after openg up about his sexualy a vio posted to the club’s social media feeds.

”The announcement ma Cavallo the only out gay player men’s profsnal football, his isolatn stark a sport whose admistrators have lnched high-profile public mpaigns recent years embracg LGBT fans and only a handful of male players have ever e out, ntrast to the women’s game, which has easily blown past the same barrier: more than 40 lbian or bisexual players took part the 2019 women’s World Cup France, acrdg to Fifa.

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

Crics have raised the fact that Fifa ntu to award World Cups to untri such as Rsia – where homophobia has been lled a “state‑sponsored” project – and Qatar, where same-sex acts are illegal, as evince of the erng body’s patchy mment to if holdg the tournament a untry wh strict penalti for homosexualy sent the wrong msage to gay footballers and fans, Cavallo, who has played for Atralia’s unr-20s ternatnal si, told the Guardian’s daily news podst that he would be aaid for his safety if asked to participate the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

7 GAY NFL FOOTBALL PLAYERS

'I'm a footballer and I'm gay': A-League player Josh Cavallo talks about his sexualy – vio“I read somethg along the l of that [they] give the ath penalty for gay people Qatar, so ’s somethg I’m very sred [of] and wouldn’t really want to go to Qatar for that, ” he said. At the end of the day the World Cup is Qatar and one of the greatt achievements as a profsnal footballer is to play for your untry, and to know that this is a untry that don’t support gay people and puts at risk of our own life, that do sre me and mak me re-evaluate – is my life more important than dog somethg really good my reer? Mlims the untry n be subject to Sharia law that bans any sexual activy outsi marriage wh punishments rangg up to the ath penalty, meang homosexual acts n technilly rult executn, though several human rights reports have said there is no evince any gay people have been executed for the offence.

”Along wh the appallg ndns for migrant workers buildg the astcture for the tournament, the prospect of gay fans or players beg arrted Qatar has dogged Fifa sce the emirate was announced as host of the tournament 2010.

GAY FOOTBALLER JOSH CAVALLO WOULD BE ‘SRED’ TO PLAY AT WORLD CUP QATAR

The anisatn’s then print, Sepp Blatter, fuelled the ntroversy the same year when he was asked if he had any advice for gay people who wanted to travel to the Gulf state for the petn. But they walk a fe le between acmodatg what are now mastream attus towards gay people much of the world and the untry’s own nservative relig the tournament has approached, Qatari officials have sought to reassure LGBT fans that they will be wele the untry and n exprs themselv – wh lims. ”Prsed at the time over how Qataris would react to a gay uple holdg hands, Khater said they would be treated the same as a heterosexual uple.

Former Dallas Cowboys lebacker Jeff Rohrer said Las Vegas Rairs fensive end Carl Nassib uld change the world after beg the first active openly gay NFL player. He played the NFL om 1982 to 1989, and 2018, he me out as gay when he beme what was believed to be the first former or current NFL player to enter to a same-sex marriage.

Former Kansas State player Stt Frantz, the first Power 5 llege football player to pete while openly gay, told USA TODAY Sports he msaged Nassib to exprs his gratu: "Thanks for dog what you did.

'THE NFL NEED THIS': HOW CARL NASSIB'S G OUT AS GAY N CHANGE FOOTBALL AND SOCIETY

" "Comg out as gay is gog to ntue to be a big al or news story for athlet until 's a regular occurrence, " said Ryan O'Callaghan, who me out after retirg 2017.