‘I was beg told I uld not be gay and a soccer player’: How eight clubs are takg a stand agast homophobia - The Athletic

Contents:

• BREAKING: SOCCER IS GAY
• 'GO GAYS!': WHY USA'S LGBTQ WORLD CUP STARS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER
• MY HIDN JOURNEY: A PROFSNAL SOCCER PLAYER REVEALS HE IS GAY
• "I NO LONGER WANT TO HI:" CZECH FOOTBALLER JAKUB JANKTO ANNOUNC HE IS GAY
• WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS
• COLL MART IS U.S. SOCCER'S ONLY OPENLY GAY MALE PLAYER, AND HE'S WORKG TO MAKE THE GAME MORE CLIVE FOR FUTURE LGBTQ+ PLAYERS
• A GAY GIRL’S GUI TO THE 2023 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP
• JOSH CAVALLO: ONLY OPENLY GAY TOP-FLIGHT MALE FOOTBALLER SAYS FIFA’S ‘ONELOVE’ ARMBAND BAN HAS MA HIM FEEL ‘EXCLUD’
• AMERINS HATE SOCCER BEE 'S GAY
• SOCCER OFFICIALLY ANNOUNC IT IS GAY
• 8 MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS WHO DARED TO COME OUT AS GAY
• JOSH CAVALLO BE ONE OF THE FEW PROFSNAL MEN'S FOOTBALLERS TO E OUT AS GAY
• ‘I WAS BEG TOLD I ULD NOT BE GAY AND A SOCCER PLAYER’: HOW EIGHT CLUBS ARE TAKG A STAND AGAST HOMOPHOBIA
• PRI ON THE PCH: DO SOCCER HAVE A GAY PROBLEM?

BREAKING: SOCCER IS GAY

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.

Gay players face prsure om teammat, ownership, ach, and fans over their are some of the men who have e out, fightg those stereotyp, and pavg the way for LGBTQ+ athlet who e after them. Rogers me out as gay 2013, beg the first out gay man to pete a top North Amerin pro sports league when he played for the LA Galaxy that same year. On Monday, the US men’s natnal team unveiled a resign to the team’s logo that replac red strip the crt wh the rabow lors of the gay pri flag.

'GO GAYS!': WHY USA'S LGBTQ WORLD CUP STARS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER

Soccer’s cisn to e out of the closet ahead of the World Cup, and to live as s thentic self, was met wh shgs of “well, obvly” and “I always thought soccer might be gay sce that time I ught soccer tryg on my make-up and lipsyncg to Donna Summer.

The empty, banal, gture-signalg allegiance to rporate neoliberale is tend to reassure a ty set of LGBT activists who qutn the league’s participatn the upg FIFA World Cup Qatar, a untry where homosexualy is illegal. The team, however, was quick to note the gay crt won’t be worn on the field but stead is displayed somewhere on their base Doha. Wtern pk shirts prefer to not acknowledge areas of the world where actual, horrifyg, opprsn agast homosexuals occurs, namely the Middle East.

Forty-ne mut seems que genero, nsirg what would have happened to him Iran or Afghanistan where, sce the Taliban was restated by Print Bin last year, gay people have been hunted and murred routely, after a twenty-year reprieve durg the Amerin occupatn. Teammat Tierna Davidson, Adrianna Franch, Ashlyn Harris, and Ali Krieger are all out as gay or bisexual, as are dozens of players on other teams.

MY HIDN JOURNEY: A PROFSNAL SOCCER PLAYER REVEALS HE IS GAY

Durg the 2018 tournament, two fans were btally beaten an anti-gay attack and at least one gay rights activist was arrted for prottg outsi the Kreml. Unrstandably, may be hard for players to feel as though the anizatn tly has their 2015, Robbie Rogers, the first active Major League Soccer player to e out as gay, wrote an op-ed for USA Today nouncg FIFA’s cisn to embrace LGBTQ-hostile untri like Rsia and Qatar. "Cyd Zeigler, who scrib himself as a gay sports wrer, h out at the backlash, scribg as "crazy" that Amerins would turn their back on the team bee of this tweeted: "LOL the 'Amerins' who are now sudnly hopg the US los at the #WorldCup bee the team has some rabow flags around the facily Qatar.

The club tak s name om New York Cy’s 1969 Stonewall rts, which beme a historic watershed moment the gay liberatn movement the U.

"I NO LONGER WANT TO HI:" CZECH FOOTBALLER JAKUB JANKTO ANNOUNC HE IS GAY

At the last Women’s World Cup 2019, there were at least 41 players or ach who intified as gay or bisexual, while durg the men’s tournament 2018, there were no known gay players.

There are also no Premier League male players who have publicly intified as LGBTQ+ but England’s Lns squad alone, there are at least five players who are gay or bisexual. In May 2022, Blackpool FC midfielr Jake Daniels beme Bra’s first active profsnal player to publicly e out as gay sce Jt Fashanu 1990; the former Norwich Cy and Nottgham Fort player died by suici eight years later. Photo: Photo Works / unrstand soccer -- at least s native English form -- and s highly charged, no-homo homoerotics, you need image a scenar so absurd as to be pletely hot, young, straight soccer player is about to take a ee kick.

Le Sx was generally nsired gay the largely workg - class world of soccer bee (a) he was middle-class and read books, and (b) he rpond to the gay tnts -- though, acrdg to the logic of footie banter, not rpondg would also have proved he was the 15 years sce then the world has changed, but the no-homo homoerotics of the "betiful game" haven't.

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

Meanwhile the brother of Jt Fashanu, Bra's first and only out gay profsnal footballer who sadly hanged himself 1998, eight years after clarg his sexual orientatn, is still nyg that Fashanu was actually Beckham's rise to global fame symboliz how much attus toward masculy have changed the wir world -- and unrl football's gay problem.

Last year, the Brighton & Hove Albn Supporters' Club and the Gay Football Supporters' Network published a dossier tailg the abive chants they and their team receive for hailg om a town famo for s gay populatn, cludg "You're jt a town full of faggots! "It may be that the out, nonretired, nonad Premier League footballer role mol longed for by many gay people and the media is some way off.

Perhaps for too many, the pot of followg soccer is precisely to prove you're not gay -- while enjoyg highly homosocial than any other sport I n thk of, soccer prob for the weakns of the other si. In a social and psychologil sense, poofs exist to embody and nta the possibily of male passivy -- they are gay, not, Brighton & Hove Albn Football Club is gay, not me. " is one of the most popular chants agast them, which seems to sweetly sum up the no-homo homo-erotics of soccer: We fantasise about you exprsg tenrns toward one another that we n't allow ourselv, and we dis you for 's like that old le, "Backs agast the wall, lads!

COLL MART IS U.S. SOCCER'S ONLY OPENLY GAY MALE PLAYER, AND HE'S WORKG TO MAKE THE GAME MORE CLIVE FOR FUTURE LGBTQ+ PLAYERS

German midfielr Thomas Hzlsperger, the only known gay man to play the Premier League, me out 2014, the year after he gay and havg a reer football never felt like an optn.

Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, is gay, and the thgs are all football, there's still fear a gay teammate might dispt the team environment.

The more I uld stay awake, the more I uld put off addrsg how I really a sophomore I was named the program's first-ever first-team All-Amerin.

A GAY GIRL’S GUI TO THE 2023 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP

Czech soccer player Jakub Jankto announced on Monday that he is gay a vio posted to social media, beg one of only a few openly out active ternatnal men's players. Atralia's Alai Uned player Josh Cavallo beme the only openly gay player a top-tier men's profsnal league when he me out 2022, Jake Daniels, of English club Blackpool, beme the first active male profsnal soccer player Bra to e out publicly sce 1990, acrdg to Sky News. 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.

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

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. That uld be due to the mascule culture at the center of the major sports, experts say, creatg an environment that is ls welg to gay athlet.

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. 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.

David Kopay, a former NFL nng back who me out 1975, was unable to land a profsnal achg job after he announced publicly that he was gay.

AMERINS HATE SOCCER BEE 'S GAY

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.

Moments earlier, an opposg player targeted Mart, an openly gay man, wh a homophobic slur, and as they gathered unr a tent at halftime, they discsed how to team was agreement: Somethg need to be done. "Beg able to have a posive msage e out of a really tough suatn was the silver lg, " he the only openly gay men's profsnal soccer player the Uned Stat -- and one of the few who have ever e out globally -- Mart has e to embrace the signifince of what he reprents, pecially for the LGBTQ+ muny.

SOCCER OFFICIALLY ANNOUNC IT IS GAY

Play1:48Coll Mart: Locker room support was all I needSan Diego Loyal midfielr Coll Mart says the support om his old teammat at Mnota Uned was a big help to him when he me out as gay.

Around those years, havg to hi, havg to remd myself that like, 'Oh, my bt iend on the team, who jt lled another person a f----t, he isn't really homophobic, but he is jt tryg to be hurtful to that person. Last time at the 2019 Women’s World Cup, the Netherlands lay claim to the honor of beg the team wh the most out LGBTQ players, but this year Atralia boasts 10 out players and overtak them for the tle of Gayt Team 2k23.

Ireland’s historic entry to the tournament marks another triumph for out midfielr Sead Farrelly, whose natnal team but and 2023 return to the NWSL e more than six years after retirg om soccer the wake of systemic homophobic and sexual abe wh the league, which the Athletic first reported on 2021. To improve LGBTQ reprentatn profsnal sports, Schweighofer and Denison said, ach and lears youth sports should set a precent that homophobic language and discrimatn are unacceptable. Denison’s rearch fds that most LGBTQ athlet leave their sports as young people, a parture driven by a culture of homophobic language and stereotyp.

8 MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS WHO DARED TO COME OUT AS GAY

And Rapoe 2018 said that, as a kid, she “would have loved to have more rmatn” about what meant to be gay and why g homophobic slurs was wrong. “Anytime you hear somebody say, ‘Oh, that’s gay, ’ or whatever, those thgs matter, ” said Rapoe, who didn’t e out to her teammat until llege. Homophobic slurs ntue to be prevalent sports – a 2020 study om Out on the Fields, which studi LGBTQ cln sports, found that more than 80% of gay participants had heard them ed while playg.

When ach and teammat e gay slurs equently, sends the msage that the language is harmls and OK to e – and solidifi the belief that all members of the team are heterosexual, Denison said.

The same Out on the Fields study reported that over 81% of gay men unr 22 hid their sexualy to avoid rejectn by teammat or discrimatn by ach or officials, among other reasons.

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

“Boys and young men are tght to avoid anythg associated wh femy, most notably weakns, emotn, and homosexualy, ” said Schweighofer, whose work on LGBTQ cln sports has appeared the publitn of the Natnal Park Foundatn. The same homophobic norms that affect men sports impact women and girls, too, and they origated the 19th century, Denison said.

‘I WAS BEG TOLD I ULD NOT BE GAY AND A SOCCER PLAYER’: HOW EIGHT CLUBS ARE TAKG A STAND AGAST HOMOPHOBIA

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. Weighg on the tired bate over why Amerins fail to love soccer as passnately as the rt of the world, an edorial on offers the followg four reasons: 1) the sport is not overmercialized; 2) 's too multicultural; 3) "homosexuals;" and 4) not enough pots are sred.

Homosexualy has always been a ntroversial issue that Amerins have tried to avoid, and a sport like soccer that do not appear to be "manly enough" has failed to attract attentn om the US. By equatg homosexualy wh anythg not "manly" enough to necsate helmets and pads, the thor has (advertently) ppoted one of the major misperceptns that most homophobia sports.

But tak guts to e out and reveal one’s genr as gay, which is ually an act of urage a world that is not ndned to accept every genr.

PRI ON THE PCH: DO SOCCER HAVE A GAY PROBLEM?

So, many profsnal leagu, teams, and players are raisg their voic to fight back agast homophobia so that gay footballers don’t face backlash while g out.

Therefore, a suable environment should be created through tn as a drivg factor, so gay footballers don’t feel prsured to reveal their sexualy. 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.