Footballer in gay magazine

[Ducksworthy]

Good points made by Le Saux:

Le Saux recounted the incident in his autobiography: “I didn’t go out of my way to stand up for gay rights, but my situation dictated that I did. The way I see it, there are people in the gay community that are going to be football fans and that means there are young people who might be confused about their sexuality. They need support, so when Robbie Fowler attempts to humiliate me in public, all the kids in that position feel pretty s***ty about themselves.

“More than anything in my career, that offended me. What he did was wrong and he has never admitted that. He still talks as if it was a bit of a laugh. I just think there should be someone in his life who says, ‘Robbie, you were out of order’.”

http://www.onthisfootballday.com/football-history/february-27-robbie-taunts-le-saux.php

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Good points made by Le Saux:

Le Saux recounted the incident in his autobiography: “I didn’t go out of my way to stand up for gay rights, but my situation dictated that I did. The way I see it, there are people in the gay community that are going to be football fans and that means there are young people who might be confused about their sexuality. They need support, so when Robbie Fowler attempts to humiliate me in public, all the kids in that position feel pretty s***ty about themselves.

“More than anything in my career, that offended me. What he did was wrong and he has never admitted that. He still talks as if it was a bit of a laugh. I just think there should be someone in his life who says, ‘Robbie, you were out of order’.”

http://www.onthisfootballday.com/football-history/february-27-robbie-taunts-le-saux.php

That is something I never thought I would hear anyone say about Le Saux, but you're right.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

About 1.5% of the population consider them selves gay or lesbian.

you could assume that that would mean that about 1.5% of the football players are gay, however only 1% of men consider themselves gay so that reduces the potential gay footballers to 1%.

Now we can probably assume that a portion of gay people may not be drawn into football and then reduce that again by the number who actually make it.

So the numbers of actual players who are playing that may be gay is more than likely very very small

HA! How on earth can you come up with a statistic like that? Does this include all nations where being homosexual is considered a crime because I'm guessing they would not come forward freely to state they are gay. Also, I think this country, on the whole, is not set-up for homosexuals to just be themselves. I can imagine it being very difficult. Look at the stupid and ridiculous chanting that goes on when a footballer is even alleged to be homosexual!

What's with the 'Ha!' It's not my statistic it's from the ONS survey

Sorry, thought you meant the population of the world. Also, I hadn't seen that link to the Guardian website.

[brian green]

We are living through a period of backlash against the wrongs perpetrated by previous generations.   It is not simply the correction of injustices to homosexuals, there are corrections of attitudes right across society but what we have to do to be a truly civilized society is to make the correction of injustices universal and to make them automatic and unchallenged.

The correction of attitudes towards gay people is well under way, as is the correction of attitudes to cruelty to animals and violence by men against women.   Other equally necessary and overdue changes lag behind like the treatment of the old and the exploitation of the vulnerable with pay day loans at stratospheric levels of interest a typical example.

I will give you an example.  Last week I was in a petrol filling station in the fens and stood in a queue behind two or three ladies doing general shopping.   The lady in front of me was very old and her dress was in great disarray.   As many old people do she smelled strongly of piss because she was obviously incontinent.   A shop assistant was sent from behind the counter to spray the lady with deodorizing spray.   The little old lady was so far out of it she just smiled.   Can you imagine the uproar there would have been if a gay person had been singled out for personal humiliation like that?   The 2013 justification is that she was "old and smelly"  Just like the Saturday night gay bashing which went on in Birmingham city centre when I was a youth was excused because the victims were "queer".

The point I am making is that it is not just about football players being gay, it is about the right of each and every one of us to be treated with respect.

What I fear is what this country is very good at, seeing the wood but not the trees.   Go out with a collection box for breast cancer and the odds are you will be well rewarded.   Change the label on your collecting tin to brain tumour and you will do less well.   I speak from personal experience raising money for both.   

What am I driving at?   The danger is that we get football homophobia free but leave vast swathes of society - the forces, the police, public schools, the church, the masons, the guilds as bad as ever.   We polish up our social halos because we are cool about gay football players and that allows all the rest to carry on uncorrected.

We cherry pick what we are going to be outraged by in order to feel the maximum amount of self approval for the minimum amount of effort and sacrifice.

[dave shelley]

Very good post Brian.

[thick_mike]

So, which of our players do you think is an incontinent old lady? :-)

[sonlyme]

Perhaps there just genuinely aren't and haven't been that many gay footballers?  I've worked with hundreds of people over the years, and the number of openly gay people I've known in that time you could count on the fingers of one hand.

Just be more yourself Riss - and I'm sure they'll come on to you.

And if you were to butter that hand - and close it's fingers into a fist - I know you would be a hit.

Best Regards.

[PeterWithe]

I think we've only had one openly gay poster on this forum and all this is pretty incognoto, maybe football, either playing or watching isn't that attractive for 'them'?.

PS edit. A very thought provoking post Brian.

[TopDeck113]

We cherry pick what we are going to be outraged by in order to feel the maximum amount of self approval for the minimum amount of effort and sacrifice.

A lot of truth in that.

[Lizz]

We cherry pick what we are going to be outraged by in order to feel the maximum amount of self approval for the minimum amount of effort and sacrifice.

Very good points Brian, especially IMO, the one I've quoted. The current news issue that angers me the most is the Indian rape/murder victim, which probably meets the self approval criteria.

[PaulWinch again]

We cherry pick what we are going to be outraged by in order to feel the maximum amount of self approval for the minimum amount of effort and sacrifice.

Very good points Brian, especially IMO, the one I've quoted. The current news issue that angers me the most is the Indian rape/murder victim, which probably meets the self approval criteria.

Yep totally agree.

[Risso]

Perhaps there just genuinely aren't and haven't been that many gay footballers?  I've worked with hundreds of people over the years, and the number of openly gay people I've known in that time you could count on the fingers of one hand.

Just be more yourself Riss - and I'm sure they'll come on to you.

And if you were to butter that hand - and close it's fingers into a fist - I know you would be a hit.

Best Regards.

edit:  not worth it, I'll leave it to the decent posters of H&V to let you know what they think of you.

[Lizz]

My advancing years are affecting my memory as to whether I've posted this before, so possibly not for the first time I'll remind those who don't know that there's a chance you'll leave the world the same way you entered it. No hair, no teeth and incontinent.

[thick_mike]

Surely the little window on the world in our living rooms tells us what to get outraged by?

Nobody could fail to be moved by the story from Delhi, but part of that is because it's on every news bulletin.

[olaftab]

Perhaps there just genuinely aren't and haven't been that many gay footballers?  I've worked with hundreds of people over the years, and the number of openly gay people I've known in that time you could count on the fingers of one hand.

Just be more yourself Riss - and I'm sure they'll come on to you.

And if you were to butter that hand - and close it's fingers into a fist - I know you would be a hit.

Best Regards.

In the context of the article and discussion that's going on here this comment is unbelievable.