Footballer in gay magazine

[PaulWinch again]

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.

It's pretty horrendous in general.

[saunders_heroes]

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.

Yep, disgusting. Homophobia is alive and well after reading that.

[hawkeye]

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.

that is sick and offensive, you should apologise or go

[German James]

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.

Precisely the "banter" that I'm sure any gay players would rather avoid. Well done, you've explained the lack of openly gay footballers with one post.

[ozzjim]

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.

This is not appropriate at all as others have pointed out, and there should be an apology to the person it is aimed at and for the offence it has caused to people reading. I don't care how it was meant to come across, it is not pleasant.

[QBVILLA]

Out of interest has anyone on here laughed at a gay joke? Does this mean you are therefore a homophobe?  I don't find child molesting a humorous subject but like many have chuckled at a fair few Jimmy Savile jokes. In my opinion for taboo subjects to become accepted people need to be less sensitive. Brighton fans have "Does your boyfriend know you're here?" sang to to them which I think can be termed as banter. Calling someone a 'dirty queer' etc isn't. It's all about context, hence the 'Upson takes it up the arse' was greeted with plenty of laughter by lots of us on the Holte that day. As for context reading back through this thread, sonlyme has took a kicking for making a joke out of what Rissbert wrote. Yet Rissbert himself has suggested that a poster's gay brother in law who was shit at the sport section on Trivial Pursuit would have been brilliant on the Showbusiness subject. Is this not offensive strereotyping?

[German James]

Out of interest has anyone on here laughed at a gay joke? Does this mean you are therefore a homophobe?  I don't find child molesting a humorous subject but like many have chuckled at a fair few Jimmy Savile jokes. In my opinion for taboo subjects to become accepted people need to be less sensitive. Brighton fans have "Does your boyfriend know you're here?" sang to to them which I think can be termed as banter. Calling someone a 'dirty queer' etc isn't. It's all about context, hence the 'Upson takes it up the arse' was greeted with plenty of laughter by lots of us on the Holte that day. As for context reading back through this thread, sonlyme has took a kicking for making a joke out of what Rissbert wrote. Yet Rissbert himself has suggested that a poster's gay brother in law who was shit at the sport section on Trivial Pursuit would have been brilliant on the Showbusiness subject. Is this not offensive strereotyping?

There's some food for thought. I suppose it does depend on context, but also on everyone's "cut-off point" where they feel that something crosses the line. I thought Sonlyme's post was an ignorant piece of playground nastiness and the fact that several posters felt it necessary to take him to task, makes me think that his comment was way over. I think "Upson takes it up the arse" is just as offensive, however.

Maybe it's because it's clearly meant as an insult, whereas "Does your boyfriend know you're here?", at least displays some slight wit, even if it was adapted from the Spurs fans/Rabbi chants - which were more relevant because they referred to the rules about attending events on Shabbat, I believe.  Rissbert's remark was a cliché, but a harmless one in comparison... Arrrgh! Now I don't know what to think!

[QBVILLA]

German James, good morning.
For the record I found neither remark offensive. Anyhow....
I work in a large American owned Birmingham based  Aerospace business and we have regular courses in pretty much everything and recently we had  diversity training. There were fifteen of us in a room and we had to select different coloured jelly beans depending on our answers. At the end i was the only person in the room who had a bag full of the same coloured beans and was told by the course leader that i was therefore not diverse. This is because of the following:
My gaffer is male
My next door neighbours are white
I am married to a woman.
I have no gay friends, well at least to my knowledge anyway.
My doctor is a white man.

I took this as an insult as I pointed out none of the above were my doing. My doctor was assigned to me by the practice i'd always used. My neighbours moved in after me. I didn't appoint my gaffer. My friends sexual orientation is their own business and as i'm heterosexual obviously my partner is a woman.
On the same course we were told that we need to use an universal language as some foreigners would find some aspects of English difficult to understand. The course leader then casually said,
"Yes and that's just the Americans", which prompted some light laughter.
At this point I asked why he'd said American and not Chinese or Indian? That was met by him blushing and mumbling "Well that's well erm different".
Is it acceptable to be racist/xenephobic  to some nations but god help you if you make a joke about others?
For me i'm very much of the opinion of each to their own and not pushing your beliefs onto others.

[danlanza]

German James, good morning.
For the record I found neither remark offensive. Anyhow....
I work in a large American owned Birmingham based  Aerospace business and we have regular courses in pretty much everything and recently we had  diversity training. There were fifteen of us in a room and we had to select different coloured jelly beans depending on our answers. At the end i was the only person in the room who had a bag full of the same coloured beans and was told by the course leader that i was therefore not diverse. This is because of the following:
My gaffer is male
My next door neighbours are white
I am married to a woman.
I have no gay friends, well at least to my knowledge anyway.
My doctor is a white man.

I took this as an insult as I pointed out none of the above were my doing. My doctor was assigned to me by the practice i'd always used. My neighbours moved in after me. I didn't appoint my gaffer. My friends sexual orientation is their own business and as i'm heterosexual obviously my partner is a woman.
On the same course we were told that we need to use an universal language as some foreigners would find some aspects of English difficult to understand. The course leader then casually said,
"Yes and that's just the Americans", which prompted some light laughter.
At this point I asked why he'd said American and not Chinese or Indian? That was met by him blushing and mumbling "Well that's well erm different".
Is it acceptable to be racist/xenephobic  to some nations but god help you if you make a joke about others?
For me i'm very much of the opinion of each to their own and not pushing your beliefs onto others.

Last line sums up my feelings. Each to their own. Gay/ Straight or whatever. Who gives a damn. We are all human after all, and we all live on the same planet. Got no time for racism or homaphobia. In this day and age surely happiness is the main thing we should be looking for. Just my point of view.

[German James]

German James, good morning.
For the record I found neither remark offensive. Anyhow....
I work in a large American owned Birmingham based  Aerospace business and we have regular courses in pretty much everything and recently we had  diversity training. There were fifteen of us in a room and we had to select different coloured jelly beans depending on our answers. At the end i was the only person in the room who had a bag full of the same coloured beans and was told by the course leader that i was therefore not diverse. This is because of the following:
My gaffer is male
My next door neighbours are white
I am married to a woman.
I have no gay friends, well at least to my knowledge anyway.
My doctor is a white man.

I took this as an insult as I pointed out none of the above were my doing. My doctor was assigned to me by the practice i'd always used. My neighbours moved in after me. I didn't appoint my gaffer. My friends sexual orientation is their own business and as i'm heterosexual obviously my partner is a woman.
On the same course we were told that we need to use an universal language as some foreigners would find some aspects of English difficult to understand. The course leader then casually said,
"Yes and that's just the Americans", which prompted some light laughter.
At this point I asked why he'd said American and not Chinese or Indian? That was met by him blushing and mumbling "Well that's well erm different".
Is it acceptable to be racist/xenephobic  to some nations but god help you if you make a joke about others?
For me i'm very much of the opinion of each to their own and not pushing your beliefs onto others.

Good morning! I couldn't agree more! People are becoming far too precious and quick to take offense on others' behalf. So much of this is about perception: That young Leeds fan for example, El Hadj Diouf wasn't insulted by a ten year old boy blacking up to look like him. He took it in the spirit it was meant. It's ridiculous to accuse that boy, or his family of racism. Sometimes though, I think you have to make a stand and making remarks which suggest that gays are predatory sex-cases whom you're guaranteed to attract by simply offering to fist them is not in order, and it's crap like this, that gay footballers could well be afraid of hearing, if they came out.

My commiserations at having to put up with that sort of waffle at work. What a pile of shite! Are you meant to move to somewhere with an African GP, to become a better person? This sort of pious clap-trap contributes to the very intolerance it's supposed to be eradicating.

There's a definite feeling that some countries/people are taboo, when it comes to jokes and some are fair game. Here in Germany, businesses quite openly claim to have "Scottish prices" when they've got something on offer. This is plainly racist, and I've been known to go in and ask them if they would ever considered using the phrase "Jewish prices", as "the Jews are good with money too, aren't they?". The shock on their faces is worth getting asked to leave for - but there is surely no difference, is there?

*Hello Dan! Agree with you too!

[QBVILLA]

Sonlyme is the only one who can say what he honestly meant by his comment but I read it as a bit of wordplay on the following part,
"number of openly gay people I've known in that time you could count on the fingers of one hand."
Maybe he was going for gay hatred, but that's not the way I read it. Back again to context.....

[saunders_heroes]

It was meant to be offensive, and it was.

[QBVILLA]

It was meant to be offensive, and it was.

In your opinion.

[Greg N'Ash]

German James, good morning.
For the record I found neither remark offensive. Anyhow....
I work in a large American owned Birmingham based  Aerospace business and we have regular courses in pretty much everything and recently we had  diversity training. There were fifteen of us in a room and we had to select different coloured jelly beans depending on our answers. At the end i was the only person in the room who had a bag full of the same coloured beans and was told by the course leader that i was therefore not diverse. This is because of the following:
My gaffer is male
My next door neighbours are white
I am married to a woman.
I have no gay friends, well at least to my knowledge anyway.
My doctor is a white man.

I took this as an insult as I pointed out none of the above were my doing. My doctor was assigned to me by the practice i'd always used. My neighbours moved in after me. I didn't appoint my gaffer. My friends sexual orientation is their own business and as i'm heterosexual obviously my partner is a woman.
On the same course we were told that we need to use an universal language as some foreigners would find some aspects of English difficult to understand. The course leader then casually said,
"Yes and that's just the Americans", which prompted some light laughter.
At this point I asked why he'd said American and not Chinese or Indian? That was met by him blushing and mumbling "Well that's well erm different".
Is it acceptable to be racist/xenephobic  to some nations but god help you if you make a joke about others?
For me i'm very much of the opinion of each to their own and not pushing your beliefs onto others.

Heh, thats very true about it being more acceptable to say offensive stuff about some nations/races/orientations, likewise who's saying it.. About 6 years ago i worked for a company which had a mainly Indian/Pakistani workforce and the stuff they used to say about each other, its a wonder i didn't have a dislocated jaw it was hitting the floor so often. It was like working with Bernard Manning's jokewriters - racism, homophobia, bigotry, weird stuff about Hitler being from India. As the token white face i sort of adopted a switzerland attitude of neutrality and let them get on with it, although both sides did agree they didn't like the jewish guy.

[saunders_heroes]

It was meant to be offensive, and it was.

In your opinion.

So you can be as offensive as you like as long as you meant it as a joke?