Homosexuality in Football

...a documentary on BBC3 tonight.

You know what to expect. An hour's worth of people trying to answer a question for which the answer is obvious - why are there no openly gay footballers?

Max Clifford claimed a couple of years ago that two Premiership players had stated to him personally that they were gay. There's no doubting homosexuality exists in football.

At a conservative estimate, at least 4% of the male population are gay. It follows that 4% of footballers must also be gay.

Justin Fashanu was the first footballer to openly admit being gay. Football is a macho game so most gay footballers are probably uncomfortable about expressing their sexuality for fear of the ribbing they would get.

I don't think we can expect to see any big Premier League footballers coming out of the closet tonight.

Didn't David Batty call Matt Le Saux a fookin poof which sparked a brawl between them on the footy pitch ?

It was just handbags RT!

Why don't they commission a documentary on Lesbianism in Womens Volleyball ? Now that would be worth watching.

Graeme Le Saux was taunted for being gay throughout his career, even though he is married with two kids and has stated he is straight.

Besides the incident with Batty, there was that incident where Robbie Fowler appeared to taunt him for being gay.

Are you telling me you think Gay footballers who came out would be the target of hate, abuse and violence on and off the pitch?

nah, no way.

Cristiano Ronaldo?

Hipster_Nebula wrote:Are you telling me you think Gay footballers who came out would be the target of hate, abuse and violence on and off the pitch?

nah, no way.

I would find it hard to believe that in this day and age any footballer who admitted to being a bender would be the subject of homophobic taunts.

Political correctness and sexual awareness have put paid to all the talk about uphill gardening. It just wouldn't happen.

Le Saux is a well read idividual. It narked his team mates that he used to read the Guardian. Sad bastards.

Reebok Trotter wrote:At a conservative estimate, at least 4% of the male population are gay. It follows that 4% of footballers must also be gay.

No it does not follow that 4% of footballers must be gay.

Almost 20% of gay men are hairdressers while a further 20% work in fashion retail. Nearly 10% work in the fashion industry including magazines. Bars, restaurants, Clubs, Dancers, beauty industry, and air cabin crew account for a further 26%. Other popular jobs for gay men are in bakery, home-ware stores and performing arts.

So if that is true then there is hardly any room for a footballer to take it up the botty.

I agree totally with Biggie and I laughed out loud.

In a totally manly way, I might add.

Il Padrino wrote:Graeme Le Saux was taunted for being gay throughout his career, even though he is married with two kids and has stated he is straight.

Imagine being straight and married with two kids and being called a homosexual.

What a bummer.

Being (or not being) gay/lesbian isn't a choice people consciously make. I know this because nobody would volunteer themselves for the difficulties homosexuals inevitably face (look what happened to Justin Fashanu!).
The statistics you read about it are only ever in relation to people who are openly gay. The world's moved on, but we're hundreds of years away from when everyone who's into the same sex is willing to talk about it openly. So there's bound to be tonnes more of them than it's made out.

There's no openly gay footballers simply because being gay in that kind of working environment would be near unbearably awkward, not just for the guy's colleagues who might feel uncomfortable about it for obvious reasons, but for he himself because of the uncomfortable environment he worries he's causing. He probably wouldn't even get much abuse for it baring in mind how forward we are about it these days.

I think we're another half a century before it is completely acceptable to be gay in this country.

Look, I have gay friends, I believe that people are born gay, but I'm not 100% comfortable with it. I don't find the idea of two men being in love with each other disgusting, but I do cringe when I think about homosexual sex.

There is a gay couple in EastEnders. This is nothing new, they had the first gay couple on TV in the 80s in Colin and Barry and it was a watershed moment when they first kissed, but I found myself appalled when watching it the other night, when the current gay couple, Christian and Sayeed, were talking, and one said to the other, "nip back to the flat at lunchtime and we'll say goodbye properly".

I can't help it that my natural reaction to that is to be tolerant of the lifestyles of others but not wanting to be made to think that men having sex with each other is the same as a man and a woman having sex. It isn't.

So, what I am getting to with this, is that I think there is a big difference between tolerating homosexuality in sport and actually accepting it as normal, because lets be honest, it isn't.

I guess it's unthinkable to most men to even think of finding another man attractive, let alone have sex with him!

This isn't a gay rant, I just don't have a clue why any woman would find a man attractive, let alone a man find another man desirable!

I don't think you have a choice in the matter, nature tells you what you are - and that is it.

It must have been hell over the centuries for people to have to hide their true feelings, at least it is a bit more easier these days - but the fact that no one as come out and told the world that they are a gay footballer shows there is still a long way to go.

My daughter once asked me what I would do if she said she was gay - to which I simply said I would carry on loving her.

That's what it is about to me though - finding happiness in your life with someone who loves you back.

Can anyone ask for more really?

Anton Hysen, Glenn Hysen's (ex-Liverpool) son is the world's only openly gay footballer.

I think it's only a matter of time before somebody from the Premiership comes out. An England cricketer came out last year, a Wales rugby player came out 2 or 3 years ago. But it must take balls (funnily enough), and there's not many Premier League players with them.

I thought Gareth Thomas was awfully brave coming out and admitting he was a chutney ferret. Rugby Union is the last place you would expect it. I am sure a lot of people were shocked when he admitted to having a yearning for Satan's Alley. He doesn't look the stereotypical gayer that's for sure.

Personally, it's not my bag but I see it as a case of different strokes for different folks.

Apparently just under half of gay men don't have penetrative sex. Which is reassuring.

As I said I don't have an issue with two people loving each other but, lets say for arguments sake my brother was gay, and I caught him doing a Brokeback Mountain in the front room, I would feel sick.

I was at work once and a younger colleague and I were discussing a very hot girl (I forget who it was), and he came out with the phrase, "I'd suck a c*** to f*** her".

So what he was saying is that he would go through with that for the opportunity to have sex with an incredibly fit woman. I was aghast.

We then had a discussion about which would be worse as a straight man, being taken up the dirtpipe or having to perform felatio on another man. After much consideration, I think I'd lube up and think of England rather than having to pipe off a bloke.

Il Padrino wrote:
We then had a discussion about which would be worse as a straight man, being taken up the dirtpipe or having to perform felatio on another man. After much consideration, I think I'd lube up and think of England rather than having to pipe off a bloke.

Both options are non-negotiable as far as I am concerned.

Urgh, it's turning my stomach this thread but the point I was trying to make earlier, why would any women want to be penetrated by a man - never mind another man wanting to have another blokes willy stuck in him somewhere or other!

Thankfully for me I've never seen 'it' when some women try's to explain to me what it is that attracts them about some movie star or other - they just look like any other bloke to me.

Just happy that I've always found women attractive and luckily for me the odd one or two over the years have seen something (God knows what!) that attracted them to me!

As this thread demonstrates, their are a wide range of opinions about homosexuality - although I'm not convinced that the members of this board are a true representation of the full range of opinion - but you get the gist.

So therefore people will judge for themselves how they feel about gay men.

However, players are paid to be footballers and in my book their personal life has got f*ck all to do with it and the media should keep their big fat noses out of it. Fashanu was a great player full stop.

I wouldn't give a monkeys if we had a team of gay transsexuals in gimp suit strips if they were brilliant at footie.