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First openly gay footballer comes out in UK


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4 minutes ago, kristmace said:

He's only 17. Good on him for standing up.

 

There are hundreds of gay footballers. Hopefully the ridiculous stigma is dying out and more feel safe to come out. 

Agreed.

 

When you look at what Justin Fashanu went through it really was an absolute disgrace and will have no doubt put some players off doing this.

 

Hopefully this young man will be an inspiration for others to do the same.

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Absolutely brilliant,  an incredibly brave thing to do as he will now be targeted by knuckle draggers everywhere.

 

There is a reason why footballers don't come out; the culture in football is ridiculously laddish no matter how hard players like Jordan Henderson go out of their way to try and promote more inclusivity.

 

Speaking of knuckle draggers, I'm sure there will be posters who comment 'so what' and 'don't care' ..completely missing the point of why a public announcement like this is a huge deal and an incredibly important step on the path to gay footballers not feeling like they have to live a lie. 

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Thank god this has finally happened.

 

Takes guts to be the first one (at least in 30 years) but hopefully this opens the floodgates. Statistically speaking, there must be hundreds of gay footballers in the professional game in this Britain alone and I hope more can feel comfortable to do the same.

 

I honestly think football in general will be very supportive. I think that your average football fan is a lot more decent than some people like to pretend. There will be trolls I'm sure, but it should be pretty clear that only random twitter eggs have anything negative to say.

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Like others have said, must have taken some guts to be the first openly gay player in a long time.

 

He said it was affecting his mental health keeping it hidden, and now feels like a massive weight off of his shoulders. Hopefully he will become a stepping stone for it to eventually not even be thought about for sportspeople.

 

I think he will get a lot of support. He may well be an easy target for the hard of thinking, but hopefully they will then be banned from football matches (and obtain a criminal conviction).

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1 minute ago, ANDY said:

While I commend his bravery. My opinion is it’s nobodies business but his own. 
 

 

 

I agree, but it sounds like he felt like he wanted to do it, and it's taken a lot of pressure off of him.

 

Like I said above, maybe he will be an important landmark which will lead to that pressure never being there in the first place.

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16 minutes ago, ANDY said:

While I commend his bravery. My opinion is it’s nobodies business but his own. 
 

 

 

Also important to consider the message it sends to other young, gay footballers or gay people in any walk of life. This high profile coverage can help inspire and help more people accept and be proud of who they are - and give them the courage to be true to themselves and be who they want to be. So whilst I understand what you mean, the wider societal impact will not be seen by us but will have made a positive difference to a lot of people's lives through his bravery.

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29 minutes ago, ANDY said:

While I commend his bravery. My opinion is it’s nobodies business but his own. 
 

 

He’s a young lad and more and more footballers are, through their own choice, sharing their lives on social media. Some players only need to sneeze and it’s front page news, rightly or wrongly. That’s just the world we’re in now. 

 

Even without that aspect, you get end of season walks round the pitch, awards nights where players are seen with their partners. This announcement means he can live his life privately and publicly the way he wants to. And also will help other players see that it’s okay.


He also seems at peace with the idea that he’s bound to get comments. Which he will. But I think we’re at a point as a country where the support will outweigh the stupidity and ignorance.

 

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43 minutes ago, ANDY said:

While I commend his bravery. My opinion is it’s nobodies business but his own. 
 

 

He's probably not done it because he wants people to be bothered one way or another. It's probably because he was sick of hiding it and it will have been impact on his happiness / mental health. And to help future young players do the same

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