Football v Homophobia

Talking of pride at Orient....


As football tries to restore its reputation in the aftermath of the Luis Suarez affair, The Justin Campaign has been attempting to highlight another prejudice in football. Its annual Football v Homophobia week has probably attracted more attention than ever before this year, in no small part thanks to the Suarez incident and the media's sudden appetite for snaring footballers guilty of any kind of prejudice. And it is an issue that is linked to Orient in conflicting ways.

The Justin Campaign is of course named after the one openly gay footballer in the English game, Justin Fashanu. When Fashanu signed for Leyton Orient and I met him in the Brisbane Road gym / press room, it was the first time I had knowingly met a gay man and I only knew that because it was made such a big deal of. Shortly afterwards I was also introduced to homophobia for the first time. I was 14 and knew what homosexuality was but I hadn't thought about it very much and didn't think that anyone did either. But when Fashanu was at the club it seemed to be all some people could think about. It started with little jokes, not even jokes really, just sniggers and knowing nods at the mention of his name. However, it went on to 'serious' conjecture about him unsettling the dressing room. I couldn't figure out why until it was explained just how risky it was letting a gay man anywhere near other men in a changing room, or even worse, in the showers. And it wasn't just that he wouldn't be able to control himself but that he'd also risk spreading AIDS. This was explained to me by fans in all seriousness, without malice, just incredible ignorance.

If anyone wants to believe that racism in football has waned since the 80s but homophobia hasn't changed at all should look at attitudes around our club now. Lee Steele is an Orient legend - you can count the number of strikers who have fired the Os to promotion on one hand. Yet when Steelo was sacked by Oxford City for a homophobic tweet about Gareth Thomas, the general feeling amongst Orient fans who expressed their opinions on the message board and on Twitter was one of disappointment in their hero. There was debate about whether the punishment was excessive and whether it would be the same if he played for a professional team. But few sought to defend his comments or his right to make them, which is quite a statement considering that people are often blinded when it comes to their heroes. Society has changed and the attitudes of a lot of football fans have changed with it, hero or not.

No one has followed Justin Fashanu out of the closet in this country and the experiences of one straight player widely assumed to be gay go a long way to explaining why. Graeme Le Saux faced vitriolic abuse for rumours started in the Chelsea dressing room about his sexuality, based on the fact he read the Guardian rather than The Sun and spent his holiday travelling Europe with Ken Monkou and Erland Johnson rather than Shaggaluf with 'the lads'. Was this just dressing room banter that he was expected to join in with to be accepted as some people think? Le Saux has named Paul Ince as someone who would taunt him and claim afterwards it meant nothing and was simply aimed at putting an opponent off his game, which was, in his view, fair enough. But when Le Saux did the same and insulted 'the Guvnor's' wife Ince confronted Le Saux after the game and had to be pulled away. Just two years ago gave an interview saying he still wanted to "knock [Le Saux] out". Apparently there is a line in the sand, which includes race and family (and I daresay someone questioning one’s own sexuality) but doesn't include homosexuality. Le Saux spent his whole career on the receiving end of torrents of often vitriolic abuse. If that is the experience of someone who wasn’t even gay it is frightening to think what it would be like for someone who was.

Surveys and censuses have suggested that anything between 5% and 15% of the UK population are gay. So the theory goes, that must mean that ratio is replicated amongst footballers. This ignores the fact that Asians make up 4% of the UK population and to my knowledge there have been one or two Asian footballers in the English leagues in recent years? It is entirely believable that no sane gay man would seek a football career when faced with having to hide who he was if he was to be at all successful. Are we happy at the thought that young kids feel they have to walk away from a sport they love because at the same time that they are beginning to show promise they are also beginning to understand their sexuality? Even if that doesn't bother you morally, has it failed to escape anyone’s notice that there isn't enough talent in our national game to be able to afford to simply write off circa 10% of the male population of the country?

Inside the dressing room players are always going to find something to take the mickey out of, be it their team mates' dress sense, taste in music or hairstyle. Twitter users this week discovered that Alex Revell remains endlessly amused about the size of Lee Butcher's nipples! Since Russell Slade became our manager we've seen what can be done with a squad that is engendered with team spirit and a desire to play for each other. Time is spent at all clubs on team building exercises that ensure that everyone buys into the team ethic, ensuring that the dressing room is lively AND inclusive. A player or group of players who create discord or cliques in a dressing room are a manager's worst nightmare. Anyone who is made to feel like a stranger or an outsider isn't going to have the desire to fight with his team 'mates' in the face of adversity.

Experience has shown that what starts as a bit of banter about someone’s sexuality, leads to singling out of players for continual abuse, from opponents and fans, every single week. When a joke that is meant to be harmless is exactly the same type of joke that someone uses to attack and persecute someone, it takes on far greater significance and meaning and it stops being funny at all. There isn't a club in the country that would dare not be a part of the Kick Racism Out Of Football campaign and as the Football v Homophobia campaign gathers momentum it will hopefully attract the same attention*. It needs to because nasty, tribal abuse (which the media like to mask as ‘passion’) lacking any wit or imagination is still too prevalent inside football grounds. Too often it includes homophobic language. It would be nice to think that eventually a gay footballer could be entirely open about his life without fear of attracting abuse but won't have to come out publically because it is so unremarkable that it has become a non-issue.

Link:



www.thejustincampaign.com/

*The media made much of the fact that The Justin Campaign wrote to all professional clubs asking them to do something to mark Football v Homophobia week and only a few clubs responded. I don’t think it is correct to make a sweeping generalisation without knowing more about who they wrote to, when and what they asked clubs to do. I e-mailed the Justin Campaign but unfortunately they were unable to respond before I wrote this. As more clubs became aware of the campaign this week they did respond positively by agreeing to wear t-shirts during their warm ups and so on.