England international to come out gay in The Sun on Sunday

[BlueTG]

Whoever the gay footballers, if they don't want to hide anymore, shouldn't bother announcing it, just live your life in the open. People will notice and most won't really care. Why make it a big fucking media circus event? It'll only attract more attention and reinforce the 'this is not normal' view.

Because the media will make a big circus event on it anyway as soon as they catch wind. Lose lose for a lot of them.

 

[ONTHERUNWITHTHAKSIN]

Whoever the gay footballers, if they don't want to hide anymore, shouldn't bother announcing it, just live your life in the open. People will notice and most won't really care. Why make it a big fucking media circus event? It'll only attract more attention and reinforce the 'this is not normal' view.

Because whoever it is will make a shit load of money in exclusives and book deal

 

[pee dubya]

Whoever the gay footballers, if they don't want to hide anymore, shouldn't bother announcing it, just live your life in the open. People will notice and most won't really care. Why make it a big fucking media circus event? It'll only attract more attention and reinforce the 'this is not normal' view.

Because the media will make a big circus event on it anyway as soon as they catch wind. Lose lose for a lot of them.

I know they will, but it's all about perception. Instead of looking like courting the publicity of being the first gay player, just behave like any other person and you're more likely to be treated as one. I'm not saying every gay footballer should do this right now, but if they make the conscious decision that they want to come out it seems the most natural way to do it.

People say you shouldn't have to announce you're sexuality and it's true, you shouldn't and don't have to. Just live your life in the open, it's a better image to present to everyone, rather than conforming to the view that it is a big deal and something abnormal.

Obviously the press and paps would be utter wankers and hound them initially, but it'd settle down quickly enough to regular famous footballer levels.

 

[jimharri]

Chris maldini smalling I reckon

No need to sell the lad short - he's the modern day embodiment of Franco Baresi, John Charles and Dave Ewing rolled into one perfect specimen of what a CB should be. He's gonna be the star of the WC.

 

[Blue Is the Opposite of Blue]

Whoever the gay footballers, if they don't want to hide anymore, shouldn't bother announcing it, just live your life in the open. People will notice and most won't really care. Why make it a big fucking media circus event? It'll only attract more attention and reinforce the 'this is not normal' view.

I'm not too sure about this.

I agree that in an ideal world a person's sexuality should be something that doesn't enter someone's thoughts. But this is football - a place where homosexuals can (and will) be persecuted if the right amount of support isn't shown from as many people as possible. People need to be taught that sexuality is something to be proud of and not something to use as a stick to beat someone with.

You know for a fact that if a homosexual were footballer to come out and play on a Premier League pitch, he'd be taunted from all four sides of the stadium. If the footballer is Ashley Cole, and he turns up at a Premier League ground, he's going to be taunted by several opposition fans. And he won't just be taunted for fun; there are people out there who unfortunately believe that homosexuality is a bad thing. Fuck knows why, but they exist.

So while I'd agree that someone being a homosexual should be greeted with a shrug and a "Good for you", homosexuality still needs support in certain areas. The LGBT community is huge and can manage just fine on its own in the outside world. Progress is so strong there that LGBT people should be treated, on the whole, the way they should be in the near future.

But in a football stadium it can feel very lonely if you're the subject of abuse about your sexuality. You need to know that there are people on your side - and there will be. I must sound so incredibly patronising, but I just feel like unless a lot of footballers come out at once, the first person to take the leap of faith will suffer for it.

This article will explain it better: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?id=345#.UxklKvl_tyU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/News/Art ... xklKvl_tyU</a>

 

[dazdon]

Whoever comes out will have done a sterling job!

 

[pee dubya]

Whoever the gay footballers, if they don't want to hide anymore, shouldn't bother announcing it, just live your life in the open. People will notice and most won't really care. Why make it a big fucking media circus event? It'll only attract more attention and reinforce the 'this is not normal' view.

I'm not too sure about this.

I agree that in an ideal world a person's sexuality should be something that doesn't enter someone's thoughts. But this is football - a place where homosexuals can (and will) be persecuted if the right amount of support isn't shown from as many people as possible. People need to be taught that sexuality is something to be proud of and not something to use as a stick to beat someone with.

You know for a fact that if a homosexual were footballer to come out and play on a Premier League pitch, he'd be taunted from all four sides of the stadium. If the footballer is Ashley Cole, and he turns up at a Premier League ground, he's going to be taunted by several opposition fans. And he won't just be taunted for fun; there are people out there who unfortunately believe that homosexuality is a bad thing. Fuck knows why, but they exist.

So while I'd agree that someone being a homosexual should be greeted with a shrug and a "Good for you", homosexuality still needs support in certain areas. The LGBT community is huge and can manage just fine on its own in the outside world. Progress is so strong there that LGBT people should be treated, on the whole, the way they should be in the near future.

But in a football stadium it can feel very lonely if you're the subject of abuse about your sexuality. You need to know that there are people on your side - and there will be. I must sound so incredibly patronising, but I just feel like unless a lot of footballers come out at once, the first person to take the leap of faith will suffer for it.

This article will explain it better: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?id=345#.UxklKvl_tyU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/News/Art ... xklKvl_tyU</a>

I'm definitely not saying it'll be easy, and i'm more talking about away from the pitch rather than on it, but what do you think would be more likely to encourage other gay footballers to come out? Someone making big announcements in newspapers, doing heart to heart interviews on every news channel, being shown on endless replays etc. Or someone who comes across as a regular guy, going about his business in public like everyone else?

Normalise it and others will be less afraid do the same. It would still take an incredibly strong character to be the first, with a similarly strong partner, but treat it as big one off event and i think others would be more reticent to follow.

On the pitch, i think the majority of home fans would rally around their own player, although depending on the player probably, sad as it sounds. It'd be a lot easier if it was some big hard as nails defender like Pab Zab or Kompany, rather than someone like Dzeko who i imagine would be pilloried. Would their treatment from opposing fans be that much worse than some of the abuse footballers already suffer? Mocking dead relatives, race, disasters, rape accusations etc? In away matches if the home fans sense weakness i can see it being extremely difficult, but ultimately in football what tends to actually really matter to the fans is what happens on the pitch.

Hopefully if a player did come out and was abused, the FA would treat it the same way as if an entire stadium was chanting racist abuse.

 

[Bluesince1979]

Hard to fathom why this is remotely newsworthy in this day and age.
It is, however, quite sad that they evidently need the money so badly that they pimped themselves out to this laughable homophobic comic.

Can't see it being a financial thing if it's a present player. As Stony says, could be a case of the Sun has found out and are going to run it, and the player has no choice. Or, it could just be he feels it's time someone had the balls to be open about their sexuality whilst playing at the highest level. It'll be a landmark in the game either way, but like you say it's sad that that is how it is in this day and age.

I'd agree with this too that it's nothing to do with money, more that he has had The Sun (I pressure) on saying we've got the story, either you give your side and we'll do it all nicey nice or we're running it anyway and we might not be so nice.

As has been said, the fact that it's news and anyone gives a shit is still a bit mind blowing in this day and age. Really... Who fuckin cares!!!!

As a side note, you've got to have shit for brains to buy that paper, or any of the tabloids!!

 

[BimboBob]

Is this actually news? Who gives a flying fuck? I like cheese. Is this newsworthy? Is it fuck. Twats.

The trouble is, newspapers are yesterdays news, and we get our news as it happens.

 

[Super David Silva 21]

United will do anything to take away the light off our FA cup