Calling for opinions: For a magazine article on the 8 professional footballers who have come out as gay.

Hi All,

Your moderators have been really great and are letting me post this here. I'm writing an article for an online magazine called The Good Men Project, about the 8 players who came out as gay to their teammates but aren't going public.

I'm looking to get the opinions of fans on this, so please take a minute or two to answer the seven short questions below. You can PM me your answers anonymously - so please be as open and honest as you can. I won't save or print any names (all PMs will be deleted).

I'm not trying to start arguments about this issue, I just want to hear what everyone thinks.

Please answer as if you were telling someone who knew nothing about the sport (we have a lot of readers in the USA, as well as over here):

A week ago 8 professional footballers came out as gay to their teammates, but have decided not to go public.

1. What kind of problems, if any, would there be if these men went public tomorrow?

2. Would it affect the game, or are they just worried about the media?

3. How would it affect the fans and the clubs?

4. How would you feel if one of these players was transferring to your team?

5. How would you feel if all 8 players already played for your team?

6. If you were playing, would having a gay man on the pitch affect the game at all for you?

7. At matches, do you hear gay terms being used as an insult, and if so, how often?


Please add any other comments you have on the issue.


Thanks!


Please PM me your answers.

This is an excellent topic, pm sent.

1. What kind of problems, if any, would there be if these men went public tomorrow?
There wouldn't be any problems for the fans, but they could be subjected to a lot of harrasment by other players and opposing fans teams. They would also be heavily scrutinized by the media.

2. Would it affect the game, or are they just worried about the media?
They are rightly worried about fan, players and media harrasment.

3. How would it affect the fans and the clubs?
It could be benefitial PR to have a openly gay football player. Most clubs would probably embrace it.

4. How would you feel if one of these players was transferring to your team? Quite proud. Would support him/them.

5. How would you feel if all 8 players already played for your team?
Puzzled. Homosexual population is only 5% of world population. It should be the same in football for all I know. The fact that such a large amount of my team's players are gay would seem strange to me.

6. If you were playing, would having a gay man on the pitch affect the game at all for you?Only during the first month or so, because I would like to see how he handles the pressure of being out. And I would also like to see how other players react to it. Afterwards, not.

7. At matches, do you hear gay terms being used as an insult, and if so, how often? All the time.

I will fill out your questions in a second, Will you post the finished article here? I would be very interested in reading it.

I Also think that if a footballer was gay, I would very much support them. I have no problem with Homosexuality and think there must be a few gay footballers. I wouldn't think any differently of any of them though!

Hello,

Yep - I'd be happy to post a link to the article here when it's done.

Thanks very much for the replies so far - massively useful!

I look forward to reading it!

I guess my replies are partly a tangent, but maybe you can use this as a side note, too. As I'm not a guy, my view on this is of course somewhat different in the first place.

A week ago 8 professional footballers came out as gay to their teammates, but have decided not to go public.
I think it is a pity that men have far more problems there than women. In the German women NT, there are several openly lesbian players and they didn't encounter any problems because of that. As a matter of fact, if the media wouldn't jump like sharks on the guys, they would probably not have too many problems either. The fact that a female player is lesbian doesn't stir any special media echo in Germany, for example.

Link to a German article on the topic: http://www.dw.de/zweierlei-ma%C3%9F-lesben-und-schwule-im-fu%C3%9Fball/a-15128400
Another one: http://www.taz.de/!73426/
(Sorry they are in German, but hopefully some translation program can help)

1. What kind of problems, if any, would there be if these men went public tomorrow?
As mentioned above - I fear the media would jump on them and put them on display and unfortunately there are other countries/cultures where homosexuality is an offense that can be punished by death, so maybe players who are openly gay might face additional repercussions if they play in countries that are averse to homosexuality (as visitors, I mean. In such countries/cultures I wouldn't expect gay persons to out themselves for fear of their lives, of course).

On a side note - in Germany we have an openly gay minister of foreign affairs who visits all countries he needs to visit, and so far he obviously didn't face any problems due to his homosexuality even in countries where it is outlawed. Of course he is under diplomatic immunity.

2. Would it affect the game, or are they just worried about the media?
If they go out with the fact they are still the same persons, so it shouldn't affect their game. I think the media and possibly opponent fan pressure might be a problem, though.

3. How would it affect the fans and the clubs?
It depends on the fan groups and the clubs. Ultra right fan groups probably would go ballistic, but I would expect the moderate fans not really to care about it as long as the players play well. If the players play weak, they might face some additional nasty anti-gay insults though, I fear.

4. How would you feel if one of these players was transferring to your team?
I wouldn't mind. If the player is good, I don't mind the sexual orientation. I don't care about his religion or skin colour either after all.

5. How would you feel if all 8 players already played for your team?
As some poster above said - I'd be puzzled for statistical reasons, too XD

6. If you were playing, would having a gay man on the pitch affect the game at all for you?
Nope. Because I am quite sure there are already several gay players on the pitch all the time, they just chose not to out themselves (yet).

7. At matches, do you hear gay terms being used as an insult, and if so, how often?
Unfortunately it is pretty far spread.

El Gunner wrote:Above post unnecessary... (Yeah I know, sorry)

Not unnecessary at all! I want everyone's opinions.

Please do answer the questions via PM, you can stay completely anonymous. I really want to know how you would feel in the scenarios mentioned, and your thoughts on the subject in relation to professional football.

Thanks.

rwo power wrote:I guess my replies are partly a tangent, but maybe you can use this as a side note, too. As I'm not a guy, my view on this is of course somewhat different in the first place.

Thanks for answering, and providing even more perspective on this! Your points on gay women in football are really interesting. I wasn't just trying to ask men about this issue, and going outside the questions is fine.

1. What kind of problems, if any, would there be if these men went public tomorrow?


Well for a start the liberal media would make a big hullabaloo out of this and try to make out that a significant amount of footballers are gay, when in fact there is probably less as Gay people growing up are generally not interested in Sport and have less testosterone than straight men, proof of this is that they often have a low digit ratio when it comes to ring and index finger measurements, this is a sign of low levels of testosterone exposure in the womb. Actually I refuse to believe any homosexuals are better at football than me as this is simply illogical and it wouldn't surprise me if some footballers where paid to "come out" as a homosexual to push certain groups agendas.

2. Would it affect the game, or are they just worried about the media?

Would if affect the actual football being played? No.

3. How would it affect the fans and the clubs?

It would be bad for the fans because it would set a bad example to children etc It would be just another tool for the media and certain groups to brainwash people into thinking something very bad is in fact acceptable or even a good thing.

4. How would you feel if one of these players was transferring to your team?

I would stop supporting my team (Barca , Lazio or Liverpool) if a player from either team announced himself as a homosexual. Especially if the club supported him, no questions asked I would not support them until that player left the team.Homosexuality is clearly stated as a abomination in the bible and the people who promote it are just as wrong as the homosexuals themselves. Deny it all you want, but it's there in black and white in the bible.

5. How would you feel if all 8 players already played for your team?

Impossible.

6. If you were playing, would having a gay man on the pitch affect the game at all for you?

No but I would prefer not to play with a homosexual. I would probably still play but I wouldn't try to make friends with him, I wouldn't insult him either as I don't look for trouble.

7. At matches, do you hear gay terms being used as an insult, and if so, how often?

At matches and pubs etc it happens a lot. Contrary to media opinion the majority of people in the Western media are still against homosexuality and it disgusts them. Also the vast majority of people are against gay "marriage".

I think there's more prevalence of openly homosexual women in all sports compared to homosexual men. I think the enviroment is more accepting.

I also think lesbian women are going to be more atracted to sports than homosexual men since more masculine individuals tend to like sports more and many homosexual men are more femenine than average. (not meant as an offense. I'm bisexual myself)

I also think that's the reason we see so many homosexual men in arts. It's an enviroment that is more welcoming towars more femenine individuals.

Nirgall wrote:I think there's more prevalence of openly homosexual women in all sports compared to homosexual men. I think the enviroment is more accepting.

I also think lesbian women are going to be more atracted to sports than homosexual men since more masculine individuals tend to like sports more and many homosexual men are more femenine than average. (not meant as an offense. I'm bisexual myself)

I also think that's the reason we see so many homosexual men in arts. It's an enviroment that is more welcoming towars more femenine individuals.

Not only are gay men more feminine so less inclined to participate in sports but their area of the brain that deals with spatial awareness and coordination is less developed than normal mens brains. As I explained before this is because homosexuals where exposed to less testosterone in the womb than straight men where. Go and study the finger length ratios between straight men and gay men. There is plenty of proof that what I am saying here is the truth, only libtards would disagree with me.

wat

worms wrote:

Nirgall wrote:I think there's more prevalence of openly homosexual women in all sports compared to homosexual men. I think the enviroment is more accepting.

I also think lesbian women are going to be more atracted to sports than homosexual men since more masculine individuals tend to like sports more and many homosexual men are more femenine than average. (not meant as an offense. I'm bisexual myself)

I also think that's the reason we see so many homosexual men in arts. It's an enviroment that is more welcoming towars more femenine individuals.

Not only are gay men more feminine so less inclined to participate in sports but their area of the brain that deals with spatial awareness and coordination is less developed than normal mens brains. As I explained before this is because homosexuals where exposed to less testosterone in the womb than straight men where. Go and study the finger length ratios between straight men and gay men. There is plenty of proof that what I am saying here is the truth, only libtards would disagree with me.

I'm not sure all the data you are throwing. and if it correlates with coordination or spatial awareness. Gay men's penis are also averagely larger than straight men so in some regards gay men are more masculine or have some masculine features more enphasized. Regardless, that's only in average terms. There's no reason why a few homosexual individuals could not be more coordinated or have more spatial awareness than straight men. And in fact many professional athletes are gay and many football players (at least where I live (argentina)) are gay, but simply not out.

My argument was not that there are no gay men in professional football but that there could be less that gay women. There are, of course, gay men in professional football as anyone that goes regularly to a football club knows,

VivaStPauli wrote:wat

looool same exact reaction

Nirgall wrote:

worms wrote:

Nirgall wrote:I think there's more prevalence of openly homosexual women in all sports compared to homosexual men. I think the enviroment is more accepting.

I also think lesbian women are going to be more atracted to sports than homosexual men since more masculine individuals tend to like sports more and many homosexual men are more femenine than average. (not meant as an offense. I'm bisexual myself)

I also think that's the reason we see so many homosexual men in arts. It's an enviroment that is more welcoming towars more femenine individuals.

Not only are gay men more feminine so less inclined to participate in sports but their area of the brain that deals with spatial awareness and coordination is less developed than normal mens brains. As I explained before this is because homosexuals where exposed to less testosterone in the womb than straight men where. Go and study the finger length ratios between straight men and gay men. There is plenty of proof that what I am saying here is the truth, only libtards would disagree with me.

I'm not sure all the data you are throwing. and if it correlates with coordination or spatial awareness. Gay men's penis are also averagely larger than straight men so in some regards gay men are more masculine or have some masculine features more enphasized. Regardless, that's only in average terms. There's no reason why a few homosexual individuals could not be more coordinated or have more spatial awareness than straight men. And in fact many professional athletes are gay and many football players (at least where I live (argentina)) are gay, but simply not out.

My argument was not that there are no gay men in professional football but that there could be less that gay women. There are, of course, gay men in professional football as anyone that goes regularly to a football club knows,

No they don't. And lol at the idea of gay men being in any way more masculine, these are people who get sodomized by other men. Masculine

worms wrote:No they don't. And lol at the idea of gay men being in any way more masculine, these are people who get sodomized by other men. Masculine

Or they are men who "sodomize" other men.

You strike as a person with not much real life experience. Many gay men are overly masculine. Much more so than most straight people. If you only were to be more open and meet more people you would easily be able to realize that.

Anyway, if you want you can google the info. You will be easily able to find the sources. Not important anyway. that was just an example.

Edit: Not that I think it's important, but since i don't want to seem that I am inventing things, here is one of the studies that backes my previous assertion. (you can easily find the others with google)http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1018780108597

Please do not feed the troll.

I see he was banned already, My mistake.