Gay Sports Stars Still In Closet

TOPICS: Sponsorships. David Beckham. Gay marketing news. Graeme Le Saux. Homophobia in sport. Justin Fashanu. Ian Roberts. John Amaechi. Martina Navratilova. Football. Soccer. Being out of the closet in sports. Gay at work. Gays in sports. Lesbian and gay community in sports still invisible. Gay community marketing sponsorship opportunities. Lesbian and gay marketing. Gay community. UK gay and lesbian market. Guardian online article on lesbian and gay people in the closet in sports.

Ian Johnson, Out Now
September 13, 2007

The issue of being out as gay in the world of elite sports is one of the worst of those remaining bastions of anti-gay fear and homophobia.

US athlete John Amaechi has spoken about the problem of being out as gay in sports. There are very few examples of sports stars that come out of the closet at the elite level whilst still in the game. In fact you can probably name most of them.

Martina Navratilova. Ian Roberts. Amelie Mauresmo. A handful more. Not many.

The case of Justin Fashanu in the UK is a particularly sad indictment of homopohobia in soccer in that country--when a young football star came out as gay he was followed by anti-gay taunts for some time wherever he played, eventually committing suicide.

Today's Guardian newspaper has an interesting article about a new book in the UK by former England football full-back Graeme Le Saux who exposes the fact that anti-gay treatment of players in soccer, homophobia and discrimination against difference, still continues today--twenty years after the sad case of Justin Fashanu.

Le Saux contends that even that metrosexual soccer hero of the moment, David Beckham, has engaged in homophobic taunts on the pitch.

The irony of course is that there are potentially immense gay marketing and sponsorship opportunities for lesbian and gay sports stars that do come out.

Martina Navratilova has said that in the past being out as gay could limit the potential for sponsorship funds at the elite level.

Today, elite French tennis star Amelie Mauresmo has seen sponsorship opportunities open up to her as a result of her professional success.

The hope of course is that eventually it will primarily be the quality of people's sport and not the nature of their sexual orientation that will be the most important factor in the sports sponsorship market.

In comparison to yesterday's report on the world of entertainment opening up to encourage gay stars to be out of the closet--and almost 15 years after Ian Roberts came out at the top of his game in the NSW Rugby League in Australia--it seems that the closet is still perceived as the safest place to play for most elite gay sports athletes in the world.

That seems like it potentially represents a lot of wasted energy concealing the truth--energy that could best be used to further improve their game. And their marketing and sponsorship opportunities.

Obviously there is still a distance to go towards true equality for gay and lesbian sports stars. Here is an extract from today's Guardian Online report on the issue of being gays in sports and football in the UK:

Le Saux's honesty can help bring pride to English game

In his new autobiography, Left Field (soccer player), Graeme Le Saux tells of how wearing Pringle socks and reading the Guardian led him to be branded a "poof" by some contemporaries (he's not, incidentally). "I got plenty of comments from other players about being a faggot or a queer.

By the soporific standards of the modern football autobiography this is eye-popping because we are talking about well known, current players who have been accused of indulging in unforgivable prejudice. (If you think that is overstating the case, try substituting "queer" with one of the objectionable racial epithets you might hear should you be unlucky enough to stumble into a BNP branch meeting.)

In the interview accompanying the book's serialisation, Le Saux described an incident during a match against Manchester United when David Beckham allegedly called him a "poof".

That would be David Beckham; gay icon, the man in touch with his feminine side who made it so right to be wearing a sarong. Please say it isn't so, David.

Beckham wasn't available for comment but a spokesman pointed out that the incident in question happened seven years ago and even though Le Saux has known Beckham for some time the former Chelsea man had never mentioned it in their conversations.

A footballer's sexuality is not public property but nor should it be something to be hidden away for fear of ridicule, or worse. Over the past 20 years only one player in this country, the late Justin Fashanu, has publicly said he was gay and he was hounded until his suicide.

Meanwhile, here we are in September 2007 and not one player in the British game is "out". You can say this is a statistical improbability, an insult to our intelligence or an assault on the dignity of the gay community. What you can't say is that it is acceptable in a modern society, especially where many people take their cue from the national sport.

Le Saux has done his bit to address the problem of homophobia within the game and now it is everybody else's turn: the authorities, managers, referees and the players themselves.

If Beckham believes he can make Americans love football, surely he can make British fans love a player who loves another man.

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