The Guardian today carries a wonderful interview with Anton Hysén - the only professional footballer to be 'out'. More photos are included in the print edition (in the G2 section) with his mum and dad, which do add something to the story. The main picture (also online) left me pondering towels of all things - they do look rather random and manky in the background - I was expecting immaculate towels. This may seem a random observation but it left me wondering where it was shot and whether that was significant. I would expect his club's changing rooms (perhaps wrongly) to be turned out a little differently and thus is the photo a reflection of a lack of club support for this sort of story or what? It's probably my over-active mind but I did wonder if there was another aspect to the story.The more obvious aspect of this story is the state of homophobia in football. One out footballer is a start but it's absurd to believe that Hysén is the only gay professional footballer. That others have yet to come out, tells us an awful lot about the limitations of the law, and the new protections and freedoms that have been introduced in the last ten years or so.
Read the Guardian story in full here.
Read the Guardian story in full here.
I met Justin Fashanu c.20 years ago when I was working for Stonewall. It was a dinner party that was being filmed, and the guests all had to talk about coming out - I guess the footage must be out there somewhere. He was a lovely man and I still can't get over the tragedy of what happened to him or the fact that 20 years later we have not had even one professional footballer come out since.
Yes, it was so very sad, but if anything, it's meant that there is now more acceptance and support for those footballers that want to come out. He did (I think) write a piece for a Stonewall book which might be tied into the event you're talking about.
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