Altrincham FC

Homophobia far more common amongst Afro Caribbean men than Western European men.

 

This. I personally couldn't care less either way. It has nothing to do with ability so for me it's irrelevant. I would like to think that if they wanted to be open about it they could but if they choose not to then it's their business.

 

Superb cause, horrible shirt. It reminds me of the England keeper shirt that made Seaman look like a packet of Refreshers.

Are we doing anything for Football vs Homophobia month?

 

If you're applying to dressing rooms or board rooms then yes there is little evidence. Aside from the lack of openly gay players. However, there is ample evidence of homophobia in football stadiums. Also to suggest that gay men are less inclined to like football is pure speculation. And you also have no evidence to prove this. Furthermore, it could be suggested that if your opinion is true, this could be due to gay men finding football less appealing because of fear of discrimination.

 

Without facts and figures everything is speculation. As I said, think of all the gay lads and men you have known - how many have shown any interest in football? I can give you evidence but its purely anecdotal.

 

Out of my many gay friends and acquaintances, only one is particularly interested in footy, though he goes to Headingley a lot more than he goes to Oakwell. Another is a keen rugby fan. The rest are pretty indifferent to sport, so you probably have a point.

 

Beine homosexual is no different to being straight in terms of liking different things. So I'm sure that a lot of them do like football, you can't just go on anecdotal evidence.

 

Nonsense. If you asked 100 gay men whether they preferred football or musical theatre, you would get a very different answer from 100 straight men.

I quite like the kit by the way.

 

Bout 50/50. I would also say bout 50% of my straight male friends like football. But that was the point I was making - it's all andecdotal and therefore not "true". If gay men are less inclined to like football I would speculate that the major reason behind that is the homophobia which exists throughout the game.

 

So what's your evidence?

The things you like are completely defined by your gender, sexual orientation, age, nationality, and even the town you were brought up in.

 

So 50% of the gay people you know and 50% of your straight friends like football? Fancy that. For me it's 0% and about 80%.

 

What I'm saying is your gender or your sexuality don't equate to what you like. Yes it's less likely you're an avid football fan if you're not in a footballing area but that's not necessarily to do with your sexuality.

 

Of the 11,000 Barnsley fans at Oakwell this afternoon - how many will be female?

 

Correct. However, as discussed that means nothing. I think it's shortsighted to suggest that the underrepresentation of openly gay players is due to individuals who are gay simply being "less inclined" to like football. And if this is the case we should perhaps be looking at why gay individuals may not find the sport accessible. I would suggest that this is due to the homophobia throughout the game which prevents individuals from taking an interest or participating in the sport from the offset and also prevents gay footballers from being openly gay. This has been evidenced anecdotally through individual testimonials and evidence throughout the football world of homophobic chanting and abuse being directed at players. I would hope that eventually the reaction to gay people involved in watching it playing football will be indifferent. But to achieve that I think it's important that clubs use initiatives, such as Altrincham have, to show that gay people are welcome.

 

TBF it's not a choice mate, if your born gay then your going to be gay, no more no less.

 

This homophobia also prevents them from playing football at school, with friends or following man united or Liverpool on Sky? The gay people I know, or have known, are not put off by homophobia- they'd just rather do something else on a Saturday afternoon. Anyway, I think we've reached an impasse as we're both referring to anecdotal evidence.

 

For me it's probably around 80% of straight friends are football fans and around 20% of gay friends are.

Conversely in female friends 100% of my female lesbian friends are football fans and 30% of straight female friends are.

Those figures are purely estimates and obviously only include the people I know whether they are football fans or not.

 

As usual I really can see both sides to this argument. Conan has raised a really interesting point that until a player does come out as gay, we have absolutely no idea what the reaction will be, or what sort of "treatment" he will receive from the stands. As already mentioned, hopefully it will be total indifference.

On the subject of what our gay friends like and don't like, the argument is flawed. For a start we usually naturally gravitate to people with the same, or at the very least similar interests to ourselves, so that will skew any results.

 

I reckon if we all gave honest estimates the figures would be similar depending on the size of your gay and straight friend pool.