Neil Francis and gay sportspeople

[seafoid]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TG2t6N9xN0

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/neil-francis-apologises-over-remarks-on-gay-people-and-sports-1.1695229

He took up an offer from Matt Cooper to go on his Today FM show The Last Word along with Welsh referee Nigel Owens, who came out as gay in 2005, initially to family and friends and then to the wider rugby community in 2007, prior to the Rugby World Cup.

"When you have people of Neil's stature coming out and saying these comments I don't think people realise what an influence they have. A lot of young people out there who are finding it difficult to deal with the issues, dealing with who they are, it (remarks like those) have a huge influence.

"We don't want to go out and shout it from the rooftops that we are gay, we just want to be ourselves and get on with our lives.

"It is a very sad world when you think that an individual has to choose between, 'can I carry on with my sport,' or 'can I carry on with who I am'. . . it is a very sad state that someone has to make that choice.

[Cold tea]

"We don't want to go out and shout it from the rooftops that we are gay, we just want to be ourselves and get on with our lives.

Tom Daley gave it a fair go!

[The Iceman]

Why does your sexual orientation define who you are though? I don't understand why anyone in sports feels the need to celebrate their sexual preference. Why can't they just be the footballer or the Rugby referee or the son or the brother, the tandem diver....

[The Iceman]

I would nearly argue though that the player gets even more attention than they would have previously? Both positive and negative but from what I can see for the most part positive....

[Cold tea]

apart from martina navratilova can't recall too many women sports people shouting

[gallsman]

Neil Francis is and always has been a p***k.

[DuffleKing]

Never understood why i needed to know if an actor / sportsman / newsreader is gay / straight / bi. All i need to know is if they're any good.

[gallsman]

Why does your sexual orientation define who you are though? I don't understand why anyone in sports feels the need to celebrate their sexual preference. Why can't they just be the footballer or the Rugby referee or the son or the brother, the tandem diver....

Celebrate? What are they celebrating? You think somebody coming out is triumphalist or soemthing?

Why does your religion define who you are? Why does your gender define who you are? Why does your nationality define who you are? Sexuality of course partly defines who you are.

The reason that sportspeople come out is that, historically, homosexuality has been repressed and rejected in many sporting environments, especially in the "macho" team sports such as American football. Michael Sam is a footballer. He is also gay. Opening up about it allows him to move forward with his life without having to hide the truth about he is as a person. One day it will not be newsworthy but today, given the tiny number of current sportspeople who are out, it is. If you don't like it or it makes you feel uncomfortable, then don't read the news source doing the reporting.

[seafoid]

What about young gay people looking for role models ? Or should they just pretend to be straight?
I think they have very high suicide rates - is that fair ? 

[LeoMc]

apart from martina navratilova can't recall too many women sports people shouting

Most ladies sports are not as high profile therfore it is not as newsworthy but you don't even have to go back a month. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26084748

[AZOffaly]

I suppose the question is why do they have to hide it? As opposed to flaunting Gay Pride, which I find to be a bit OTT sometimes, why does anyone have to hide their sexual orientation. I'm not talking about being proud of it, or any other glib nonsense, but the fact that a sportsman 'coming out' is big news still shows why they do it that way. I've never seen a sportsman come out as being heterosexual. (Paul Galvin came out at Metrosexual but that's a different story entirely).

I agree it shouldn't be a big deal, and I also agree that sometimes the coming out is overplayed, but I think it's only overplayed to try and speed up the normalisation process.

[ballinaman]

You never seen pictures of Paul Scholes or Jamie Carragher on the front pages.

FALSE

[EC Unique]

You never seen pictures of Paul Scholes or Jamie Carragher on the front pages.

FALSE

Imagine the off spring! 

[ballinaman]

You never seen pictures of Paul Scholes or Jamie Carragher on the front pages.

FALSE

Imagine the off spring! 

?

[Main Street]

I suppose the question is why do they have to hide it? As opposed to flaunting Gay Pride, which I find to be a bit OTT sometimes, why does anyone have to hide their sexual orientation. I'm not talking about being proud of it, or any other glib nonsense, but the fact that a sportsman 'coming out' is big news still shows why they do it that way. I've never seen a sportsman come out as being heterosexual. (Paul Galvin came out at Metrosexual but that's a different story entirely).

I agree it shouldn't be a big deal, and I also agree that sometimes the coming out is overplayed, but I think it's only overplayed to try and speed up the normalisation process.

Do you think Cusack coming out publicly as gay was OTT or just the way it was going to be, the way it needed to be?
There are 2 points to be considered, the prevailing attitudes in the environment and engrained self esteem issues.

It's good that Francis came out publicly about his attitudes to gays so that his prejudices could quite plainly be dissected and ridiculed for all to see.
It couldn't happen to a more deserving candidate