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On Saturday 21^st September, I took my usual place between the sticks for Wallsend Winstons in Division 4 of the North East over 40s League. Towards the end of our 5-2 victory away to Hartlepool Owton Manor, one of their players responded to the award of a foul against him for a trip on our captain by shouting “get up, you puff.” Nobody other than me complained about this phrase. From Hartlepool I caught the train to Northallerton, where my team Heaton Stannington won a close contest in the Northern League Division 2, by a margin of 2-1; a home supporter called the linesman a “faggot” for flagging a Northallerton player offside as they desperately pressed for an equaliser. Again, I was the only person in the crowd who demurred at the speaker’s choice of language. Later that night, an acquaintance commented on Facebook that Tim Krul was “a big, soft queer” for allowing Robert Brady to score Hull’s first equaliser at St. James’ Park. I was a lone voice on the thread, complaining about the words uttered. Why is this? Sadly, it is because I must admit to finding the North East to still be largely a rancorous, seething pit of vile homophobia, which is condoned, legitimised and tacitly approved in football and in many areas of everyday life.

In the current social and sporting climate, racism is seen as utterly socially unacceptable, with the idiots responsible for much of the most reprehensible outbursts of linguistic barbarism on social media and life in general being brought to book for their criminal behaviour. This is exactly how it should be. Equally, one of the most gladdening sights I’ve ever seen was the other summer; on a warm July, Sunday afternoon, cycling back over the Redheugh Bridge from Gateshead, I passed several gay pubs near the Centre For Life; many of them had customers outside, several relaxing over a few drinks in their Newcastle shirts. In general, I hate the idea of people wearing replica kits, but the incontrovertible evidence of football fans being welcomed into the LGBT community was heartening; oh how I wish such tolerance  was reciprocated.

The question I want to ask is this; why is casual homophobia and heterosexism not only tolerated but seemingly promoted as an acceptable ideology in football, perhaps not by the game’s authorities, but by players and fans alike in our region? Saturday 21^st September was the centrepiece of the Stonewall inspired Right Behind Gay Footballers campaign, whereby the campaigning organisation that was formed in 1989 as a reaction to the loathsome Section 28 of the Local Government Act, which expressly prohibited the “promotion” of homosexuality, distributed rainbow-coloured laces to all professional clubs; the idea being that players would wear the laces to show their opposition to homophobia. However, even if you watched wall-to-wall Sky Sports and every edition of Match of the Day over the weekend you would be forgiven if this event passed under your radar. It simply isn’t in the interests of football authorities and their legion of economic camp followers and itinerant symbiotic media proselytisers to either admit there is something decidedly heterosexist if not phallocentric at the core of the game; much less to draw attention to this fact.

Of course, if you had heard about the campaign and weekend of action and wanted to show your support, pairs of laces could have been sourced from Stonewall’s partner organisation, Paddy Power bookies. The joint press release explained the campaign in the following terms -:

Stonewall has teamed up with leading bookmaker Paddy Power to challenge players to show their support for gay footballers by wearing rainbow coloured boot laces. The laces have been distributed to every footballer across all 134 professional clubs in the UK. Each player is asked to wear the special laces in their club fixtures on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 September. The campaign’s simple message of Right Behind Gay Footballers is designed to kick start a change in attitudes and make our national game more gay-friendly. Paddy Power and Stonewall are asking fans and the public to back the campaign by taking to social media and using the hashtag #RBGF, Right Behind Gay Footballers, during the week and in the build-up to the weekend fixtures.

Kicking off on Monday 16 September there will be a week of activity shining the spotlight on homophobia in football. The campaign will see daily advertising and editorials across traditional media, billboard sites, and through social media with the aim of getting support from footballers, celebrities, fans and the public. Stonewall Deputy Chief Executive Laura Doughty said: ‘It’s time for football clubs and players to step up and make a visible stand against homophobia in our national game. That’s why we’re working with Paddy Power on this fun and simple campaign. By wearing rainbow laces players will send a message of support to gay players and can begin to drag football in to the 21st century.’

 Paddy Power, the bookmaker’s spokesman, said; ‘We love football but it needs a kick up the arse. In most other areas of life people can be open about their sexuality and it’s time for football to take a stand and show players it doesn’t matter what team they play for. Fans can show they are right behind this by simply tweeting using the #RBGF hashtag whilst all players have to do is lace up this weekend to help set an example in world sport.’

As someone who is vehemently opposed to gambling in all its manifestations, as much as I am opposed to homophobia, I was therefore left in a quandary; would wearing these laces compromise my principles by forcing me to enter a betting shop? In the end, I was able to resolve this complex moral issue and decline to wear the laces with a completely clear conscience, mainly on account of the highly persuasive arguments put forward by the Football v Homophobia campaign in their press release on the subject, which may also be found on their website www.footballvhomophobia.com -:

In response to requests from the press and from football clubs for our opinion on Stonewall and Paddy Power’s current ‘Rainbow Laces’ campaign, Football v Homophobia would like to offer the following comment.

Football v Homophobia was invited by Paddy Power to be a part of the campaign in its early stages. Whilst supporting the overall aims of the initiative, we did not feel comfortable with some aspects of the language and tone, and so felt that we did not wish to take our involvement any further. However, we welcome the opportunity for further discussion and debate around some of the issues of language raised by the campaign.

Football v Homophobia works to address homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia in football, in conjunction with all stakeholders in the game – the players, the fans, and the organizing bodies. We welcome any attempt to tackle homophobia in football around the world, and any attempt to take this message beyond the LGBT community. We therefore applaud the sentiments behind the laces idea central to the ‘Rainbow Laces’ campaign, namely solidarity with gay players.

Our discomfort is with the reliance on sexualised innuendo and stereotypes about gay men and anal sex, as exemplified by the tag line ‘Right Behind Gay Players’. As an initiative with a strong focus on education, we feel it is incongruous to run a campaign aiming to change football culture whilst using language which reinforces the very stereotypes and caricatures that, in the long term, ensure that homophobia persists. There is a long history, perhaps best captured by the infamous Robbie Fowler incident, whereby anal sex has been the focus of homophobic abuse in the sport.

A number of organisations, like ours, have been campaigning for years for a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to discrimination, and we are disappointed to see that the wording of this tag line gives license for a blurring of the already difficult territory between implicitly and explicitly homophobic and transphobic language, and football ‘banter’. For example, the following comments have been posted on Paddy Power’s own Facebook page, under the “Right Behind Gay Footballers” banner:

“I wouldn’t want TO BE IN FRONT…”

“Playing on a muddy pitch haha.”

“Tight at the back, pushing on with a hard man up front…”

“Stand up if you can’t sit down.”

“Kick gays out of football,”

“Sponsorship deal with Brighton imminent.”

The final comment, referring to Brighton, is of particular interest. It was only four months ago, in the wake of a report that showed overwhelming (72% of matches) homophobic abuse, that the Brighton & Hove Albion Supporters’ Club (BHASC) called on the football authorities for help to tackle abuse aimed at fans, often couched as ‘banter’.

Whilst Paddy Power are not responsible for the general level of homophobia and transphobia we witness in football, and indeed are trying to counter this with ‘Rainbow Laces’, aspects of the campaign have acted as a catalyst for the kind of attitudes and language that BHASC and Football v Homophobia have been working hard to challenge. ‘Rainbow Laces’ may have an important short-term advantage of drawing attention to the issue of homophobia in football, but this needs to be followed in the long-term with an informed and sensitive discussion around the contested nature of what constitutes discriminatory, offensive language as opposed to acceptable ‘banter.’

We would therefore invite people to applaud the positive aspects of ‘ Rainbow Laces’ and at the same time reflect on the language used, in particular how appropriate the tag line “Right Behind Gay Players’ is as a means to tackle homophobia in football. The Football v Homophobia campaign runs throughout the year. If you would like to join us in tackling homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in football, there are three simple things you can do:

Follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page

Become a ‘Football Fan v Homophobia’: sign up to our fanzine that goes out 4 times a year

Encourage your club to get involved with FvH 2014 by dedicating a home match to the month of action in February 

Immediately, I must state that as regards the last point raised by Football v Homophobia’s press release that I have personally undertaken to sponsor Heaton Stannington’s home game versus North Shields on 8^th February 2014, to publicise this campaign.

While my sexuality is my own business, I must say that while I have friends from the LBGT community who are fanatical football fans, I don’t believe I’ve ever played on the same team as an openly gay player; considering the percentage of friends I’ve got from the LBGT community, I find that saddening if not depressing. What is it about football in our region in particular, but also throughout the country as a whole, that suppresses the right of gay people to be themselves in all aspects of their life?

Perhaps the answer can be demonstrated by how Match of the Day, with crass insensitivity, used Robbie Fowler, whose provocative homophobic conduct towards Graeme Le Saux marked a low-water mark in Neanderthal macho attitudes in professional football, as a pundit on Saturday 21^st September. The truly tragic thing is that it isn’t just the football authorities and the broadcasters who ignore homophobia, heterosexism and phallocentrism in football, but the hegemonic prevalence of a false consciousness among fans themselves. The argument that is tacitly propounded is that football is a working class, macho sport; consequently any behaviour that is tough, bloke-orientated and by extension and definition, homophobic must not only be tolerated but venerated as part of a fetishisation of soi-disant working class attitudes, regardless  of how  reactionary such beliefs and practises may be.

Therefore, the logical conclusion of such attitudes is this; as Robbie Fowler is a footballer from Liverpool, his conduct towards Graeme Le Saux wasn’t crass, boorish, unpleasant and misplaced (Le Saux is actually straight), it was actually acceptable as coming from a working class part of Liverpool and previously having worn a t-shirt to demonstrate his for support striking dock workers makes Fowler a figure who is beyond criticism. Anyone seeking to say otherwise is denounced as demonstrating bourgeois values. It is as if their sexuality is a petit bourgeois lifestyle option, ripe for castigation.

It has to be said that granting legitimacy to the conduct of Paul Gascoigne is an act forged from the same heterosexist, phallocentric base metal. Then again, Saturday 21^st September also marked a glitzy Tyneside formal dinner, marking the 30^th anniversary of the programme Auf Wiedersehen Pet, an endless fountain of macho Geordie rhetoric.

Personally, I would rather celebrate the existence of an open member of the LBGT community in north east sport than the antics of Dennis or Neville; it is 2013, not 1983 and as football fans, we need to accept this. Unfortunately, Saturday 21^st September saw Tim Healey and Kevin Whatley as half time guests of honour at St. James’ Park, rather than an unequivocal club statement denouncing all manifestations of homophobia among our support. How the hell can Newcastle United pretend to be a club for the whole region if we don’t actively seek to build bridges with the LGBT community, who are every bit as important to our support as every other section is.