Thomas Hitzlsperger announces he is gay

Freefaller said:
So the REAL story is, football fans are bigots and someone decides to make a comment that may render him prey to those people??
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SOME football fans are bigots.

I think a lot of people would be surprised at the support an openly gay player would get from those on the terraces.
 
I believe this announcement from Thomas Hitzlsperger is more about Thomas Hitzlsperger than he'd have us believe. If it was really about the greater good he'd have done it 10 years ago.

This is about Thomas Hitzlsperger feeling good about himself.
 
Freefaller said:
I care not about football and never watch it or follow any news about it. I couldn't even tell you who the England captain was.

I guess I have no concept of what that is like or what the sport is like, so it makes it harder for me to understand.
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No offence intended here Freefaller, you know I love you, but you yourself admit to not knowing much about this.

Football, is a funny world and things like this is big news in the micro society of football. It's all about changing attitudes and being progressive, in this country you've seen the decline of racism in the stands, and hopefully this is a step in the right direction of accepting gay players.

In an ideal world, of course you are free to whom you want to be, but we don't live in an ideal world and as such, these things are still big news but hopefully indicate that sport, like the rest of the world, is progressive. Things like this do matter.

I actually think the most interesting thing about what he said was that it wasn't a problem in the dressing room, which I think says a lot about the progressive nature of football but is not reflected in the stands, yet.
 
Freefaller said:
So the REAL story is, football fans are bigots and someone decides to make a comment that may render him prey to those people??
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Also; on this point. Not all football fans are bigots.

I think you underestimate how tribal football is and how stupid certain tribes are at times, there is also a lot of pressure in crowds. Thankfully football (certainly) in this country is a better place than it was ~20-30 years ago.

The timing is also interesting with the Russian's hosting the winter Olympics and sexuality in sport being a talking point.
 
My favourite thing about these threads in GD is when people come in hamming up the fact that they know nothing about football as a badge of sophistication. It's cute.
 
Who cares?

How about we change from people "coming out" into people just living their life? Genuinely, the vast majority of people would have NO issue if they lived their life like most people.

If he simply lived his life, had a boyfriend or whatever they do, then no one would know and no one would care.

The continued flagellation of themselves proves another agenda, and I for one am absolutely sick of hearing a tiny minority get such air time.

For additional reference, look at Mcaleese today complaining about the Catholic Church and homosexuality. It's an issue that everyone loves to jump in with, because you can't contest it (OMG bigot) and its an easy "popular" topic.
 
Tummy said:
No offence intended here Freefaller, you know I love you, but you yourself admit to not knowing much about this.

Football, is a funny world and things like this is big news in the micro society of football. It's all about changing attitudes and being progressive, in this country you've seen the decline of racism in the stands, and hopefully this is a step in the right direction of accepting gay players.

In an ideal world, of course you are free to whom you want to be, but we don't live in an ideal world and as such, these things are still big news but hopefully indicate that sport, like the rest of the world, is progressive. Things like this do matter.

I actually think the most interesting thing about what he said was that it wasn't a problem in the dressing room, which I think says a lot about the progressive nature of football but is not reflected in the stands, yet.
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No offence taken. However, my point stands from a perfectly valid point of view. Just because I'm not into football doesn't make my perception of the article or the news story any less valid. If anything it reinforces the fact that the story is just attention seeking rather than doing anything useful for any one.

Tummy said:
Also; on this point. Not all football fans are bigots.

I think you underestimate how tribal football is and how stupid certain tribes are at times, there is also a lot of pressure in crowds. Thankfully football (certainly) in this country is a better place than it was ~20-30 years ago.

The timing is also interesting with the Russian's hosting the winter Olympics and sexuality in sport being a talking point.
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Diesel said:
SOME football fans are bigots.

I think a lot of people would be surprised at the support an openly gay player would get from those on the terraces.
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I never said that, but the the point people were making is that football is such a bigoted sport that people are scared of coming out - but, from the article, he wasn't worried about the dressing room/team mates knowing he was gay, but worried about the fans - so to me that implies (to me) that there is still a lot of bigotry within the fanaticism that encircles football.

I know how tribal football is from seeing how people behave on the tubes and trains, from the number of friends in the police force sharing their stories with me, and seeing the news about it all. Now I'm sure there are just as many friendly events too. However, having been to several dozen rugby matches around the world, and within the UK too, from club to major internationals, I've seldom seen any issues.

One More Solo said:
My favourite thing about these threads in GD is when people come in hamming up the fact that they know nothing about football as a badge of sophistication. It's cute.
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I don't do it to make a point on how sophisticated I am (why would making a comment on not knowing football make you sophisticated?! :confused: ). I point it out to help people understand my point of view and to not lay into me when I make an ignorant comment on a sport. I can only express my opinions from the knowledge I have of the sport (which is very little). However I am awfully sophisticated, and rather upper tier - terribly sorry old bean, it was all about ruggers with me!
 
sports_brah said:
Who cares?

How about we change from people "coming out" into people just living their life? Genuinely, the vast majority of people would have NO issue if they lived their life like most people.

If he simply lived his life, had a boyfriend or whatever they do, then no one would know and no one would care.

The continued flagellation of themselves proves another agenda, and I for one am absolutely sick of hearing a tiny minority get such air time.

For additional reference, look at Mcaleese today complaining about the Catholic Church and homosexuality. It's an issue that everyone loves to jump in with, because you can't contest it (OMG bigot) and its an easy "popular" topic.
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I understand what you're saying, and agree with you to some extent. However, what people coming out on this sort of scale does is (hopefully) give people who are afraid of coming out more courage, whether that's to their parents or whoever.

The "flagellation" that you speak of is important because, although homosexuals are a minority, they are an important part of society, and not everyone is as accepting as our generation. I expect it's a very large minority in this country that think homosexuality is a sin, should be illegal etc. and these people's views could really do with being changed.
 
Freefaller said:
No offence taken. However, my point stands from a perfectly valid point of view. Just because I'm not into football doesn't make my perception of the article or the news story any less valid. If anything it reinforces the fact that the story is just attention seeking rather than doing anything useful for any one.





I never said that, but the the point people were making is that football is such a bigoted sport that people are scared of coming out - but, from the article, he wasn't worried about the dressing room/team mates knowing he was gay, but worried about the fans - so to me that implies (to me) that there is still a lot of bigotry within the fanaticism that encircles football.

I know how tribal football is from seeing how people behave on the tubes and trains, from the number of friends in the police force sharing their stories with me, and seeing the news about it all. Now I'm sure there are just as many friendly events too. However, having been to several dozen rugby matches around the world, and within the UK too, from club to major internationals, I've seldom seen any issues.



I don't do it to make a point on how sophisticated I am (why would making a comment on not knowing football make you sophisticated?! :confused: ). I point it out to help people understand my point of view and to not lay into me when I make an ignorant comment on a sport. I can only express my opinions from the knowledge I have of the sport (which is very little). However I am awfully sophisticated, and rather upper tier - terribly sorry old bean, it was all about ruggers with me!
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I think a lot of people within the sport will tell you this is a big deal :).

Also; why be critical of something you don't understand? Again, not meant in a insulting way. If I don't understand something, I won't be critical or will try and not comment on it until I know more. I can recommend some fantastic football related media if you like?

This is big news for football, you're right, and as I said, the club is not the problem (Hitzisperger said the dressing room were supportive) but the crowd is the problem, that's not to say at all, that crowds are problematic in their entirety, quite the opposite and as I've said, the crowds have come a long way, but this is an indication there is still a way to go and it's a step in the right direction.

The timing with the Russian winter olympics and sexuality in sport is interesting too, I don't think this is about attention seeking at all.
 
PMKeates said:
Do you think most homosexual people who 'comes out' are attention seeking?
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When it involves the media? Yes!

When it involves a chat with mum or day or brother or sister then clearly that's a completely different story. Does/should your family/close friends know - sure. Does/should the whole ****in world know? NO.
 
It's newsworthy because it's got people talking about homophobia in what is a male dominated sport. You could almost be sure that if he had come out before retiring he would have had so many anti-gay chants / abuse thrown at him by opposite supporters.

I personally don't give a biscuit whether he's gay, bi, shemale, a rabbit or a jewish tiger.
 
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