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As fans and players of Brighton & Hove Albion head to Griffin Park this weekend, Beesotted contributor Luis Adriano gives a personal view on homophobia in football and whether the idea of rainbow coloured boot laces can help improve things.

It hasn’t been lost on some Brentford fans that it is Brighton & Hove Albion who visit Griffin Park on Saturday during the weekend when gay rights charity Stonewall are promoting the use of #RainbowLaces to raise awareness of homophobia in football.

The Seagulls fans and players have long been the target of anti-gay chants due to the long perceived higher percentage of homosexuals living in the city.

Unfortunately, I think it is still more than likely that some reference to homosexuality and our opponents will be made on the terraces and in the pubs around the ground. I would love to be wrong.

Twenty years ago this week, I was getting ready to start University. Despite applying all over the country, it was only the ‘University College’ three miles from my home, St Mary’s in Twickenham, which offered me a place to read Education & Sport Science.

While I was in part disappointed not to be moving away from home, thankfully this gave me four more years of regular Bees supporting attendance I may have lost out on had somewhere else accepted me.

Actually, a quick look back at the seasons between 1994 and 1998 suggests I’d have been better off had Loughborough taken me.

My course down here was full of guys and girls who mostly had moved away from their hometowns. Plenty of students came over from Ireland and we had some from Scandinavia.

Others arrived from all over England, including one poor fella from Huddersfield who I took a completely irrational dislike to towards the end of our first year, following the Bees’ 1995 Play Off penalty shootout heartbreak.

On starting my course, one of my new found friends was from Sussex. Although he had lived in Heywards Heath, his nearest league ground was The Goldstone so naturally he followed Brighton.

Back then, this was a huge source of amusement to me. Oh, how I laughed at him while reciting the songs I’d aimed at BHA fans.

He tried to tell me that it wasn’t actually a town full of ******s and that it wouldn’t matter if it was. He told me how he knew plenty of gay people and believe it or not, they weren’t that dissimilar to me. This was at a time when I hadn’t met, to my knowledge, anyone who was openly gay.

I remember becoming rather confused at how he himself had a stunning girlfriend who he went on to marry during our time studying together. Surely for him to think like this, he must have ‘suffered an element of gaydom’ himself?

I’m deeply embarrassed now by what he must have thought of my comments and actions. I don’t fail to see the irony in how uneducated I was at a time I was obtaining a degree in Education.

Thankfully, the last two decades has brought me into contact with quite a few gay & bisexual men and lesbians and I’ve learned for myself what my mate from Sussex knew all that time ago.

Like you tend to find with all groups, I’ve come across gay people I’ve liked, others I’ve disliked. Gay people I’ve found funny and gay people I haven’t. I’ve made gay friends and I’ve made gay enemies. Again, this is just like you’ll find with all groups.

It is probably in response to my own ignorant actions of the past that I have, for a while, felt more empathy to the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender) community. Hearing one of my colleagues talk about the problems he faced at school, when just knowing he was ‘different’ was heartbreaking.

Society in general certainly seems to be more accommodating to LGBT people these days but it is clear football has a lot more to do to welcome fans and players from this group.

Everyone’s sexuality is their own business but I do find it sad there are no openly gay players in the British men’s game.

Some people will say it doesn’t matter.

Personally though, I think it would be great for young gay football players and supporters to have someone who they could see has come out and survived. The first to do so will rightly become a real hero.

When I first heard of Stonewall’s #RainbowLaces campaign I wasn’t sure this was the right way to improve things. I thought there was too much chance for ridicule and various comments I’ve read on supporters’ message boards show some fans have used this as a chance to mock others.

Last season, Brentford communicated their support for the campaign on their official website. Club captain Kevin O’Connor being quoted as saying, “I, along with all my team-mates, support the Stonewall campaign to kick homophobia out of football.

“As Club captain, my message is to re-affirm that at Brentford, we never discriminate against a person’s sexuality, as football is for everyone.

“How people perform on the pitch is the only thing we focus on, and are interested in.

This season though, there has been an ominous silence. I don’t know if the club are under the same opinion as the Premier League that the campaign has been too guerrilla like and hasn’t asked for much input from the clubs themselves.

It may also be that the added involvement this year of Paddy Power jeopardises moral and commercial positions.
Maybe they have mentioned it and I’ve missed it.

To be fair, the club also supported a Football versus Homophobia campaign in February this year (#FvH2014).

Being white, male and working class, I’m lucky that I fit in on the terraces and used to fit in on the pitch. I can’t say I’ve ever heard any songs or chanting against any of those aspects of my personality.

Things might be different now if I was to (rainbow) lace my boots up but it would just be my fitness that would be abused.

It remains different for members of the LBGT community and, for me, it is all about education, education, education.

Players wearing these laces will bring the issue to the fore. This at least offers a chance of education. I now believe that with each wave of these laces, more and more people will be educated. It may be slow, but progress is progress and progress sure needs to happen.

Paddy Power are clearly helping with the marketing side of things. Being such a ‘blokey’ firm, I guess it is hoped they may reach some of the fans, who would describe all of their homophobic talk and chanting over the years as, like Richard Keys said, “it was just banter”.

Some supporters of the #RainbowLaces campaign, such as Jimmy Bullard, Soccer AM’s Max Rushden, and even Piers Morgan, have been tweeting things they can’t change followed by … “but together we can change the game #RainbowLaces.”

Some Arsenal players have even made a video for Youtube, which I think shows a healthy sense of humour can still be incorporated into such a serious campaign. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_2QzUvLNDI

Me, I’d go with, “I can’t change wanting QPR & Fulham to lose every game, but together we can change the game #RainbowLaces.

Please think about what you sing, shout and say on Saturday and beyond. What if your child was, or is, gay? Imagine someone abusing them in the same way. They can’t change the way they are.

Maybe, just maybe, with the help of some rainbow coloured boot laces, we CAN, change the game.

Luis Adriano
@LuisAdrianoUK

Ralph Brown talks more about homophobia in football in the Brighton FanStand fan preview