Yesterday the internet was awash with those 'Gay World Cup Player and British Reality Star' rumours, you can see Pink News for some scope of what happened.
Mainly there has been speculation about who this player is, after apparently the name was published on the reality star's website, although there has been no confirmation from anyone, and even less evidence about the posting. So what are we to make of another 'gay footballer' rumour, after the appalling Ashley Cole slur by the Sun, and the subsequent lawsuit, not to mention those rumours earlier this year regarding Gerald Pique and Zlaten Ibrahimovic from Barcelona with that photo. Of course there have been constant rumours regarding Sol Campbell, as well as other unfounded stories regarding footballers.
There has been a dramatic push, and I mean push, lately to out a footballer, especially after the Mail's 'scoop' regarding Gareth Thomas and his coming out. Everyone is pushing for the gay footballer headline, and using any excuse to publish unfounded rumours in the hope that it might, as in the case with Gareth Thomas, Will Young, Steven Gately, etc etc, force them to come out to the wider public.
This desperate need to out a footballer, and it is clear that there must be some in the community, is based not on analysing the needs and well-being of the individual, or for a role-model type persona, or even for football to show how inclusive and welcoming it is. It is based on the media's need for a sex-story involving sports stars, so they can trumpet their stories, get the tell-all article, and then have another arrow in which to target said player when their capabilities are going awry.
The fact remains that a footballer, or even most sports players, won't come out while the media is wanking itself into such a frenzy over someone else's sex life. We live in a country, whereby being gay is not tarred with the same brush as it was, and as Pride showed over the weekend. Yet most gay people don't feel the need, unless they want to, to come out to their workplaces and colleagues. yet we are insistent with rage and anger when a footballer and/or sports star, music star, actor doesn't, as if as they ply their trade in the public eye means that the rules don't apply to them anymore.
As a friend once told me, "I don't talk about sex, I just do it". Perhaps we should concentrate more on our own lives and less on others. So that when those in the public eye do want to be publicly gay or lesbian or bisexual, instead of the intense public scrutiny we can just shrug our shoulders and carry on. Allowing them to be themselves and the rest of us to get on with our own sex lives.
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