My aversion to football has deep roots. A macho mentality takes me back to grim days in the 1950s when my father was ashamed and loathed the son who was not a ‘proper son’ because I hated the Beautiful Game and could not defend myself with bare knuckles in the playground. Sound bites spat out in pit talk are forever seared into my psyche - ‘What sort ‘o lad ‘ave we got! Aye [he] can’t kick a ball.’ Outdated values of character building were supposed to turn you into a man. Dad threatened me with National Service which will ‘knock the softness out of you.’ I missed British conscription by months and narrowly escaped Vietnam admitting to being a ‘degenerate’ when located in Detroit in the 1960s. Dad said - ‘Aye’s [he’s] no good at oat. Aye can’t knock back a pint and can’t fancy a lass.’ In 2017, Neil Bleasley, a gay football player wrote Football’s Coming Out. He often heard homophobic abuse. Unlike racism which has been reduced, vile and disgusting sexual homophobic comments are rarely challenged. Neil’s book is realistic, but also optimistic in that slow progress is being made. KICK OUT HOMOPHOBIA was a growing movement supported by some of the country’s biggest football clubs. Football, weaponised against me by others, imprinted a mindset: I am homosexual and hate soccer, therefore, all gay boys will despise the so-called beautiful game. Many decades on, that statement has to be challenged and re-evaluated. After years of activism, I have been astonished meeting LGBTs who actually like football! Since 2006, Terry and I have displayed on our fridge door a post card of seven sexy Ball Bois - gay friendly smiling members of their Nottingham football club: Bois - a similar word to ‘boys’ - is a contraction of boisterous meaning rough, noisy exuberant boys. Many gay men find this an attractive way to present a gay and gay friendly team of players. Their ethos is to provide a welcoming environment for anybody to play at any level without fear of prejudice, abuse or ridicule. In my fearful repressed years at Mundy Street Boys School 1957 in Heanor, I would have considered a homosexual footballer to be an impossibility. It reminds me of the American cliché - Indians for Custer. Six decades on we now have a partnership between the charitable arm of Derby County FC and Derbyshire LGBT+ The original Nottingham Ball Bois FC have changed their name to NOTTINGHAM LIONS FC: Printed in the Derby Telegraph, October 10th, 2017 Fan learnt the hard way that vile chants are wrong I punched the air; cheered loud and long when Jason Holmes a Leicester City football fan was arrested for shouting homophobic abuse at Brighton supporters. This was in August at the King Power Stadium. The CPS authorised a charge of indecent chanting. At Leicester Magistrates court, he pleaded guilty and was fined £300, increased by £30 due the homophobic nature of the offence classed as a hate crime. He was ordered to pay costs of £85. We’ve been here before. On October 9th, 2013, the Derby Telegraph printed my letter ‘We’ve waited too long for this splendid justice’ when brothers Shane and Daniel Davies were fined and banned from football matches for three years for shouting homophobic chants at Brighton fans during a Derby County away game. Following decades of suffering, the LGBT community had waited too long to witness this splendid justice. My letter triggered a scathing response from Colin Clark ‘Letter shows whinger Narvel in his true light,’ followed by a deluge of personal abuse on the Derby Telegraph website. Regarding the writing of letters to challenge gay hate, we should continue to write more of them. I take inspiration from the words of Ed Murrow when he spoke of Churchill - ‘He mobilised the English language and sent it into battle.’ Four years on, I would not expect any reduction of profound vitriolic ignorance from Mr Clark or the bigoted army of anonymous trolls who supported him. However, to his credit; Mr Holmes volunteered to attend an LGBT education session provided by Kick It Out, the campaign against discrimination in football. I call that progress. Narvel Annable Comments are closed.
|