What a brave lad! ⚽️?‍❤️‍?

I think he’s been relatively discreet compared to a lot of other footballers. They constantly have their wives and girlfriends hanging off their arms - fine, live your life like that but no one cares and there’s no need to flaunt your sexuality.

Interesting point made by 2 professional footballers on J'OB this morning. The gay footballer will face the crowd for 90 minutes a week but will be in the changing rooms with the rest of the team 300 days a year. Apparently much of the homophobia comes from the rest of the squad and is much more difficult to deal with.

I think that young man is very brave. And so young.

Gareth Thomas came out as gay whilst he was still playing top level rugby, and was supported by both his teammates and Welsh rugby fans, he’s done a lot to publicly highlight the continuing issues in sport, and in football in particular which he feels is the worst of all sports for prejudice. We need more like him, who take a stance on behalf of others, I’m sure he’ll offer any support he can give to Jake.

A brave young man who has hopefully made life an awful lot easier for other gay footballers, and statistically, there must be many. It is sad though that this has to be front page news, it really has no impact on how he plays football, hopefully one day this will be totally irrelevant. As an aside, I wonder how this will work out if a player comes out while they are signed by one of the football clubs owned by Saudi Arabian billionaires?

Thank you Grannynanny.

I’m so sorry to read your son had to endure such treatment at school Farzanah ?

I wish we had “moved on” from homophobia but that this young man felt that he had to “come out” just shows that this is not the case.
Of course things have improved since my gay son was in school, where his life was made a misery by bullies (not always the children either!)

However if you do not have anyone close to you who is gay, you may think there is no longer a problem, but there is. Homosexuality may be accepted, and even fashionable, for example in the entertainment industry, but there can still be a lot of prejudice in daily life.

I have known evangelical Christians who would not accept their child being gay and the Government has only just agreed to ban gay conversion therapy, but not for gender identity.

G70’s I didn’t mean that at all.

Of course there are unmarried non- homosexuals!

But it was a commonly used euphemism in newspaper obituaries, as I previously said

I have two female friends, and at least one male, who are single and not gay. They just never found anyone they really wanted to marry. It’s naive to think all people who ‘never married’ are gay.

In my nursing days I cared for a lovely 85 yr old man during the last year of his life. I was very fond of him and we had lovely chats while I was attending to his personal care.

One night when I was settling him into bed he “came out” to me during our chat about his much loved mother. He was devoted to her and lived with her till her death.

Despite their close bond he was never able to discuss the subject with her and assumed she had never given much thought to why he was a life long bachelor. He told me he managed to have a few brief relationships but never in his home town. He felt forced to lead a secret life and had never admitted to any friends or family that he was gay till that night aged 85 and a few weeks before his death. I’ve never forgotten him and it makes me sad to think of how he felt he had to lead his life.

Thankfully, we are moving on from that era. But from what I hear from my 15 yr old granddaughter, about a girl in her class being taunted by some boys for revealing her sexuality, we have a way to go.

It’s headline news because it’s rare.

It’s rare because homophobia is still common, and is rife in football.

It’s important because young gay men need role models, and Jake is one.

And it is incredibly brave to come out to the world. It’s brave, actually, when any one, of any age, comes out (which for most people is all the time, over and over, in so many new situations), because you never know how others will react. And after the first time, you know from experience that some reactions will be less than positive.

But there was no social media then so less comments about it.

I don't know why this is headline news nowadays, when you think of how gay men, two friends of mine felt they had to keep quiet about it in the 70s.

Roll on the day when it is not even necessary to make such an announcement - it is a private matter.

And roll on the day when we do not have to regard him as brave, but just as a fellow citizen getting on with his life.

Grammaretto I’m reminded of when you would read at the end of an obituary the line, ‘they never married’.
Of course, it was a euphemism for being homosexual.
Such a sad reminder of a lives led in secret.

I recall in the 80’s my mom and I would often see locally, a very elderly, well spoken, well dressed gentleman.
He always seemed incredibly, awfully sad.
My mom explained that she was almost certain that it was because he was gay and couldn’t live the life that he wanted to.
It’s really not that long ago that it was illegal to be gay.

It’s strange that there are many gay females in professional football, rugby, hockey and it’s not a big deal.

We can only hope that male sport at high level will give their collective heads a wobble and become inclusive whatever your sexual identity.

It shouldn’t be news in 2022 but because of outdated ideas but unfortunately it is.

Thank you Kitty, yes, that’s exactly what I meant.
That’s a nice bit of information; about the 4 goals!

I also think it a shame that ones sexual orientation needs to be announced but perhaps I am the slow one?
For a long time anyone interviewed by journalists are described by their age or maybe as "father of 2"
Is that by implication mean they aren't gay?

In the world of football it probably is still very important to show the world that the cissy, mother's boy, bachelor of the bad old days can also play first division football.

When a df came out to his parents in the 1970s, his dm was sad but certainly didn't disown him. She was sad for how he would be treated by society and that she wouldn't have grandchildren. She got over it!

Proud of him for being brave, not proud of him for being gay.

It isn’t because they ‘don’t want to announce it’ that we aren’t aware of the ‘100s of footballers’ who are homosexual.

It’s due to the rampant homophobia in the clubs and on the terraces.

I didn’t know that this needed any explanation

I think &fanny* is saying his family must be proud that he openly admitted to being gay - I'm sure they love him anyway.

And, obviously there will be 100s of gay footballers in the top leagues but they keep it hidden. Hopefully, this will help them be honest.

He said on TV this morning that such a weight was lifted from his shoulders after he told his family that he scored 4 goals in his next game.

I don’t understand why a child being gay should make a parent proud?
I have a few gay friends ( male & female ) & their parents don’t treat them any differently from their siblings.
I’ll never understand why a sexual preference should make someone worthy of praise.
But then I see everyone as equal.
Statistically, there’s probably 100’s of gay footballers in the top leagues, they just don’t feel the need to broadcast it. & why should they. Someone’s personal life should be just that - personal.

It’s astonishing that this is news. Some people are gay. I thought we all knew that.

The football world must be even more backward than I thought. Very sad.

I hope to see the day when this is no longer an issue. I have total admiration for him, but I also find it sad that there are still barriers which need to be broken.

Great posts Monica and GGravy
Jake must have an incredibly supportive and loving family
(I hope that this is the case; I’d be surprised if it isn’t.)
They must be so proud

FannyCornforth

I should imagine that a lot of young gay men - gay sportsmen especially ‘care’.
Ditto gay fans.
The story of Justin Fashanu is still one that shames the sport world.

Totally agree with you Fanny Cornforth

It may seem ok to be gay in many areas/jobs in 2022 but make sport is not one of them.

I felt emotional when I read his statement, just as I did when the welsh rugby player came out several years ago, they are brave men breaking down barriers which in 2022 should no longer be there or matter.