Good on him.

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Big moment for football.

Glad to see everyone supporting him. There will be idiots who will abuse/troll him, I'm sure. I trust that they'll be dealt with by the FA, respective clubs, police and, of course, the fans who are in attendance (who I hope will kick their homophobic fucking heads in).

Top lad. Best of luck to him.
 
Matt1882 said:
This has fascinated me.

In an ideal world it wouldn't be a problem. But it's not an idea world and I worry he's shot himself in the foot with this. I hope he has a good career (that he earns) and that he doesn't have to face any prejudice or anything nasty.
The problem is, I think he will. I think he'll not only get abused by fans, I think he may face problems from present and future team mates.

I'm ashamed to say it, but if he was my son, I think I'd have tried to put him off making this public at 17.

Some are saying it's brave and mature to do it. But you could also argue it's reckless and immature. Has he thought about how he could be throwing a promising career away? It may have paid off to establish himself in the football world first and make this statement when he's a little older, a little wiser and, most importantly, fully aware of how this could pan out.

I hope I'm wrong. I hope he never has to suffer. I hope his family never have to listen to away fans singing vile unpleasant songs. I hope he never has a team mate that refuses to mix with him. I hope he never has to suffer.

I also hope his motive is genuine. To be a person paving the way for gay men in football and not to become some social media voice and end up becoming a footballing journeyman.
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It's never reckless and immature to be yourself and not hide who you are. What if he wants to have a boyfriend, does he hide it from the media? Does he then risk being 'exposed' by the media rather than coming out on his own terms?

If I was his father I'd fully support his decision. Yes it's going to be tough and you'd have to be there to support him through that, but the other side of that is he doesn't now have to feel ashamed of who he is and doesn't have to hide it. That sounds a lot better to me than living a lie to avoid some shit from knuckle draggers.
 
Raumdeuterz said:
It's never reckless and immature to be yourself and not hide who you are. What if he wants to have a boyfriend, does he hide it from the media? Does he then risk being 'exposed' by the media rather than coming out on his own terms?

If I was his father I'd fully support his decision. Yes it's going to be tough and you'd have to be there to support him through that, but the other side of that is he doesn't now have to feel ashamed of who he is and doesn't have to hide it. That sounds a lot better to me than living a lie to avoid some shit from knuckle draggers.
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It's not about feeling ashamed. It's about being able to do the thing you love without being absused and potentially passed over.
Football is a short career, he may have inadvertently picked his love life over his football career.

It's a horrible world. It won't change over night because one kid has done this. It's still decades away.
 
I like his whisky with a splash of coke. …

Seriously though, in the UK military the ban on homosexuals serving was lifted back in around 2004. There was a lot of concern from the older leadership in the army who worried what it would do for morale, and that it might affect fighting cohesion. In reality, and in my limited experience, those fears only stigmatised the issue further and weren’t based on any clear evidence.

I was working for an older senior officer when we were informed that one of the younger soldiers in our unit had come out to his platoon. His reaction? Panic. “We need to inform Brigade!”. The soldier’s mates’ reaction? “Yeah, we figured that out already, and we don’t care”. Society moves forward and Jake’s Generation of footballers are not the same as one that went before. And the fact is that homosexuals have always served in the military, but always in silence and always in the fear of being discovered and losing their careers. That’s not right.

I think - and hope - that the fact this is out in the open will similarly be accepted by the people who matter to Jake.
 
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