Seventy percent of football fans who have attended a match have heard or witnessed homophobia on the terraces.
The homophobic abuse that footballers such as Conor Gallagher and Billy Gilmour have received since the start of the 2021/22 season has regularly hit the footballing headlines highlighting how much of an issue homophobia is.
Sixty percent of fans believe these sorts of abusive chants dissuade gay professional players from coming out.
James Laley, Chair of Rainbow Blades, says these figures prove the issue of homophobia in football, “some of the chants heard up and down the country regarding players’ sexuality is disgusting. This season it feels like there is a new instance each week of homophobic chanting at players, it is so important that we as a community keep trying to educate people, and with campaigns like the laces campaign hopefully we can do that.”
The rainbow laces campaign is an initiative founded by the charity, Stonewall where players in all four divisions in England replace the regular laces on their boots with rainbow coloured laces, akin to the LGBT+ flag, to show support.
It is not just players however that suffer from homophobic and transphobic abuse at football matches, with ten percent of LGBT people who have attended a live sporting event in the last year experiencing discrimination because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
Over forty percent of LGBT+ people think public sporting events are not a welcoming space for them according to a YouGov for Stonewall survey in 2017.
Luke Wyman, and his partner, both fans of Leeds United were verbally abused at a fixture in August by an opposition fan.
“It was quite scary actually. We went to a midweek game against a lower division team because we thought it would be a bit quieter and so less likely to run into any trouble but as we left the ground after the game some of the away fans were walking past us and started shouting homophobic abuse at us in a very aggressive way.”
Luke is unsure whether he will return to watching his side again, “I think I would have to give it a bit of time, I certainly don’t think I’m ready to go back to that sort of environment just yet.”
Rainbow Blades is the LGBT+ partner for Sheffield United Football Club, and their vision is for total and comprehensive LGBT+ equality, diversity and inclusion at Sheffield United.
Laley founded the charity on the principle that football is for everyone, “anyone, no matter your sexual or gender identity or any other protected characteristic, should be able to enjoy football as a fan, player or coach without any fear of discrimination.”
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