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Earlier this week, we posted an article to The18 about Arsenal’s new #RainbowLaces campaign. The video is hilarious, and worth watching just to see the players goof off. But the message behind the video is a noble one that needs to be heard by as many people as possible. Homophobia in soccer is a serious problem across the globe.
For anyone in the know about Premier League scandal, you will understand why such a campaign couldn’t have come too soon. A couple of weeks ago, word came out that Malky Mackay and Iain Moody had been sending incredibly racist, sexist, and homophobic messages to each other.
Mackay and Moody sent these texts back and forth during their time at Cardiff City as Club Manager and Head of Recruitment, respectively. They were at the top of the club’s food chain, men of power and influence who controlled the professional lives of players.
The specifics of each text are not worth the space they would take up on this page, so they will not be discussed. If you are curious as to exactly what was said, a Google search, I’ve been told, can be extremely helpful. What needs to be talked about is the scope of the problem. Homophobia is present at every single level of the sport. Mackay and Moody are just the tip of the iceberg.
This past summer, in Brazil, this happened:
This occurred during the Brazil vs Mexico match. The rival fans in the stadium had taken to chanting “puto” at opposing players.
Puto is a spanish word. It has many different meanings, among them “faggot” and “male prostitute.” And when tens of thousands of people chant it at an opposing player, they mean to degrade him.
It’s hard to differentiate what is worse: 60,000 lowly fans chanting “puto,” or 2 powerful men sending thousands of abusive texts. Quality and quantity are rarely so darkly in opposition.
FIFA didn’t even consider the above chant as homophobic, which is ridiculous. In fact, FIFA has proudly said "no" to racism (to questionable effect) for over a decade now, but apparently homophobia is not on their radar.
This double standard in the treatment of homophobia and racism is prevalent throughout cultures across the world. It is a consequence of racism being more diverse than homophobia.
White people aside, most racial ethnicities have felt the oppression of racism at some point in their histories, and many of them still do today. Oppression is a terrible thing, but it can be unifying, and this unification through oppression is why FIFA has been quicker to act against racism than homophobia.
FIFA governs the global game, and the globe has far more people who have been a victim of racism than LGBT people who have been a victim of homophobia. The cries against racism are not only louder, they fall on more sympathetic ears. #RaindbowLaces will make people more aware that LGBT people need our support.
Watch the #RainbowLaces video. Share it with your friends. Laugh at at Oxlade-Chamberlains face. Wonder if Giroud is “gorgeous” or “goat cheese.” The campaign is meant to spread awareness, not guilt. The LGBT community doesn't want to make everyone else feel bad, they want everyone else to feel gay.
If loving goat cheese is wrong, millions don't want to be right. (Photo: @FOXSoccer | Twitter)
Homophobia doesn’t come from a place of happiness. It has no part in the beautiful game, and that is #RainbowLaces’ main message. Hopefully, if people can realize homophobia doesn’t fit in the game they love, then they will understand it has no place in the life they live.
