Gay-friendly David Beckham was the subject of anti-gay slurs in Spain.
A Spanish soccer club has become the first to officially welcome a gay and lesbian supporters club to its ranks. The Barcelona club has hundreds of fan groups, a tradition in soccer. The gay group (or peña as its known in Spanish) had its plaque officially nailed to the club’s wall.
The group found itself angered last month when homophobic chants were hurled against England’s David Beckham during an England-Spain match in Seville. Beckham, while not gay, has been a proud gay icon for years.
“They spent more than a minute chanting ‘Beckham maricón’ (’Beckham faggot’), said the peña’s spokesman, Josep Ribes. “We lodged a complaint about that.”
It is a complaint that has since made its way to England’s Football Association, which also did not notice the abuse, and on to the sport’s global governing body, Fifa. …
“This [group] all started,” Ribes said, “because both I and a gay friend of mine were already socios, [subscribed members], of the club,” he said. “The idea, obviously, is to support the team but also to fight against homophobia in football.”
Ribes said the club has not seen any backlash since it has been formed, even though it knows the dream of an openly gay major soccer star seems far away. But it says homophobic taunts are a fixture at Spanish league games.
The “maricón” insult can be heard at almost any Spanish football ground, including Barcelona’s Camp Nou, when Real Madrid’s midfielder Guti is playing. “I hate the ‘Guti maricón’ chant,” said Ribes. “I just find it offensive.”
Spanish football was slow to react to racism and is only just waking up to homophobia, but the country has one of the world’s most progressive gay marriage laws.
The Barcelona peña’s dream, in fact, is to read one day of a player marrying a gay partner - but only as a brief mention on the society pages. In the meantime, members worry for the first footballer to make the step. “It would be healthy, but there is going to be a huge fuss,” said Ribes.
Fans hurl homophobic abuse at Real Madrid’s “Guti” in the wake of tabloid reports that reportedly showed him kissing a man (who actually might have been a woman with short hair).
on Mar 2nd, 2009 at 2:31 pm
[quote](who actually might have been a woman with short hair)[/quote]http://www.elpais.com/articulo/gente/supuesto/novio/Guti/hermana/elpepugen/20080219elpepuage_4/Tes
on Mar 2nd, 2009 at 2:34 pm
According to the article which I just tried to link in the post above, and now cannot edit apparently, the picture that was supposedly Guti kissing a guy was him kissing his sister to celebrate the fact that she was pregnant.
on Mar 3rd, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Ok… there has been an openly gay professional soccer player. For whatever reason the gay community seems bent on forgetting (disowning?) Justin Fashanu. His Homosexuality was a known fact within the administration of Nottingham Forest in the early 80s, leading to tension with management, and ostracism from the team. Despite the fact that his career was well on the downswing (bouncing between professional and semi-professional teams) by the time he came out in 1990, it’s really hard to understand why he is so universally ignored by the gay community. Apparently we’re waiting for a current “star” whose personal life is squeaky clean or something.