“We’ve been left behind”: LGBTQ+ football fans are fighting to make the game more inclusive
The man who sat near Andrew Tilly at Leeds United matches a few years ago always seemed pleasant enough. That is, of course, ignoring the times he would shout: “Get up you faggot”, whenever a player fell on the pitch. “I never felt safe enough or empowered enough, I suppose, to challenge him,” Tilly, who is 58 and gay, says now.
In the last few weeks, LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer) fans of Sheffield United, Arsenal and Matlock Town have reported hearing homophobic abuse or chants. Last month, two teenage boys were arrested at a Man City vs Burnley game for alleged homophobia. Yesterday, Watford FC published a statement saying it was investigating allegations of homophobic chanting.
For these fans, homophobic abuse is a disturbingly common experience. According to charity Stonewall, seven in 10 football fans have heard or seen homophobia at a match, while nearly one in five admit to using homophobic language, according to YouGov. LGBTQ+ representation is sorely lacking in the game, too. There are currently no openly gay players in the Premier League, with Adelaide’s Josh Cavallo last week becoming the only openly gay, top level player in the world. It doesn’t help that in Qatar, hosts of next year’s World Cup, homosexuality is illegal.
“It became more obvious to me that we could enjoy being football fans, but we couldn't enjoy being gay football fans. That stuck with us until we decided to do something about it,” Tilly says. He came out to friends, family and colleagues in his twenties, but didn’t feel able to come out in a football stadium for another three decades. In 2017, Tilly set up Marching Out Together, a supporters group for LGBTQ+ Leeds United fans.
LGBTQ+ fan groups started in the UK with Arsenal’s Gay Gooners in 2013. Now, almost every professional club has a similar group. Ryan Mather set up Proud Terriers, a group for LGBTQ+ fans of Huddersfield Town, five years ago. The group is a “safe space” for LGBTQ+ fans, but it is educational, too. Mather has had conversations about homophobia in football with the club’s players and local college students. “That's how you make change, by spreading this message, and speaking to as many people as you can,” he says.
The role of these groups is arguably more important than ever. There was a 95 per cent year-on-year rise in the number of reports of homophobic abuse at the end of the 2019/2020 football season, according to the Kick It Out campaign. A 2021 report by the Professional Footballers’ Association found that homophobic abuse was the most prevalent form of online abuse aimed at professional players.
“It’s very difficult to be gay in football,” Mather says. At every game, he arrives with his Proud Terriers pride flag in his bag. Even now, he struggles to get it out. “I feel intimidated sometimes in a football stadium,” he says, exasperated. “I've always said I love football, but I hate the environment that surrounds football.”
That environment, these fans say, is one drenched in ‘lad culture’. Dr Mike Homfray is a lecturer in the department of sociology, social policy and criminology at the University of Liverpool, and a founding member of Rainbow Toffees, Everton FC’s LGBTQ+ supporters group. “You've got the whole question of football being a game which I suppose has particular elements about it which you might call traditional, hegemonic masculinity,” he says. “And perhaps being gay is seen to not coincide with those characteristics.”
Homfray suggests that, while LGBTQ+ representation is limited in all male sports, it is a bigger issue in football due to the role the game plays in our “national psyche”. “Football matters a lot more,” he says, “because it means so much more in terms of what it is in British society”.
For years, LGBTQ+ fan groups have been putting pressure on clubs to do more to tackle homophobia in the game. “Until the last 10 years or so, we've not been on the agenda of football clubs,” says Paul Amann, 52, Chair of Liverpool FC’s LGBTQ+ fan group Kop Outs. “As LGBT+ fans, we’ve been left behind.”
However, through his work with Kop Outs, Amann has started to see a change. In August, he met with Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool FC’s manager, to discuss LGBTQ+ inclusivity following an incident of homophobic chanting during a match against Norwich FC. Their conversation received more than a million views on Twitter, but Amann felt the impact offline, too. At a later match, when some Liverpool fans began chanting again, other fans intercepted.
“It was immediately shut down by fellow fans,” Amann says. “They actually said they felt empowered because of the conversation that was broadcast between me and Klopp. That meant the world to me, because it meant that something has really changed as a consequence of the work we do.”
Many clubs are trying to do better by their LGBTQ+ fans. After Josh Cavallo came out, Premier League clubs flooded Twitter with messages of support. Next month, players across the league will don rainbow laces during matches, in support of Stonewall’s annual campaign to promote LGBTQ+ inclusion in sport. But, fans argue, it is not enough.
“These campaigns are great,” Mather says, “but we need something that will happen all year round.” Ironically, it was during a rainbow laces match that Mather remembers hearing homophobic chanting. He wants to see a long-term project or campaign equivalent to the work being done to eradicate racism in the game, as well as firmer action from the Football Association.
Amann agrees. “They're not doing enough. Basically, the FA are slow to the table at things,” he says. “They talk about homophobia being unwanted, but they don't really do much practically and that’s the problem.”
On its website, the FA insists the football industry “continues to embrace the LGBTQ+ community,” but recognises “there is still more to do” to stop discrimination in the game.
The FA also highlights how individuals can report instances of abuse, but for Marcus Mansukhani, the founder of Ipswich Town FC’s LGBTQ+ supporter group Rainbow Tractors, focussing on reporting is the wrong approach. “It’s too much about making an example of people,” he says. “It should be about educating people, not punishing them.”
Amann also points to the education of straight allies as a solution. “A big part of what we've been able to achieve is working with our allies to reach other fans,” he says. “And to make sure that actually, they're the ones who do us a huge favour by tapping the homophobe on the shoulder and say, ‘oi, knock it off’.”
The work of these fan groups is undoubtedly chipping away at the perception that football is not a sport for the LGBTQ+ community. People have approached Mather and said the work of Proud Terriers has made a difference to their lives. “It makes it all worthwhile,” he says, but he sounds tired of feeling like LGBTQ+ fans are doing all the heavy lifting alone. “There’s only so much me and the other fan groups can do. Even though I feel like we’re all making a difference, we need some help and support as well.”
With the World Cup in Qatar set to cause tension over the next year, and the dearth of gay players on the pitch acting as a reminder of how far the game has to go, these fan groups have their work cut out for them.
Andrew Tilly takes comfort in the fact that things have changed at least somewhat since he encountered the homophobe at the Leeds United fixtures. Now, when he wears a pride scarf, some fans will give him a thumbs up. There are still raised eyebrows, but he brushes it off.
The Marching Out Together flag is draped below the scoreboard at the club’s stadium. Tilly says that one young member, waiting eagerly with her parents for a game to start, turned the flag into a talking point. Her parents spoke warmly of the group’s work. Relieved, she came out to them.
“We talk to young members of our group and I think they know that the club would be supportive of who they are as an individual. It doesn’t mean they’re going to come wearing a ‘queer as fuck’ t-shirt to a football match,” Tilly says with a chuckle. “But they can still be who they want to be.”
