England
- A Twitter account, which claimed to be from a soccer player who was preparing to come out as gay, has been deleted.
The anonymous account 'The Gay Footballer' (@FootballerGay) had stated a news conference would be held on Wednesday where he would come out publicly as a "proud, confident, gay professional footballer".
There are no openly gay male players in professional football in England .
A message was posted to the account saying "I thought I was stronger. I was wrong" before it was deleted.
The account had attracted over 50,000 followers.
Before the shutdown @FootballerGay reportedly tweeted: “Call me all the names under the sun, belittle me and ridicule me, a lot will, and I can’t change that, but I’m not strong enough to do this. Just remember that I’ve got feelings, without coming out I can’t convince anybody otherwise, but this isn’t a hoax. I wouldn’t do that.”
Social media has weighed in the news of the accounts, with some not surprised and claiming that it was just a hoax account.
So as expected @thegayfootballer is a hoax. Not sure what you expected to achieve from this apart from minimising your boredom, but what you’ve actually achieved is undo years of work in enabling pro footballers who are gay feel safe to come out #gayfootballer pic.twitter.com/XhasPSD6gO
— Carl Nash (@carlcnash) July 23, 2019
The build up & ultimate deletion of this supposedly gay footballer's account has now lead to all & sundry making their own accounts and/or taking the mick.
Not helpful. I hope whoever is genuinely thinking of coming out in the pro game doesn't go down this route. It's harmful.
— Tom Carr 🏳️🌈 (@ItsMeTomC) July 24, 2019
I know the gay footballer account as deactivated but has anything else happened? Seeing people calling it a ‘hoax’ but maybe the poor guy just couldn’t do it...
— The Wallet Guy (@MoMoAVFC) July 24, 2019
While it remains true that anyone can play a sport regardless of their sexuality, many sports fans have yet to grasp this concept.
The gay footballer account is heartbreaking, the issue cis white men have with being gay is that they associate being gay with feminity, reinstating there misogyny and belief in patriarchy pic.twitter.com/WLJNTk6ldH
— char (@imcharlong) July 24, 2019
uhhh so The Gay Footballer isn't going to be the first openly gay professional footballer. He's going to be the first openly gay MALE professional footballer. No less than five of the women's England team are openly gay/bi.
— lara (@prettygrrlteam) July 21, 2019
🗣 Sean Dyche: “Does being gay mean you can’t be a good footballer? No. So let’s crack on. Have you ever thought they might not want you to have any idea? This thing about ‘the next gay footballer’. They might not want it. In my changing room, there would be no problem.” pic.twitter.com/YUX9VLiOh7
— Goal (@goal) July 22, 2019
I have no idea if the gay footballer was real or a stunt but I do know that if neandathals mobilised & frightened him enough to make him not brave enough to come out that we should be addressing the homophobics not someone who’s had to retreat and is devastated he’s had to do so.
— Georgie Bingham (@georgiebingham) July 24, 2019
2019 and I still can’t fathom why being a #gayfootballer is still a thing. The sheer probability of “there being” a gay footballer out weighs there not being a gay footballer.
And at the end of the day who feckin cares which persuasion the footie player is as long as they score! pic.twitter.com/z6nJH6WgP8