I must admit that the idea of a single male footballer coming out as gay is quite amusing, since 90% of female footballers are lesbians and no one bats an eyelid.

I think all this might have something to do with marketing.

It will also be very amusing to hear the response of female footballers when a transexual wants to sign up to a female football team.

Muslims really are a bit of an idealogical problem for the liberal Left. They never know which way to turn. They persecute gays and suppress women's rights, and yet to criticize this is 'Islamophobic'.

The bottom line is that politicians have managed to ruin this country by turning it into a divisive nightmare, and all, so they can get elected and feather their own nests.

Edited by Hrolf The Ganger (19 May 2022 6.11pm)

I want to hear Big Ron's opinion.

Red and Blue Army!

Yes, we are all free to think what we like. We are not, however, always free to express what we think. For instance, I believe racist language in public is against the law, as are various other forms of intolerance/hatred. None of us has a problem with that (or most of us don't, anyway). This is not about what CK thinks. It's about what he's openly expressed. HE brought his views into a public forum. We didn't.

To your second point the reality is, particularly the young and impressionable, people do care what a footballer they idolise believes. Perhaps they shouldn't, but they do.

Personally, I agree with you but not everyone is as enlightened and well informed as you are. There was a time when no one gave a toss what the once inconsequential little racist Nigel Farage thought. So we ignored him. And we ended up with Brexit. Small seeds can lead to bad things. Always better to nip bad ideas in the bud.

And we can all respect that. It doesn't, however, mean we have to welcome views that are disparate from those held by the majority of people in the UK into our country. We can allow homophobes into this country, but we shouldn't allow them to express their homophobia once they've arrived.

There is a difference between being tolerant of people's right to have different beliefs (which we are tolerant of) and being tolerant of them having a platform in our country to espouse those beliefs. We don't prosecute holocaust deniers until they go public and seek to influence others.

His biggest crime was expressing his views in a country where those views are considered abhorrent. Social media was simply the medium he chose to do it. Using it wasn't a crime. It was rank stupidity. Any footballer who expresses support for a homophobic act over social media must be aware that he is lighting the blue touchpaper, or else he is very, very stupid indeed.

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.

Err, Islam is a choice. Being gay isn't. The position you adopt with regard to each doesn't require any compromise.

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.

Religion to some is everything and consumes their lives and the way they live them. You will not be able to convince them otherwise. Put in that context and even though there should be, in reality, there is little between the two positions.

Surely you are making my point, not opposing it? No, you can't suddenly adopt a totally different lifestyle, but the key word is SUDDENLY, not "can't". You can, with aspiration and determination, do just that and many people do. So yes, during your childhood you can be inculcated with certain beliefs but, hard as it may be, you can move away from them. I'm not saying that's easy to do, but it is possible.

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.