Gay Heroes

 

Justin Fashanu presented as a role model for young men

 

I stumbled across this picture of Justin Fashanu while indulging my interest in old war comics. His photo was featured on a back cover, the spot reserved for inspiring young men with sporting heroes. That was in 1980. A year later he became the first British black footballer to be transferred for a million pounds and was playing for one of the top clubs in the UK, winning acclaim for his spectacular goals and represented England at U21 level.

Million pound legs

In October 1990, almost exactly 30 years ago, Justin came out as a gay man, aged 28. To this day he remains the only player to have come out whilst still playing in the top levels of UK soccer.

Even today, black soccer players face a barrage of abuse when they step out on a football field, it was worse in 1990. At that time too the homophobic element in UK life was mounting a (last?) stand against gay rights exploiting the AIDS crisis and helped by Margaret Thatcher's nauseating 'Family Values' campaign.  In such a climate it's not hard to imagine the courage needed for a gay, black player to come out and play in the public arena. 

Justin Fashanu - Proud and Gay

Fashanu was publicly disowned by his equally-famous, footballing brother, John. It later emerged that as a million pound player he even had to deal with the anti-gay bigotry of the manager who had signed him (even at 21 Justin was not ultra-discreet about his life-style). Perhaps not surprisingly in view of that, the mega-transfer deal proved to be the peak of his career, he never reproduced the same form at his new club and suffered an injury soon after that limited him to lesser clubs for the rest of his career.  Nevertheless he carried on playing successfully at the senior level until 1994 and was still a prolific goal scorer for Torquay Utd in 1993.

In 1998 he committed suicide after being charged with a sexual assault in Maryland where gay sex was still illegal. He said it was a consensual act but believed he would be convicted anyway.

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Apart from the coincidental 30 year anniversary of his 'coming out', Justin's story struck a chord with me since it's only a 10 months since another well-known Englishman came out in very different circumstances. Philip Schofield has had a long career in British Television as a co-presenter, most recently of a day-time magazine style show This Morning' and 'Dancing on Ice'. In February he came out on air and revealed that at the age of 57 and after 26 years of marriage he had 'finally come to terms with being gay'. The media response was to praise his courage and treat him as a hero and even laud him as a 'Gay Icon'. As you might expect these days, his Television career hasn't suffered at all, which is good news, unquestionably. 

 

I have no particular gripe with Schofield, but to laud him as a hero seems wrong. For me the real Gay Heroes are men like Justin Fashanu who had his faults but tried to live openly as a gay man in a very hostile climate. There are many thousands of gay men who you have never heard of, who do just that, leading the lives nature has assigned to them, openly and without concealment, fuss or fear. 

They are all heroes.

The 'coming out' of a role model is important, particularly for some gays who struggle to liberate themselves, which is why I applauded Tom Daly, the Olympic Diver when he took the plunge at the peak of his career. Schofield, a man who has taken 57 years to (begrudgingly) accept what he is, can be praised for biting the bullet and welcomed into the gay community of course, but his coming out is hardly an inspiring example for others or a ringing endorsement for being gay.

Justin Fashanu articles: BBC article 30 years anniv, The Life and Death of Justin Fashanu , Justin Fashanu, Wikipedia article