I was going to wait until after the Chelsea game next week to see how that played out before I wrote on this sensitive but hugely important subject. But the manager has pre-emptied that with the hard-hitting interview with one of our fans on the homophobia against Billy Gilmour that reared its ugly head again last weekend. And as most clubs use the same chant, it's relevant to ALL football fans.
Let me preface this by saying I hate Chelsea with a passion. And I'll readily hold my hand up and say I've used that slur on them for decades. I’m a simple, heterosexual white male who was ignorant to the inherent wrong in this for long enough. To my absolute shame. But I've done a lot of self-reflecting over the last few years and the simple fact that it's offensive to the gay community means it must stop and be
TOTALLY removed from our songbook. There is absolutely
NO excuse in this day and age for
anyone to throw that out.
I was utterly disappointed, and no less disgusted, by the multitude of Reds over the weekend trying to vainly defend this as somehow being just
'banter, 'only a laugh' and
'non-offensive.' All with the ridiculously lame 'whataboutery' thrown in for good measure ......
'But what about when they chant about unemployment/ always the victims/ call us bin dippers et al?'
We as Liverpool fans like to think we have a moral compass that holds us above any other fanbase in how to support a team and treat people in general ..... But we are quick to come up with pathetic excuses to try justify and condone what
we do that's completely unacceptable today.
'The Chelsea Rent Boy' chant is a homophobic chant that has
NO place in today's game.
END OF!
The people that matter tell you that. Organisations like
'Kick It Out' who work with marginalised groups clearly say it's offensive and homophobic.
'Kop Outs', our clubs own LGBT+ wing, clearly say it's offensive and homophobic. Yet people want to tell the gay community that it isn't and what they can and can't be offended by? Do people realise how arrogantly offensive and patronising that is in itself?
It's a chant that's used as a slur against gay people.
The chant originates from the 1980s when a Chelsea Headhunter, one of their hooligans, was 'allegedly' found to be having homosexual *** with a male *** worker. Which hit the tabloid headlines at the time. And it was and has been ever since intended as an insult to suggest any fan/ player/ manager et al connected to Chelsea are all gay.
THAT'S why it's homophobic and offensive. It's intended as a disparaging term, seen as seedy/ lurid, which tags all gay people that hear it. You can't escape the connotations of the chant. Nor the voices of those telling you how offended they are by the chant. You have to listen to what's offending/ hurting them and act appropriately with how times have moved on and what's now acceptable and what isn't or else what's the point of an evolved society?
For me, anyway, we as a society should be looking to move away from what was once acceptable behaviour to mock marginalised groups and stand up to
ALL forms of hate. Be they homophobia/ racism/ sexism/ religious bigotry ..... basically,
ANYTHING that slurs marginalised/ oppressed groups of people. And we should be
listening to those groups voices to validate their thoughts and be open and welcoming to all. We can't support the players and their actions in standing up, or in their case, kneeling down, for equality for all at the start of a game and then turn around and throw homophobic rhetoric out in the name of 'banter' during it!
It's really a sad, SAD state of affairs that the club felt the need to put out a statement yet again condemning this after Norwich last weekend. And even sadder that many L'pool fans took to the defensive over it.
One can only hope that the latest attention has now raised awareness. Hopefully, people now taking the time to step back and educate themselves and listen to those this is hurting, and we can begin to eradicate it from our songbook so we aren't having a similar discussion in another week or so's time after we've played Chelsea.
It's a homophobic slur and it has
NO place in either the all-inclusive game we want football to be. Nor the standard of fanbase we
pertain to be.
