The true extent of LGBTQ+ hate in football
This Football v Homophobia Month of Action, I’m sharing new figures that show the true extent of anti-LGBTQ+ hate in men’s football.
Late last year, we ran a survey to find out how LGBTQ+ people feel about football and what might improve their experiences.
That research found that 74.4% of respondents – all LGBTQ+ – said they had experienced or heard anti-LGBTQ+ abuse when watching football.
That’s despite a large majority of respondents (81.2%) saying they like football.
Of the people who said they’d heard or experienced abuse, just 23.3% said they’d reported it. This suggests many LGBTQ+ fans lack confidence in or awareness of the channels currently available to them.
In addition, the fact that this data mostly comes from people who say they like football shows what people in the LGBTQ+ community are willing to endure in order to experience the game they enjoy watching.
Asked what made them stop watching football, one respondent said: “I did not feel that they wanted a fan like me.”
That’s the bottom line: men's football does not feel welcoming to LGBTQ+ people. But it’s vital that we don’t just focus on the negative – after all, the current state of affairs is shocking but not exactly surprising. Home Office data shows 4% of all men's professional games in England and Wales last season were subject to reports of anti-LGBTQ hate crime incidents. And as we've shown, so much of this type of discrimination goes unreported.
Solving the problem
So how do we make things better?
There are things that are already making a difference to people's experiences, namely fan groups and visibility. One respondent told us: "As a fan, I now have a [...] supporters group and visibility from the club, which is helpful."
Clubs can get involved in visibility activities like Football v Homophobia by registering as a champion.
This stuff has an impact, and we need to do more of it.
But that's not enough. The survey also asked people to rank ideas and circumstances for how likely they were to improve their experience of the game. They responded on a scale of extremely unlikely to extremely likely.
Here are the most popular ideas:
- Stronger enforcement of punishment for homophobia (93.3% said this was likely or extremely likely to improve their experience)
- More openly gay, bi or trans players in the men's game (88.1%)
- A stronger campaign for LGBTQ+ inclusion in football (83.9%)
- A community of people like me to talk about football with (77.2%)
- Safe spaces to watch football games (51.2%)
Some of these things are easier to achieve than others. But it is striking how many people said that stronger punishment for homophobia was likely to improve their experience. This is something the authorities have control over and there is a clear demand for it from respondents here.
There is clearly a real desire to see gay, bi and trans role models in men’s football. That said, we need to be extremely careful about applying pressure on people who are not ready to come out. The way we achieve this is by doing the hard work of transforming football’s culture. It’s by creating an environment where more people in football feel comfortable in sharing their full selves with the world.
Here are the full results of this question:
It’s clear from this survey that anti-LGBTQ+ hate continues to be present in men’s football. But it's also clear that there are obvious ways to begin fixing the problem.
Together, we can get there.
Are you in?
If you agree that LGBTQ+ people deserve to be able to enjoy football without fear, add your name to show your support today. Join the movement.
Add your nameBreaking down who responded
All respondents said they identified as part of the LGBTQ+ community.