Love has no shape

[scruby.livejournal.com]

OK, so after reading this post and many other posts that are connected to homophobia in the past, I started thinking that maybe we here as a football community should stop talking and posting funny gifs and start acting! Well, we can still talk and post funny gifs, lol. (:

This community has more than 7300 members and I believe many of the people here oppose to homophobia in football, and in general, and would like to see something changing in the world of football.

The purpose of this post is to throw ideas in the air and think of campaigns and other things we can do to maybe make a little influence on this beautiful game which we love so much.    

Here is an interesting article about anti-gay abuse in Football called Leagues Behind. I didn't read all of it but from what I read from it and about it it is fuming. 

So, just start throwing ideas.

Sorry if this post is not too clear and all, its 4:25am here and I'm very tired.

Here are some ways you can contact me and send me anything you want which is connected to this cause:

My twitter: shopgirl157
My tumblr: steelwater



 

Our new and shiny blog :D Redcard Homophobia.

Our facbook page.

Hashteg for twitter suggested by bbluejenn117: #redcardhomophobia.


Made by daysofjune :




Made by jowlia:



Made by prettyannamoon :






Made by godlizza :




Made by ___combatbaby  :



Some links:

- Kick It Out
- NOH8.
- From A Left Wing: the cultural politics of soccer.
- Aussie football players against homophobia.
- The Justin Campaign.
 

 

Comments

[prettypuyol.livejournal.com]

Maybe people can wear some kind of ribbon or symbol to games that means "I support gay footballers whoever you are!" :) Maybe a rainbow football.

[scruby.livejournal.com]

I wish there was a 'like' button here...

[fandomonymous.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what to do about the situation, but the idea of uniting as a community to tackle an issue in football that is as prevalent and horrible as hooliganism and racism is just wonderful, OP.

Does anyone (who knows German) know more about Philipp Lahm's anti-AIDS/anti-homophobia charity campaign? I know it exists but I hardly know anything about it or how to contribute to it, which makes me a bad activist and a bad Lahm fangirl at the same time. XD In all seriousness, there are (a few) footballers out there who feel strongly that homophobia is an issue in football that needs to be changed/stopped, and I'd love to see if we can find a way to contribute through them, to show that it's a player issue as well as a fan issue. :D

[scruby.livejournal.com]

Well, it just struck me. We're so many people here. 7000, is a lot of people, and we should do something about the things we complain about.

I didn't know about Lahm's charity. That's so cool of him.

[eames.livejournal.com]

Not saying fundraising is the way to go, but if it ever came to that, for a cause everyone agreed on, it's doable. One of the ontd_ communities I mod raised nearly $20,000 in a very short space of time, and we only had around 5,000 members at that point. It's definitely something that could be replicated here.

[scruby.livejournal.com]

That's so fucking cool. What did you raise it for?

Some rambling ideas...

[tonstant-weader.livejournal.com]

This is great... I know from experience it's definitely easier to partner with existing foundations for campaign ideas than to start your own foundation for sure. Online petitions, Facebook groups, tweets and re-tweets can help spread the message though which is easy for anyone to do and basically free. Also, promoting and having a "Day" can help other media report on it (look at Sad Keanu Day or 90210 day).

But I really think the key is to get testimonials from celebs, players or other people to come out and say it's not OK. The famous people role helps influence younger more impressionable people but unfortunately they're also (at least active athletes) the least likely to do it.

In the UK I know the well-known KickItOut racism campaign (http://www.kickitout.org/1048.php) is also doing a, less publicized, anti-homophobia campaign. well-The behavior needs to be non-normalized, which this video that the FA sponsored helps to demonstrate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evnZci_2p5I

I live in the US and I don't know if there are a lot of general football anti-homophobia ads but if someone can find a good one created by a non-prof, I used to work at ESPN and have a buddy at Fox Sports and we can lobby them to air in the US.

Re: Some rambling ideas...

[scruby.livejournal.com]

Your comment is great. I agree with all of it. I think it could be really good if we join something. Also, thank you for the links. I didn't know about that campaign.

I always though Sad Keanu was a scene from a movie, but now I read that it was a RL moment that was captured of him, lol! What are the Sad Keanu day and 90210 day?

[kem-viva.livejournal.com]

Yes, we should start a petition online or something, showing support for gay footballers and being against homophobia in football.

And im really into campaigns like this, i would really help anyone who wanted to do a serious campaign for this!!

[lovepiggiie.livejournal.com]

If everyone here is serious about doing something about this, count me in! Homophobia is something I am truly against and if there is anything I can do, I will.

We definitely should get a group on facebook to get the word going, maybe make a video of different people speaking out against homophobia and putting it on youtube, try to make it go viral by e-mailing people the video and eventually people e-mail other people and so on and so on.

[tonstant-weader.livejournal.com]

The nice thing is with all the players, WAGS, etc. on twitter, all it would take is one or two reposts to go really viral. :)

[bbluejenn117.livejournal.com]

hmm idk I would see if maybe one of the mods over at ontd_ai (american idol) knows anything about doing an online fundraiser campaign. They've done quite a few things over there, successfully, as far as raising money for causes and charities, and obviously they are all pro-equality.

I agree there needs to be a way for those of us who don't get to go to games as often to show our support.

<3 this post btw

[kem-viva.livejournal.com]

how about like just a wordpress blog that we update on stories about homophobia in football being combated and stories that are positive with players supporting gay players??

and maybe have links to a petition and other sites?

just throwing ideas out.........

[sistahmidnight.livejournal.com]

I WAS JUST ABOUT TO COMMENT ASKING IF A SITE LIKE THIS EXISTED

[jayjaybird3.livejournal.com]

I'm a really big fan of the NOH8 campign. So I would love to support anything you guys come up with in here. I'm not so good with ideas but as a person who's been "privallaged" their entire life, I've got the cash flow.

I am really saddend by the fact that gay footballers aren't able to tell the world who they are because of this taboo in the sport :(

[tanuhmah.livejournal.com]

I would love for the noh8 to spread to football.

[st00pidness.livejournal.com]

lol hope no one saw my picture spam because the picture i posted was a changed during html or something

[tanuhmah.livejournal.com]

OT: what is the reason behind your icon, if you mind me asking.

[nomprenom.livejournal.com]

This is such a cool idea!
I never noticed how many people there were in this community, and now that I know, I think it would be awesome and potentially successful to start a campaign about this!

We could start by putting support images(?) -something like those "fan of..." banners or something- in everyone's journals, managed communities and blogs, personal blogs, websites, etc. The same for everyone so people who see it can understand we're united as one.

[allyson1093.livejournal.com]

how about we make shirts with a really cool slogan on it? we can have a contest for the best slogan and then we can have another contest for the best actual design on the t-shirt. and these shirts can help get the word out and stuff.

[bbluejenn117.livejournal.com]

I don't how or if this sounds bad, but I was talking to someone today, and this is totally not related to football, and we were bitching about something and he said "homo don't play that game", idk for some reason i thought it was so ace! I don't know if it would work as a t-shirt slogan, or if it is one already, but some variation on it, might actually work really well for this cause.

[vaguely-dirty.livejournal.com]

If we end up doing something, we could probably help spread the word via Twitter. Keep hounding footballers like Rio, Cesc, Álvaro, etc to retweet and help us, perhaps?

Not that I'm encouraging harassing players, lol. Just a thought!

[kem-viva.livejournal.com]

no i agree, if players would tweet the message it would be great

[kem-viva.livejournal.com]

IF we were to make this blog on wordpress, what ideas do you guys have for the blog title??

[tonstant-weader.livejournal.com]

Maybe something about/involving "fair play"?

[ytumamatb.livejournal.com]

oh well... regardless of Becker's declarations, which I think are totally un-researched and guided by an impulse, yes, I do believe homophobia is very present in fb... which is bad since one should look at the game qualities of the individuals, not their sexual orientations. whether one needs balls (figuratively) to play fb is beside the point, one can have balls n still prefer to have sex with men, so that's not even an argument. anyway, i say we take this to the streets n march for the rights of the alienated by society ahem I mean... let's tell Plati (:
have fuckies *fuckies*

[ophelia-66.livejournal.com]

how about next time babel tweets the #nohomo tag everybody replies and tells him to stfu? but in a more articulate way aha.
i'm actually serious lol, i know it seems like a stupid idea but in some ways it's useless the fans being opposed to homophobia if the players themselves seem content to be casually homophobic.
idk if that would work though haha but i definitely think that if a campaign or something is put into place it could be worth raising awareness through twitter. so many players (in the premier league at least) are reluctant to get involved in combating homophobia atm, i find it really sad.

[fandomonymous.livejournal.com]

UGH, THIS YES PLEASE.

Combating the idea that "homo = stupid" is so important to this cause and helps everyone get along better.

CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG

[st00pidness.livejournal.com]

(http://tinypic.com?ref=346q5j8)
(http://s805.photobucket.com/albums/yy331/slightlygaga/?action=view&current=rjdvn8jpg.gif)

(http://tinypic.com?ref=2yju2yw)

(http://img525.imageshack.us/i/0b625c9b3daf4a42a079a3a.jpg/)

Re: CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG

[tonstant-weader.livejournal.com]

That Cris and Kaka gif is my fave! Why are they doing that with their hands? I love inside jokes.

[sistahmidnight.livejournal.com]

Just want to echo kem_viva's idea of having a site that collects stories.

Also, one of the things that personally frustrates me if that when players/coaches/agents say things that are racist or homophobic so often they get off scott free. if someone talks serious shit about a ref, FIFA has no issue coming to the rescue though. Fans and professionals need to be taken to task if they do something heinous, because what happens at best now is clubs are asked to pay pennies when heavier fines and suspensions need to take place.

[san.livejournal.com]

A+ post, A+ ideas, and A+ cause. Thank you, OP!! ♥

And a tiiiiiny idea, and honestly don't know how effective, but as a promotional thing for this cause, maybe those of us who have Twitter accounts could use a hashtag or something, to get the word out. idk I'm awful with ideas. XD

[tanuhmah.livejournal.com]

Rainbow Footie?
Rainbow Kick
Rainbow Ball

[luna-nic.livejournal.com]

Here's a great website/blog that supports an anti-homophobic stance, here's an article on an organzation in france and their logo:
http://fromaleftwing.blogspot.com/2009/10/paris-foot-gay-creteil-homophobia.html


Maybe someone can come up with a take on this

(http://photobucket.com)

I'm gonna get this going on my tumblr and will update anything decided here

[san.livejournal.com]

"Carton rouge a l'homophobie"? That is AWESOME!! ♥

[kem-viva.livejournal.com]

I have to say i go on a lot of male based football forums (and im sure other people have seen this too), and the levels of homophobia on some of them are REALLY high, almost shockingly (at least to me, but maybe i was just ignorant then)

IF we do this, I think people might be surprised how many people out there, people that we might feel allied to because we support the same clubs/countries, are really homophobic when it comes to football.

[nomprenom.livejournal.com]

my post was left alone with no parent ):
omg yes ): but that's the whole point of it. To see how many people DO support the cause and to try to make the ones who don't see it from another perspective. Anyway, we all have to be prepared for not-so-good situations.

[bbluejenn117.livejournal.com]

for those of us on Twatter, any ideas for a hashtag?

Looking at the poster above maybe, in our respective languages

#redcardhomophobia

just an idea?

[luna-nic.livejournal.com]

that's a good idea! I am going with it

[asdfg.livejournal.com]

Great post Scruby!

Here's my 2 cents. How about we use online support badge? Put it in our blogs, websites, forum signature, facebook profile, etc.

Make people aware that us fans support gay footballers and do not tolerate homophobia.

This is just something I threw in together in 2 minutes but people can make better ones, obviously:

[tamings.livejournal.com]

I like this a lot *insert thumbs up gif*

[the-ladyj.livejournal.com]

This sounds really great. If the idea behind this is not to out someone but to spread the idea that the player and his skills count and not who/what gender he loves/not loves, than I am all in.

I like the ideas of slogans on tshirts, a website where all efforts are united and the idea of spreading the word through twitter, tumblr, facebook and whot not. If we also contact our local papers and the big news outlets, especially if they are contacted by several people on a semi regular basis we could spread the word.

Wearing the shirts to games (maybe as the first poster suggested with a rainbow collored football on it?) would be a great start (and make for nice little ontd_fb meetings?).

[scruby.livejournal.com]

Nop, I wouldn't want to out anyone. If this will make footballers feel good with who they are and come out of the closet because they want to then that will be amazing.