http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9421616.stm

The only thing that makes me mad about that is that it should still be such a problem for homosexual people of both genders to find it so hard to 'come out'.

one day cheryl will tell all about ashley..

It really shouldn't be a problem but it so obviously is ........it would seem that sporting endeavours are only for the straight! How ridiculous
I guess the more guys/girls in sport that come out the easier it is. Same as in the every day world - sadly it's not only the sporting world peeps that have problems.

Sad really - isn't it? We are living in the 21st Century after all.

I admire these young sportsmen who have the guts to come out.
I hope that one day soon, gay and lesbian sportsmen and women will be so commonplace and accepted, that their sexuality won't be considered newsworthy.

Okay maybe it's just me but why does anyone in this day and age feel the need to clarify their sexual preferences to the public anyway?  You don't see headlines like 'Rooney Confesses To Heterosexuality - Local Granny Confirms The Horrible Truth' for example. Seems bizarre to me that being gay should be news at all and I don't mean that in any offensive way towards gays at all.

Prom     - I know you are not being offensive. 
I think it is because in the majority of cases gay people feel they are having to "live a lie".
They feel unable to be openly and honestly themselves as straight people are.
So they come out - sometimes with unpleasant consequences.
But pretending you are something that you are not for year after year after year, can take its toll, and become extremely stressful.
They don't want to pretend any more. They don't want to lie and deceive.

I think that's what the majority want - to be themselves and be accepted.

I fully understand your point, but I don't think we have reached that point yet when it simply doesn't matter.  As Yogi has said above (^^^)

Fair enough brisket I like to think society is sufficiently evolved that being gay isn't an issue one way or another but obviously I'm wrong, which is sad. I suppose because it's not an issue for me I assume most people are indifferent to it also.

Rather than sportsmen/women reveal it as though it was some kind of guilty secret I would prefer them to be 'outed' by the press only for the rest of the world to respond with 'SO FEKKIN WHAT?'.

sometimes they feel they have to prom........it's wrong but they feel they have too..

say for example (and i'm plucking out a name here)..jack wilshere of arsenal.......

now as far as i know he isn't gay......but let's say he is.......maybe a few of his team mates know....his friends know.....but the footballing public don't.......

someone gets wind of it....they think 'money'....they phone the news of the screws etc.....'i've got a sensational story about jack wilshere'..........news of the screws gets excited.......call jack wilshere........'is it true?.cos basically this bloke says you slept with him and has pictures of you and is willing to talk to us..........BUT..if you give us the exclusive we'll carry your story instead'

next edition is screaming the headline on the front page........'JACK ADMITS HE'S GAY'......followed by the usual........in an exclusive to the notw premiership footballer jack wilshere told us he's gay

basically it's.......talk to us...or we'll blab it anyway and it's better coming from you...cos the other bloke will tell us everything about your night with him...but if you tell us we'll cover it as a 'sensitive' story......

that's the reason stephen gately came out in the sun.........someone was going to spill the beans on him and they contacted him to tell it first.

it's just so wrong........i couldn't give a flying one whose gay and who isn't........but the papers sensationalise it

I second that

Exactly what I tried to say in a similar thread a few weeks ago. Why do people think 'it's a shame' that footballers don't announce that they are gay to the world? Straight footballers don't often announce that they are straight do they. It's their private life, so why should they have to?

Of course it's bizarre that being gay should be news but it is. I think high profile sportsmen/women live in fear of being outed and that's why more and more of them go public. They really shouldn't have to but - that's the way it is. We can all (on here) be as liberal minded as you like but we all know that it really is a big deal.

I agree with people on this thread saying the 'out yourself before you're outed' mentality is still a factor I'm just saying it should never be the case and I wish it wasn't. I wish our government would grow a pair and make it illegal for papers not fit to wipe your arse with to humiliate people the way they do.

It's a difficult one. For various reasons mrs jer and I have a working knowledge of interwar Germany, particularly Berlin. (we are looking forward to the Isherwood prog with Matt Smith) a lot of people came out as gay, lesbians, transvestites, and transsexuals. Plus a lot of people who just wanted a great time. They were amongst the first victims. I can understand why some people might be reluctant to come out. You never know what sort of government might be just around the corner.

Joe I'd like to think this country is moving in the right direction even if others aren't. Even Cameron and Clegg with their two combined brain cells couldn't go backward on issues such as this.

Indeed! But one never knows the future. All sorts of destabilising things might occur.

All I can say is, I'm glad things are going in the right direction and these sports peeps who are coming out are making it easier for the next lot.

Hopefully, very soon, it will be as un-newsworthy as a gay politician has now become.

OK, before I go to bed, I've just read this and what a flippin good post by prom 

Good post from Spongey too .......sad, but true

I very nearly told my ten year old son this news, but then thought, nah, it'll make it sound like 'big news' and I'd rather just drop it into conversation casually, one day, if the subject comes up.

He is a little bit obsessed with gaydom, at the moment.

Does the fact he's gay affect his performance on the ptich?

I just deleted my whole post about gay men and women

What got deleted was...

Sometimes IMO the only people who have a problem with gay people......are gay people.

An article by The Secret Footballer from today's sports section of
The Guardian.

meh, every one has or has had a dose of the gay,no biggy