From Canada’s Gay News } Come out, German Football Head Urges
adamfoxie* has posted on this before, so is not Johnny come lately, but wanted to post the story coming in from Canada’s gay media.
Love is in the air . . . so
BY NATASHA BARSOTTI -
Jamaica's new prime minister wouldn't mind gays in her Cabinet (though she didn't reiterate that little tidbit in her post-election speech at the opening of Jamaica's Parliament on Jan 17). 
Harper's Conservatives fell all over themselves last week after a Department of Justice lawyer told a court that same-sex marriages of non-residents are not really marriages if they can't get married in their home territories, so hey, you don't need to get a divorce, should you need one. But don't panic, said Justice Minister Rob Nicholson. We're not revising, revisiting, rejigging, re-anything, with anybody's same-sex marriage. Actually, now that you mention it, we'll make sure we close that "legislative gap," and voilĂ , all same-sex marriages performed here will be recognized, he assured. We like you, we really like you. Okay, so he didn't say that last part.
And now . . . the head of the German Football Association is joining the international queer love fest. He wants all gay players to come out, come out wherever they are, according to The Local, an English-language newspaper in Germany.
As far as Theo Zwanziger is concerned, the lay of the land for gay footballers is getting better, so why should they not declare their homosexuality for all to hear and see?
Certainly, Zwanziger's not alone in that opinion, which he aired at a public forum in Cologne that discussed sexuality in sports.
The UK's Guardian newspaper ran a story in November 2010 noting that German national player Mario Gomez had broken ranks with the German football federation and encouraged gay players to be honest about their sexuality, a move that he feels would allow them to play with more abandon.
"Football is like earlier gladiatorial combat. Sure, politicians can now come out as homosexuals. But they don't have to play in front of 60,000 spectators week after week," Lahm said, according to theWestdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.
And Lahm, who has denied rumours that he is gay, seems to have his finger on that pulse. There are as yet no openly gay players in Germany's top league, and he has advised those who may be gay to remain in the closet, in his book A Subtle Difference. 
The first professional player to declare his homosexuality in the UK, Justin Fashanu, killed himself in 1998, but not before speaking up about the sport's entrenched homophobia.
It doesn't help that in 2010, FIFA head Sepp Blatter - in response to a question about the potential fate of gay soccer fans in not-so-gay-friendly Qatar, which will host the 2022 World Cup - said they should put sex on hold. And then apologized for his quip.
Or that Croatian soccer president Vladimir Markovic doesn't want gay players on the national team because "only healthy people" play the game.
Or that Nigeria's women's soccer coach Eucharia Uche invoked religion to purge her team of lesbians as it prepared for the Women's World Cup in Germany last year.
And while some women footballers have come out, their well-being often depends on where they undertake that bold venture.
In 2008, South Africa's Eudy Simelane was gang raped and murdered after she came out.
It's more than time for FIFA to set a very public, very consistent policy and message that homophobia is a no-no, in the vein of the high-profile campaign they've been waging against racism in the sport over the last decade.
Maybe consult with that German Football Association guy.
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