Survey by Staffs Uni finds fans would support openly gay Pro Footballers

[I.Drink.Your.Milkshake]

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/08082010/58/premier-league-fans-support-gay-players.html

I have trouble with believing it. I think most people, when pressed one-on-one by a stranger in the street, are hardly going to say "No, it's disgusting", or something like that. I also think homophobia would be more prevalent actually amongst players than fans. Still, i've been going to football matches for 20 years.... most fans are not the most open minded.

[Queercommie Girl]

^

Yes, which is why I always like to say, a lot of homophobia and transphobia are actually implicit.

An example: I posted a poll on an Asian American forum (called Model Minority) asking people to state their attitudes towards transgendered people. According to the poll itself, 90% of people were supportive or partially supportive of trans rights. But in the exact same thread, I saw some of the most explicit insults made against trans people, the kind of insults that would make the worst case of transphobia here on RevLeft look like nothing.

"yang-feng yin-wei" - "superficially supportive but antagonistic underneath", that is how a lot of transphobia and homophobia are like nowadays, especially in the West where it is no longer "politically correct" to be explicitly homophobic and transphobic. But for some weird reason a lot of ignorant people still harbour a lot of resentment towards LGBT people, therefore it must be manifested in some way. Personally, I think if people don't overcome the biological reductionist paradigm when it comes to thinking about sex and gender, this kind of implicit antagonism and resentment towards LGBT people won't go away so easily.

[I.Drink.Your.Milkshake]

Personally, I think if people don't overcome the biological reductionist paradigm when it comes to thinking about sex and gender, this kind of implicit antagonism and resentment towards LGBT people won't go away so easily.


Fogive my ignorance - by "biological reductionist", are you referring to the contention that sexuality is biological?

[Queercommie Girl]

Fogive my ignorance - by "biological reductionist", are you referring to the contention that sexuality is biological?

Ultimately everything human has got a biological basis, that's not what I'm talking about by "reductionist" What I mean is the mechanical and simplistic application of biological explanations to human behaviour, particularly related to sexuality and gender. Essentially biological reductionism treats humans as if we are just another kind of animal. Even if it's not the conscious subjective intention of the person espousing such views, reductionism in the biological sense tends to provide a justification for heteronormativism, sexism and transphobia because in the simplistic reductionist paradigm it is easy to impose a rigid model of human sexuality and gender onto the actual facts.

It's like homosexuality probably does have a biological explanation, but I doubt it is just due to the presence of a single "gay gene".