Quote Originally Posted by Croesy Blue View Post
I always used to think that homophobic songs and the like were just banter and anyone being wound up by them were being overly sensitive. I couldn’t believe people were getting arrested or banned for it at Brighton.

But then I heard an interview with someone from a gay football supporters group and it completely changed my mind. It’s why it’s worth listening to others people experience.

In terms of the Dave Chappell thing I haven’t heard it but taking comedy out of context is a daft thing to do to get offended by.
I agree with this. It's a tough subject and I strongly object to 'wokeism' and identity politics etc which I do think drives wedges between people and fractures rather than heals society.

That said, it is important to understand these things from other perspectives and quite clearly chants that demonise homosexuality are not acceptable. Whether they cause enormous harm or not is a fair question to ask, but it cannot be used as an insult, and the club and most fans don't want it. It might be okay amongst friends, some of whom may be gay, but that is a different context again.

The same goes for 'I'd rather wear a turban than a rose' which is plainly racist. Again, the extent of harm caused is a fair debate, but it's discriminatory. In fact it's doubly discriminatory. It's one of the worst chants there is and thankfully very rarely heard now.

All of this is very nuanced however, particularly in terms of 'always shit on the English side of the bridge', 'viva Gareth Bale, **** the union jack' etc. Both of which quite clearly fall foul of being hate crimes and CCFC probably have as many English fans as we do BAME or LGBT. Even singing 'sign on' at Liverpool fans. Is this not as harmful as a racist trope? Who is to say? A big issue for me is also political bigotry. As many people throughout history have been killed for a political belief as a religious one, so we need to be careful on that too.

As mentioned, I have no time for the 'woke language police' or puritanical approach to it all but a line does need to be drawn and chants that mock gay people or sikhs etc does need to be defined as not acceptable. I wouldn't ban fans for life for it, but it's fair for the authorities to clamp down on it.