McKellen criticises anti-gay sports world
Sir Ian McKellen criticises anti-gay sports world
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By Alistair Potter. |  |
Thursday, 21, Jan 2010 02:59
By Lewis Bazley.
Sir Ian McKellen has expressed his sadness at the treatment of homosexuality by sportsmen and fans alike.
The Lord of the Rings star, who is openly gay, said participants were turned into "shrinking violets" by antiquated attitudes towards sexuality in sport and on the terraces.
"The world is changing," he told Radio 5 Live's Tony Livesey, "and sport is very slow to catch up."
McKellen's remarks come after Welsh rugby veteran Gareth Thomas revealed he is gay but had kept his sexuality a secret from his most of his friends and colleagues for years.
McKellen, 70, described sporting stars as "absolutely admirable people" but opined many seemed concerned about a negative response from fans.
"When it comes to the business of simply being honest about who they are, some of them become little shrinking violets because they're afraid, probably, of being booed from the terraces, and that must be a horrible experience and shame on people who do it," McKellen explained.
"But it ain't [sic] going to stop someone being a fantastic footballer because they're honest about their private lives, is it? I don't believe so and the world is changing and sport, I'm afraid, is very slow to catch up".
Arsenal defender Sol Campbell, who became engaged to interior designer Fiona Barratt in May 2009, has regularly been the subject of homophobic chanting through his career, while his brother was jailed in 2005 for assaulting a man who questioned Campbell's sexuality.