eglsf-master

Today the European Gay and Lesbian Sports Federation gave its backing to Football v Homophobia, the International Day Against Homophobia in Football. The Day is being launched in the UK, by the Justin Campaign, an anti-homophobia football campaign named after the only out gay professional football player in the UK, Justin Fashanu, who tragically ended his own life in 1998. The Justin Campaign intend Football v Homophobia, 19 February will become the one day each year where individuals, community groups, grass roots teams and professional clubs internationally can express their disapproval of homophobia in football by celebrating under the banner [...]

Readers of Compete, the gay sports magazine, and the expert jury have selected the 2009 (Gay) Athlete of the Year. The finalists were submitted to a panel of celebrity judges consisting of Sarah Burke, Bridget Pettis, David Bromstad, Evan Darling and Jeff Kagan, who chose three finalists: John Ensor (Washington, DC), Eddie Chen (Los Angeles, CA) and John Deffee (Phoenix, AZ) - all from the USA. The jury decided that leading by example, John Deffee is the most positive role model that other gay athletes can look up to, thus honouring him with the title 2009 Athlete of the Year. [...]

Former Welsh Rugby International Gareth Thomas followed in the footsteps of Irish Hurling star Donal Óg Cusack this weekend by making the public announcement that he was gay. This makes him the only openly gay professional rugby player still in the game. Thomas, who is Wales’ most capped player, still plays at a club level for Cardiff Blues, having retired from International Rugby in 2007. The story was sympathetically revealed in the English newspaper the Daily Mail, a newspaper which had recently caused outrage amongst the UK and Irish LGBT community for publishing an article which speculated about the death [...]