sorry, accidentally posted before complete.

Nationally the GFSN (Gay Football Supporters Network) and the FA's 'Football v Homophobia' campaign have highlighted many of the problems, some of which are more in the head than in reality.

I had considered a broader anti-discrimination campaign but feel the Kick Racism Out of Football has enough momentum at the moment. It's also more difficult to understand discrimination and the feeling of oppression when you're on the outside looking in than the other way around.

Think I will set up a group for grumpy middle aged men.

jalapenosteve
Count me in!

how about an anti moaners group? Especially for the minority of supporters affected by constant "moaning" during matches?...I feel particularly affected by this and as a mInority I demand to be heard AND ACTION TAKEN. I have a season ticket in the SB lower and behind me is a ginger stig of the dump look a like who's language is as fowl as his breath, as he screams a full range of expletives at the referee every few minutes. I now have taken to wearing a hood for home matches to help protect me from the flying spittle as he launches yet another a torrent towards the officials or the opposition players. To my right is a suffolk version of a North London gangsta......who's hatred of Daryl Murphy is incredible! He does however show a modicum of intelligence by shouting more than 3 expletives in every sentence..thats not an easy thing to do.....so what are the chances of getting a support group set up, can I lobby the FA, the Football supporters association, TWTD?.... Surely I'm not alone?

I go to Portman Road to enjoy the sport not flaunt my sexuality

ABSURD!

@Jalopeno Steve - It hunk that group exists already. It's called 'The Churchman's stand'.

There is groups for this and groups for that. People will make up their own minds, and won't be told what to think.............enter the thought Police

My take on this is that there is no need to label people in any way at all, other than as being ITFC supporters. One of the things that turned me off trade unions is that they have special groups for LGBT etc when the best course of action is to regard everyone as being on an equal footing.

I think there are some positive comments on here but also some stupid ones, however it shouldn't matter what your gender/race/sexual preference is if you're a Town fan that should be the beginning and end of the matter. I sit near a gay fan and at the games he's as much a town fan as anyone else, whatever else he is is no one elses business but his. However I think maybe setting up groups specifically for groups of fans possibly marginalises them further, rather than isolate gay fans surely the rest of us need to try harder to accept them without the need to add rainbows to the crest. It's the akin too putting an ironing board or an apron on a badge fo the famale town fans?! That said... racism is almost non existent in today's game, hopefully we can say the same about homophobia in the future.

Good stuff, very happy to see our club so forward looking

Madness. Surely this group doesn't need to exist? Cant we all just be Town fans under one banner?

I was going to make the same point of Marcus. In an ideal world there would be no need for this just as there should have been no need for campaigns like Kick Racism Out - but this is not an ideal world and the point of initiatives like this is, hopefully, to try to support those who clearly feel that they are being in some way discriminated against or made to feel uncomfortable simply because of something about them that is part of who they are - if this becomes a non-issue in as short a time as possible that would surely be great for everyone concerned. It is not, however, a non-issue at the moment and if support can be provided to, for example, LGBT people to help move things forward that is great. (and just for interest though it might annoy some people if I say this I am a member of 'Changing Attitude, Wales' which seeks full inclusion of LGBT people within the Church in Wales).

Marcus, well done. Your heart is in the right place and all the good you are trying to do should be applauded. I appreciate your efforts.

As for the posts ....

TangoAphaNovember - I'm a season ticket holder and gay. I don't go to Portman Road to flaunt my sexuality. Nor would I want to in the future. I think I must have missed something in Phil's article which talks about "flaunting sexuality". Could you point out the sentence for me? You appear to be completely missing the point and adding your extra interpretation.

Marcus1642 - "people being told what to think" ... so why doesn't your comment apply to anti-racism campaigns? Surely it does? This is not about telling people what to think. If you think it is, read the article again.

Rentaghost - your comment is plain juvenile and demonstrates that outdated stereotypes still persist and need to be tackled.

eMem - can you elaborate on your "homo-propoganda" comments. Exactly what do you mean?

Nitroblue - More comments that could apply to anti-racism campaigns too. Could you explain where the cut-off point is between groups that you see as a waste of time and those that perform an important function?

There are a few posts which say that there is no need for all this as we are all Town supporters. I can sympathise with this view point as, yes, at the end of the day we are all Town supporters. However for many people, gay issues aren't something that they encounter on a day-to-day basis and it's therefore difficult to put yourself in the shoes of someone who is gay. If you aren't affected by these issues it's very easy to think they are being overstated or blown out of proportion. Thankfully I've never suffered from racial abuse and I very rarely encounter it. I don't however think that anti-racism campaigns are a waste of time because I take the time to listen and understand the viewpoint of those that do suffer from such abuse. I'd suggest that posters should be using this forum as a golden opportunity to do the same.

Well done Marcus. Town is a great club with a great history and guys like you do it great credit.

Well done for setting this up. COYB!

Hello kriz00

First thing. I'm a fan from Poland, I've never been at Portman Road or England. I'm looking for information on topic. Just reading through comments here and under Reuser news few months ago I see all TWTD readers are supportive for LGBT movement. This leads to a question. Is there really a problem? Did you saw any part of "Homophobic chants against Justin Fashanu, verbal and violent attacks against openly gay Town fans and low level homophobic and transphobic abuse used against players". That's my question.

I don't really see the reason for a special Rainbow group, and I wonder just how big the problem of homophobia is in the stands at PR. I'm tempted to say I'd like to form a group for men who like blonde girls with small breasts, but I suppose that would be a bit facetious in the present context - and no doubt sexist too. But then, I'm not gay, and I suppose you have to encounter the abuse in order to really understand it. Moreover, ANY organisations with liberal values formed to support the Town have my support. But shouldn't the emphasis be on just that - supporting the Town rather than worrying about how we prefer to satisfy a human being's third most important urge (no. 1 being supporting the Town, and no. 2 eating)?

Hello eMeM,

Yes, you are right. There were positive comments all round regarding the Reuser story and that was good to see. From that article, I'm not sure you can draw the conclusion that all TWTD readers are supportive of the LGBT movement but certainly readers those that posted replies made very encouraging comments.

As for the “Homophobic chants against Justin Fashanu, verbal and violent attacks against openly gay Town fans and low level homophobic and transphobic abuse used against players”. It would be better for Marcus to answer that as he made the statement. I don't know any other gay town fans to compare experiences with and so Marcus will be in a far more informed position to answer it.

Justin Fashanu's playing days were before the time that I started going to matches so no I didn't hear the chants directed at him. However, the verbal abuse he received is well documented and you've only got to read Brian Clough's autobiography to see what other sorts of things he had to contend with off the pitch. Clough recounts a dressing down he gave to Fashanu after hearing rumours that he was going to gay bars. "'Where do you go if you want a loaf of bread?' I asked him. 'A baker's, I suppose.' 'Where do you go if you want a leg of lamb?' 'A butcher's.' 'So why do you keep going to that bloody poofs' club?"'

Personally I've heard the abuse directed at the Brighton players two or three seasons back and I've heard other derogatory gay comments in the stands used as insults. We can all do without that. The Brighton match in particular really made me despair. There's an ongoing debate in the UK media about why so few footballers have come out and there's a general acceptance that the football environment currently isn't condusive to that. Coming from Poland, try readings the articles on the BBC and other UK news websites. I'm concerned, like others, at the falling numbers coming through the gates at Portman Road and I try and do my bit to encourage friends to attend but it's difficult. Initiatives like this can only help to change perceptions all round.

Don't get me wrong. I love coming to Portman Road and supporting Town. The guys sitting next to me are great and I love the football banter. It's certainly not a bad place to be. But, on the other hand, I can appreciate exactly where Marcus is coming from.

Well, I think Fashanu story is so old that that it's hard to believe it can inspire someone to defend against homophobia in 2014. I read about it few years ago on Polish website and started digging it. I always wondered why is he a face of anti homophobic campaign when there's so much controversy about him after he retired from football.

Still interested if there are “Homophobic chants against Justin Fashanu" on East Anglian Derby in recent years. Were there any "violent attacks"? How would "transphobic abuse" against a player look like?

There are still some homophobic chants directed at Brighton fans at games & as much as one can pass it off as traditional football 'gallow's humour' & fans will say there's no real malice intended it doesn't make it okay. It wasn't that long ago fans made racist chants that they would also say were. "just a bit of harmless chanting" that was once acceptable in the terraces yet looking back we can all (hopefully) see how vile it was. Surely homophobic comments are no different? I'd welcome a similar initiative to encourage Asian fans to the game to, football needs passionate fans of all types and as Town fans it's our duty to welcomes ALL fans to Portman Road, the only colour should be blue, not pink, black, brown or rainbow coloured (just no green & yellow!)

Kriss00 you comment about the Brighton what about them calling us sheep sha??ers and driving tractors, it's called banter. Almost everybody has had it in there life at some stage, ginger hair, being short and so on. You are what you are, get over it.

Superkevinwilson - you forgot to add one to your list ... the colour of people's skin. That's just banter too is it?

Between yourselves you've quite effectively defined low level abuse. It's when you hear things like the abuse directed at opposition players as well as 'you're playing like a <insert term>'. If you insert a racist term it would be almost universally condemned but there would be more acceptance, possibly laughing, for a homophobic term. That's oppressive - it's funny because they're saying they're poor because they're like me.

Physical abuse against a gay Town fan. Actually this was cut from the press release - I cited the example of an openly gay Town fan being elbowed in the face at away games during goal celebrations on multiple occasions, being tripped on the stairs at an away ground, having things shouted at him by those aware of his sexuality. While this wasn't recent it's still in my memory as I was that Town fan in the 1990s. It did result with some time in hospital and a court case so it's a bit complicated for a press release where I'm trying to convince those in the LGBT community that things have changed and it's time to give football a chance again.

For those saying "what's the point?" Perhaps gay people should be tougher and not be insulted by low level homophobia - in reality most of us have very thick skins but that doesn't overcome the feeling of oppression as defined above. If you say it's rare, hardly ever happens or never happens then you've been lucky. Dare I say it, it's also illegal - reporting through the kick it out system is very effective but tends to be heavy handed.

There is a deep rooted phobia of team sports in the LGBT community. This is much more obvious than homophobia in football. Last Thursday at a gay mens group I presented the concept of the group and someone genuinely asked me: why do you bother, they're all a bunch of homophobes. I replied that that perception is exactly why I do it. Hopefully seeing a group of happy LGBT fans will make a few people in the community think "why not try going to a game to see what the fuss is all about?" When that happens it can start a ripple effect - I'm not promising that but it's a possibility.

Regarding Fashanu, according to an article in the 4th edition of Turnstile Blues a certain "vile song" was recently heard. I haven't heard it myself for a while and hope to never hear it again.

kriss00 ask Carlton cole what he thinks

blooming computer should have been Carlton Parmer