Justin Fashanu, representing England at Under-21 level
A campaign inspired by Justin Fashanu is being launched to help stamp out homophobia in British football.
'Justin' is a campaign against homophobia in football that aims to, "vindicate the memory of Justin Fashanu, the world's first openly gay professional footballer."
'Justin' will be launched on 4 May 2008, two days after the tenth anniversary of Justin Fashanu's death, and will take place at in Brighton at 5pm after the Stonewall Equality Walk.
Speakers at the event will include gay rights activist Peter Tatchell and 'Justin' co-founder Jason Hall.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: "The FA, in conjunction with Stonewall and the Gay Football Supporters Network, are fighting anti-gay prejudice on the terraces, looking to stamp out the kind of chants that haunted Justin.
"But ten years after his death, which the football world refused to mark, there are still no openly gay professional players or managers."
Just last week the former Juventus managing director Luciano Moggi caused outrage when he claimed, "there are no gays in football."
In April last year Portsmouth goalkeeper David James wrote an article in The Observer querying why gay players do not come out, and a 2006 survey found out that 57% of footballers think that football is homophobic.
The aim of the 'Justin' campaign is to get the FA to observe Saturday 2nd May 2009 as Justin Fashanu Day.
They will be asking Premier and Football League players to support Justin Fashanu Day by wearing black armbands and observing a minute's silence before matches.
From Pink News
