Kick It Out is helping to bring the issue of homophobia in football into the public eye by teaming up with the Communication Workers Union for their Lesbian, Gay and Transgender fringe meeting, which takes place in Liverpool next month.
The event will adopt the theme of 'Tackling Homophobia In Sport', and Kick It Out will be in attendance, taking part in a question and answer session, alongside former Liverpool player Howard Gayle and representatives from CWU and the FA.
Representatives from two of the UK's leading gay football teams, Brighton Bandits and Village Manchester FC, will also be present at the meeting, which takes place on Tuesday 10th June.
Coordinator Fevzi Hussein said: "We believe that football is an excellent vehicle to help raise the debate as the profile of stamping out homophobic chanting on the terraces has certainly taken on a higher importance. We're even seeing Premiership clubs beginning to make statements in their programmes and websites along the same lines as that of chanting on the terraces, which negatively target black footballers."
The debate comes on the back of the launch of the Justin Campaign Justin is a campaign against homophobia in football that aims to, vindicate the memory of Justin Fashanu, the world¹s first openly gay professional footballer.
Not all attempts to bring the issue of homosexuality in football have been met with open arms. Plans to stage an exhibition on gay footballers at a Preston museum last year were shelved.
University of Central Lancashire lecturers Mac McCarthy and Louisa Jones wanted to showcase their research into gay teams at Deepdale's National Football Museum but plans were rebuffed.
Although the event is not open to the general public, interested parties wishing to attend should contact Fevzi Hussein on 020 8971 7388/7356.
