Being a lifelong cynic is better than people think. You get used to being disappointed, so you practice expecting the absolute minimum from organizations – and when that’s exactly what you get, it just drops you off for hello! You had already mentally processed it!
Sometimes, though, things break through. Organizations – let’s use UEFA as an example, because … yes, because this is about them – rent some industrial digging equipment and a tunnel under the bar that is already on the floor.
If you have not read UEFA’s statement about their choice to reject Munich’s request to light up their stadium in the colors of the rainbow for Wednesday night’s Euro 2020 match against Hungary, the most Germanic parts are below.
Some people have interpreted UEFA’s decision to reject Munich’s request to illuminate the Munich stadium in rainbow colors for a EURO 2020 match as “political”. On the contrary, the request itself was political, linked to the presence of the Hungarian football team. at the arena for tonight’s match with Germany. For UEFA, the rainbow is not a political symbol but a sign of our firm commitment to a more diverse and inclusive society. “
– UEFA
There has been no such public outcry since Lionel Messi put Jerome Boateng on the spin bike at Camp Nou. To take UEFA’s statement at face value, the rainbow is not a political symbol … unless it is displayed in the presence of a national team whose country opposes LGBTQ rights.
You can say “we support gay rights” … unless you tell someone who does not. There have been Hungarian fans with anti-LQBTQ screens in arenas in this tournament, and this week the country passed a law banning “display or marketing of homosexuality” around anyone under 18 years of age. Do you want to be gay on TV? Not until after the stream, buddy!
“The rainbow is everything we believe in, unless it comes up against homophobic ideology, in which case it takes precedence for some reason.” https://t.co/dYyQhixN76
– Will Magee (@W_F_Magee) June 23, 2021
Support that disappears in the presence of opposition is not some form of support at all, but do you know what the toughest part of it all is? Lighting a stadium in the colors of the rainbow for one night does not matter in principle.
On a personal level, like a bee man, absolutely nothing changes if a stadium lights up in a rainbow. It makes no significant difference in my life or the life of almost any other LGBT person in the world. An empty gesture is isolated. Gathering homophobes to gather homophobes is always positive, but if UEFA had said yes to the arena, would they – say – stop giving lucrative matches and finals to countries with homophobic governments and regimes? Would they have used any of their significant economic and political muscle to support LGBTQ communities in places where their security and freedom of speech are at risk?
Not a chance. So honest, sincere, well done UEFA. You have managed to fix a situation that I did not have very strong feelings of so bad. It is impressive. Nice.
Then UEFA did not even have the courage to mention anything about what the rainbow is a symbol of in their statement, apart from some vague waffle about “equality and diversity”. Maybe they’re just anti-NHS and we just did not notice it.
Crying apoliticism is one of the oldest tricks in the book for cowardly organizations who are too afraid to say “in fact, we’d rather throw you under the bus than annoy one of our members something, for … money?”
Look at all the parts of football in 2021. Look at the whole states that buy football clubs to be used as their propaganda weapons. Look at FC Barcelona as a leading force in the Catalan independence movement. Watch the fight in English football to honor the country’s long and often brutal military history with berries of poppies. Look at these and countless other examples and try to justify the idea that football is not political.
Gay rights, then. It’s not political, at least, right? No, it’s just a question used to whip up hatred from right-wing extremist parties, while our rights are being voted on by politicians to appease their support bases and aw prayers gay rights are also political, huh? Everything is political? Existence is in itself political, and if you do not continue to fight for your right to exist, will anyone stand there to whip it out from under you?
I would like some kind of awakening kicker for this article, but you know what? I’m tired. I’m tired of continuing to talk about this kind of thing, tired of constantly having to think about it, tired of lip service being paid for by people who openly enable homophobic modern fascists and evil regimes.
We have at least the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to look forward to.
For more from Chris Deeley, follow him on Twitter at @ ThatChris1209
