Facing the crowd

Once in a while my mind drifts back to Paris.

It was always one of my favourite places on earth, and one of the last remaining desires that I have is to go back and see it for one last time. There is also the need to exorcise my proverbial demons (being an atheist, I am not going to be persuaded that real demons exist!). The demons? Standing in front of the Montparnasse station with a pain suddenly hammering away in my chest on a Monday evening at the start of May 2008 - strange place to have a heart attack.

Not my last impression of Paris, of course - I went to work in Saint-Ouen for the next two days (heart attack or no heart attack, that was what mattered most at the time!) and caught a train back to Frankfurt on the Thursday morning, which was a public holiday.

Not the way I would want to remember Paris though. There were some great times ....

My taste in French language music showing my age (if I want anything recent, it is invariably Italian!), I went to YouTube and looked for the video of Charles Trenet singing "La Mer".  He wrote the words for this on a train in 1943, and recorded it in 1946. The dates are relatively significant. He was Gay, and persecution of such people was commonplace at the time - though whether in France (occupied or unoccupied), I am not certain. Surviving the war cannot have been that easy for him.

Easier these days? Surviving shouldn't be so difficult. Admitting to it? That in much of Europe (including Germany) depends upon the trade or profession. Politicians of different stripes seem to have no problem with it. The ultraconservative German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle is openly so, as is the Social Democrat mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit.

Professional sports persons on the other hand?

The German women's football (North American =soccer) national team goalkeeper, Nadine Angerer, has admitted to being bisexual. Her male counterparts though are prone to be more circumspect.

A couple of weeks ago a player in the German football league, the Bundesliga, gave an interview to a magazine in which he admitted to being Gay. The first outing in German professional soccer? Not exactly - the interview was given anonymously and nobody (except the magazine involved, who promised not to reveal their source) knows who this player is!

Other media outlets, maybe jealous that they did not get the story themselves, went out to try and find out more. Philipp Lahm, captain of Bayern München and the German national team (and predictably straight) was asked why no professional player would admit to such in the public arena, to which came the reply along the lines of "would you if you had to appear in front of crowds of 80,000 every week?". A slight exaggeration - only Borussia Dortmund, among Bundesliga clubs, have a stadium that is quite that large. 30,000 to 60,000 is more likely!   

Football crowds in Europe have traditionally come from working-class, blue-collar backgrounds, although prices charged for entry to the games in recent years have led to some extent to something of a bourgeoisification in that regard.

I am reminded though of a survey I saw in the "Guardian" in the UK in the 1980s which indicated that working-class communities in the North of England (traditional Labour voting areas) looked less favourably upon Gays than people did in the "stockbroker belt" (Surrey, Buckinghamshire etc.) in the South-East - traditional Conservative voting areas.

The rowdier element of the support at games are known to unleash their venom in no uncertain terms (and not in very polite language) upon opposing players, referees and any player on their own team who is falling short of expectations. Players who are admittedly Gay may find their personal orientations further stoking the fire.

Unfair, unpleasant? Yes. It doesn't happen to politicians? No, but how many times do they appear before crowds of 30,000+.

It actually says more about the crowd than the player. There are enough distractions out there at big games though. There is also the knowledge that some sensitive players live under stress that many of us might not appreciate. In many respects they are already subject to a degree of scrutiny in their personal lives when really our attention span would best be left with regard only to their professional activities.

In which case their personal activities, straight or gay should be their business, not ours!