Idrissa Gueye and the tyranny of compelled speech
by Fraser Myers, spiked:
The footballer has been ordered to apologise for refusing to don a rainbow shirt.
The LGBT rainbow flag is ubiquitous these days. It adorns pedestrian crossings, police cars and primary-school playgrounds. It has even found its way on to the football pitch in recent years. Players have worn rainbow laces and rainbow numbers on their shirts, and Munich’s Allianz Arena is often lit up in a rainbow-light display.
The LGBT rainbow flag is ubiquitous these days. It adorns pedestrian crossings, police cars and primary-school playgrounds. It has even found its way on to the football pitch in recent years. Players have worn rainbow laces and rainbow numbers on their shirts, and Munich’s Allianz Arena is often lit up in a rainbow-light display.
One footballer – Idrissa Gueye, who plays for Paris Saint-Germain and Senegal – is apparently uneasy about all this. He was absent from a game on Saturday in which players wore rainbow-patterned numbers on their shirts, ahead of the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia on 17 May.
PSG head coach Mauricio Pochettino said Gueye had been excused from Saturday’s game for ‘personal reasons’. It was immediately reported that this was due to the rainbow shirts. Gueye missed the same event last year as well, citing gastroenteritis.
Gueye’s alleged boycott has drawn fury from the higher-ups of football. The French Football Federation (FFF) has written to Gueye demanding an explanation. It has ordered him to either ‘issue an apology’ or to make clear that rumours of his opposition to the rainbow flag are ‘unfounded’. ‘In refusing to take part in this collective initiative you are validating discriminatory behaviour’, said the FFF in a letter.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
