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Justin Fashanu (1961 - 1998)
Fashanu was signed in 1982 to Notts County under the more tolerant Howard Wilkinson. Unfortunately, a knee injury later that year became infected, and Fashanu was never as effective a player after this incident. With his performance and popularity declining, and his own personal life suffering because of his closeted existence, Fashanu became a born-again Christian, hoping to dissuade speculation about his sexuality by proclaiming he was now celibate. In fact, he continued to engage in secret trysts with other men, even as he pursued unsuccessful relationships with women and belonged to a church which condemned homosexuality. Fashanu's downward spiral into depression and turmoil merely worsened. In 1990, after a seventeen-year old gay youth Fashanu had befriended was thrown out by his parents and later committed suicide, the football star felt compelled to come out publicly, both to relieve his own burden of self-hate and also in hopes of providing a positive role model for gay and questioning youth. However, his otherwise noble act was tarnished by his acceptance of eighty-thousand pounds for his story, which he was able to sell to a British tabloid only after he fleshed out the interview with tales of sexual liaisons with various Members of Parliament. Fashanu later admitted these to be false, although he did maintain a long-term friendship with former MP candidate and gay activist Peter Tatchell. While many in the gay community praised Fashanu for his courage, black organizations and papers denounced his coming out as an affront to the community, and fans and members of the British football community were quick to voice their own disgust and anger. Even his own brother John, himself a star football player, denounced and disowned Justin after the article appeared. As Fashanu himself noted in his interview, the sport had always been filled with a very deep-seated fear and hatred of gays. After playing with numerous teams, rarely for longer than one season, Fashanu eventually moved to the US, where he coached boy's soccer teams in Ellicott City, Maryland and Conyers, Georgia. In 1998, a seventeen-year old claimed that he had awakened from a drunk to find Fashanu performing oral sex on him. After questioning by the police, Fashanu returned to the UK, where the press quickly picked up the story and reported that US authorities were planning to extradite the athlete and charge him with sexual assault. On 2 May, after spending an evening at the Chariots Roman Spa, a popular London bathhouse whose patrons reported him to have been in high spirits, Fashanu hanged himself from the rafters in a garage in Shoreditch. He was discovered the next day by a worker. Found on Fashanu's person was his Filofax, which contained a suicide message. In it he claimed that the sexual encounter had been consensual and that the youth contacted police only after Fashanu refused to pay him blackmail. The fact that he had only been questioned by police and never, contrary to tabloid reports, formerly charged would seem to support Fashanu's side of the story, and to vindicate him. Many see Justin Fashanu's life and death as an example of the deep-rooted homophobia in professional sports and of how it destroys the lives and careers of many promising athletes. No other British football player has come out as gay in the over ten years since Fashanu did, although Fashanu knew of at least a dozen major football stars who were either gay or bisexual. It is perhaps quite telling that Justin Fashanu was more vehemently denounced for being gay among football fans than his brother was for fixing matches. Cheat 'em, but mustn't kiss 'em. JUSTIN FASHANU - HOMOPHOBIA DESTROYED HIM OutRage! London -- Justin Fashanu
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