Stooper When Gareth Thomas came out, most of the Rugby community reacted with "So what?"
If an international footballer came out, expect terrace chants aplenty, a la Sol. Hence the segregation.....much as I love football, the small-minded mentality of some fans give it a bad name. And it ain't gonna change anytime soon.
They said that about racism in the 80s, and what really changed it wasn't actually any campaigns like Kick It Out or Show Racism the Red Card etc.
It was that society changed and it simply became unacceptable to the vast majority of other people in the stands. Those who did it trying to look big suddenly realised that they weren't getting the kudos they expected - instead they were getting the exact opposite. These days there's largely "self-policing" against racism in most stands.
Whether public opinion has change enough for the same to happen with homophobia is another thing - certainly in mainstream society being gay is perfectly acceptable (*) but I do wonder if it will take a player coming out to change things. The ideal would be for a number to come out - statistically there are several at every club, so if they came out en masse I'm sure that would change everything.
(*) With the exception of little boys worried about their own sexuality.
