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'The sports world should be ashamed of itself'
McKellen: "Sport is very slow to catch up"
Sir Ian McKellen on 'shrinking violet' closeted sports stars
Actor Sir Ian McKellen has condemned the sports world's "shameful" attitude to homosexuality, saying it turns macho stars into "little shrinking violets" fearful of the names and insults fans would use on them if they came out as gay.
In an interview on Radio 5 Live, he told Tony Livesey that sport was not keeping up with the rest of the world.
"The sports world should be ashamed of itself. It's full of all these macho men and strong women who go out and dedicate their lives...
"They're absolutely admirable people in many senses - but when it comes to the business of simply being honest about who they are, some of them become little shrinking violets because they're afraid, probably, of being booed from the terraces, and that must be a horrible experience and shame on the people who do it.
"But it ain't going to stop someone being a fantastic footballer because they're honest about their private lives, is it?
Sir Ian's remarks follow two recent, and almost unprecedented, instances of prominent sportsmen coming out in public.
When Thomas came out, gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said that statistically it was probable that as many as fifty professional footballers in the UK were gay.
