[LTLF]Tomorrow is Justin Fashanu Day

[LTLF]

Tomorrow is Justin Fashanu Day


I thought I would make a quick post to acknowledge Justin Fashanu Day, an initiative by the Justin Campaign to mark the anniversary of the former Forest player’s death.
Justin, one of football’s most tragic figures, committed suicide 11 years ago tomorrow (2 May), hence the commemorative day.

The Justin Campaign is a gay rights organisation which [...]


http://www.ltlf.co.uk/forest/2009/05/01/justin-fashanu-day-gay-footballers/

 

[Daniel]

Ironic, after so many months of squeaky bum clenching, this is the day we can relax

 

[thehockleyhustler]

I'm sure it is a campaign that Mark supports....

 

[Lovejoy's Hair Island]

I'm sure it is a campaign that MarkI supports....

 

[DanR]

As a tribute, Dan will be taking us to NG1 tomorrow night.

 

[Major Oak Morgan]

It is a tragic story, and one that highlights the nasty side of Cloughie.

Fantastic manager with unsurpassed charisma and a fantastic orator....... but a bit of a racist homophobe by all accounts.

 

[winnits]

It is a tragic story, and one that highlights the nasty side of Cloughie.

Fantastic manager with unsurpassed charisma and a fantastic orator....... but a bit of a racist homophobe by all accounts.

I don't think it's fair to bring race into it, Fashanu was indeed black - as were a number of other players who thrived under Clough.

The homophobe comment is probably pushing it a bit far too, I think Clough recognised and regretted his treatment of Fashanu, which may well have been motivated by a discomfort of his sexuality - however, think about the prevailing attitudes at the time, and Clough's background being northern and working class.

Had Fashanu taken Clough's barbed comments differently and become an amazing footballer then his chiding would have been lauded as genius, which would have been as wrong as suggesting that it lead directly to his demise. Fashanu was a flawed and depressed person, and it's true that Clough didn't work out how best to deal with him, but I don't think that made him either inherently racist or homophobic.

 

[Major Oak Morgan]

Don't want to knock the legend - he's a hero of mine too.

My workmate went to one of those "an evening with" after dinner type things at which Brian was speaking and said he had to leave because of the atrocious amount of racism Cloughie was spouting.

Admittedly it was when he was big on the bottle, but still.

The same workmate, however, failed to get tickets to an FA cup final, wrote to Cloughie, and got a couple of tickets gratis off Old Big Ed........ rough with the smooth I s'pose.

Take your point about the homophobe comment.... It was a different world back then....... but didn't Cloughie refuse to let Justin train with the other players?

 

[Alexandro Garibaldi]

think about the prevailing attitudes at the time, and Clough's background being northern and working class

[...]

I don't think that made him either inherently racist or homophobic.

I think there's a contradiction in that. Racism and homophobia aren't genetic. It's all about attitudes. If you were brought up a racist, that's as inherently racist as you can be. Same with homophobia.

Brian's prejudices may have been founded in his upbringing, but it doesn't mean those attitudes shouldn't be condemned - by doing so we're not censuring Brian personally, but the attitudes prevalent in his era.

 

[winnits]

I think there's a contradiction in that. Racism and homophobia aren't genetic. It's all about attitudes. If you were brought up a racist, that's as inherently racist as you can be. Same with homophobia.

Brian's prejudices may have been founded in his upbringing, but it doesn't mean those attitudes shouldn't be condemned - by doing so we're not censuring Brian personally, but the attitudes prevalent in his era.

I don't think there's a contradiction, it's about intent. I know what I mean anyway

I agree his conduct towards Fashanu was inappropriate - he knew it too latterly. It just seemed odd to cite that as an example of him being racist particularly without any further qualification (which was then forthcoming after).

Anyway, sod it, it's friday and I can't say I'm that arsed about it!

 

[Jonathan]

I know a couple of the guys who work with/run the Justin campaign from Brighton (Don't even bother with the jokes) and they play for the Brighton gay men's team in a national league.

I tried to get some interest/help with the cause this time last year because they came in and did a talk during a lecture at uni the Tuesday after the Yeovil game, but all I got were people making stupid comments about me being gay (which I'm not, by the way) because I was just trying to help out some people who were passionate about certain subjects.

One of the guys I'm talking about is from Bullwell and is a massive Forest supporter but moved from the city because he couldn't fully be accepted and feels so much more comfortable down here.

I think it's a very worthy cause, personally.

 

[Annesley Red]

he didnt try to help himself and thats 90% of the problem he had , he also didnt give 100% on the pitch for the wages he was getting either

 

[garibaldi]

It is a tragic story, and one that highlights the nasty side of Cloughie.

Fantastic manager with unsurpassed charisma and a fantastic orator....... but a bit of a racist homophobe by all accounts.

So he's like most blokes then.

 

[Jonathan]

he didnt try to help himself and thats 90% of the problem he had , he also didnt give 100% on the pitch for the wages he was getting either

I don't think it's just about Fashanu anymore though; it's more about the acceptance of homosexual men as both footballers and football fans.

 

[It's Baggio]

Mince for dinner, then.

 

[Darth Pierre]

are there any other gay footballers?

 

[Anatoli]

It is a tragic story, and one that highlights the nasty side of Cloughie.

Fantastic manager with unsurpassed charisma and a fantastic orator....... but a bit of a racist homophobe by all accounts.

WRONG.
Take that back.

 

[Anatoli]

Never mind the fact that he was gay or black or a lesbian disabled jewish muslim gypsy or whatever. The simple facts were that we paid a lot of money for him and he did not perform for us. He was not good enough.

It's the football that counts.

 

[winnits]

I don't think it's just about Fashanu anymore though; it's more about the acceptance of homosexual men as both footballers and football fans.

Don't most people accept that anyway? How does the campaign aim to improve this?

And if it's not about Fashanu why does it bear his name?

I might have a campaign to increase awareness of football fans with BO and call it the Ebby campaign.

 

[Dude.]

Pretty certain there is mention in one of Cloughies books that he regretted not giving Fashanu more help and support through his troubles.

On the other hand when he got sent off while playing for Counteh he didn't receive much help or support from the Forest fans at the time.

 

[stany]

Bit awkward at shower/bath time after the match imo. Don't need players like that in the squad. :wink:

 

[flipper]

Bit awkward at shower/bath time after the match imo. Don't need players like that in the squad. :wink:

: That old chestnut, well done....

 

[stany]

: That old chestnut, well done....

True though. 8)

 

[HEANOR RED]

The shittest player ever to paly for forest bar none.

 

[Major Oak Morgan]

The s**ttest player ever to paly for forest bar none.

A good point well made.