Watch This Beautiful Video of a Soccer Player Coming Out to Cheers
We’re always up for a good, heartwarming gay sports story. And this story of a BBC reporter and soccer player coming out is definitely one of them. Richie Anderson was working on a story about homophobia in soccer for the news magazine program The One Show.
Though his teammates knew he was filming them for a story about soccer, they didn’t know the subject. But after winning a game 7-2 Anderson decided it was time to come clean about his story’s subject — and come out in the process.
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In the locker room after the game, Anderson calls his teammates around:
Boys, before you go, I just wanted to have a quick chat with you all. One of the big issues that we’ve looked at this week — sorry — it’s really close to my heart. It’s homophobia in football. And the reason why that means a lot to me is I’m a gay footballer. So I just wanted to kind of be open and honest because with you lot, it’s just been class. And, I, this is really hard for me to do now. But I kind of felt …
At this moment Anderson’s teammates cut him off — by applauding. In a chorus of praise, they shake Anderson’s hand and hug him.
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Afterward, the camera crew gets shots of his teammates talking about Anderson’s coming out, and supported him. One of his teammates said, “It probably doesn’t mean as much to us as it does to him. So, I’m really proud for him to be able to come out and say what he said, and for the lads to be as supportive as they were.”
At the end of the video, Anderson talks about how relieved he was, adding “I expected it, because they’re a good bunch of lads. […] But the main thing I hope there’s people watching this, who are in the same boat that I was in, and they’re thinking, ‘You know what? I can do that as well.’”
Well said.
Watch the BBC reporter and soccer player coming out video below:
'It's time to tell my team-mates I'm gay'. We're really proud of our presenter @richie_anderson who appeared on the One Show last night. Watch the full film about homophobia in grass roots football here https://t.co/JXex5cDdCc pic.twitter.com/H3itc5rMj7
— BBC WM 95.6 (@bbcwm) January 23, 2018
