Local filmmaker gives insight into being gay in the world of football – Newry.ie
Last weekends inaugural Newry Sports Film Festival featured a short film from Whitecross film maker John Reavey that posed the question “Why are there no openly gay footballers?”
The film follows the story of 22 year old Colombian native Alex who lives in London. Alex plays for London Titans and the video shines the spotlight on being gay in the world of football.
The topic proved a great talking point at the festival and many questions were directed to Reavey who recently took the tough decision to come out as gay himself. In answering, the young film maker reflected not only on the football aspect but on his own journey too.
With Belfast Pride happening tomorrow, 30 July it’s an appropriate time to discuss the issue and Reavey is very conscious of being in a position as a film maker where he may be able to help someone struggling with their sexuality, whether a sports player or not.
His short film was created as a university project and it was brought to the attention of football community content creater COPA90.
It was quite a conondrum. When you’re producing a media project you really want to get as much exposure as you can, but on the other hand when you are hiding a secret it’s not that simple.
As Reavey explains “I’d never told anyone about myself and I created this piece and COPA90 said, ‘Well John we’ve got your class project, we’re about to show this to our 2 million subscribers on YouTube’, and there was a part of me saying, I don’t actually want you to release this because my name is attached to a project that has the word gay in the title. People from home might see I have done this and make assumptions about it, and I was terrified, even though I’m not even in the bloody thing.”
The Whitecross man believes that there is still such a long way to go for gay people to be fully able to be theselves in the football sphere, even though 17 year old Blackpool Footballer Jake Daniels recent coming out had a massive impact, with many major footballers giving him support. Daniels is an Academy player but the further you climb the footballing ladder the harder it is to make that decision.
Reavey explains ” I think anyone in the top league who’s currently playing are going to struggle, because having worked in the game and seeing behind the scenes at clubs, agents and managers of players can be really particular with their ‘brand’ image.”
“A coach needs to understand that they have so much impact on a player. It’s really easy for a coach to feel like, the lads are coming to play football and go home, but the reality is different. My coach, I look up to him and what he says. When I’m low in confidence I almost rely on him to get me back up, to be back on the pitch again. It’s trying to understand your players on and off the pitch if possible.”
“I never felt comfortable coming out when I was growing up in Whitecross. All my mates, none of them were LGBT, not one. We all joked in the dressing room but it was the stage where it didn’t feel like jokes anymore. I’m all for banter, I love ripping into anybody because I think everything should be joked about in the right light but I definitely think growing up in a toxic masculine environment, it was probably the stage where it was borderline homophobia and that definitely made me feel uncomfortable.” he said.
Reavey thinks it seems to be more accepted for women footballers as there are many ‘out’ league players. Toxic masculinity seems to be a big issue in the mens sport. “I think they’re definitely on a better wavelength than the mens game”
“If you’re a young girl growing up, or if you’re a fan of the women’s sport, if you are seeing that the best player in the game is gay and has a girlfriend who also is one of the best players, that’s going to make you feel comfortable in yourself and I think that’s what the mens game is lacking.”
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One thing I had to come to terms with about myself is that I had it very under control in my early stages. I first started understanding my own sexuality about 16 or 17 and I was telling select people, I could count on my fingers, and then my other friends started finding out without me knowing and the fact that I lost control of it was wrecking me. I was really struggling mentally, it was such a task but the reality is that once you rip that plaster off and you actually say, I’m going to accept this, everybody that wants to come at me, come ahead. It’s the same with anything, when you have any sort of insecurity in life.” he said.
To make positive change Reavey believes it’s people at the top level of their sport who will make the biggest difference for people trying to deal with their sexuality in a sporting context. “I think it’s about the top level showing that representation, because when we look at something like swimming and Tom Daly the top tier performer there is openly gay. The second anyone that’s younger than him comes out, it’s like, aw-well that’s cool, and it also doesn’t define who you are because you have seen someone go to that top level who is like you, whereas when anyone comes out who is part of the community and not at that top level, there’s always that doubt, for example Jake Daniels, oh can you get to the top level now that you’re gay.
“People will always think that and it’s about someone at the top level representing the community and showing it can be done.”