Zander Murray, Scottish Pro Soccer Player, Comes Out as Gay – Them

“You’re living in fear 24/7, I can’t explain it. You’re hiding your phone in case you get messages from friends, constantly double checking, if you have a team night out, you’re cautious with what you’re saying,” Murray said.

Although Murray began “a drip feed” of coming out to friends and family in April, he said he “ was terrified that my team-mates, colleagues, opponents, people on social media would not take it well.” Thankfully, he said, “[e]veryone in that dressing room is treating me the exact same.”

That’s not idle worry on Murray’s part, though. Justin Fashanu, the first British senior-level player to come out as gay in 1990, was relentlessly hounded by press and his fellow players from the day he came out until his death by suicide in 1998. But those days of open homophobia in soccer seem to be drawing to a close, if slowly. Last year, Josh Cavallo became Australia’s first out gay player, and more LGTBQ+ players in leagues around the world are stepping up to be visible role models in their sport.

“The younger generations having these people to look up to and going, ‘Ok, there’s thriving gay men in this world’, I think that’s important because I never had that growing up and that’s probably a part of why it took me so long,” Murray told Sky Sports.

“You can live your full life and not be fearful of anything,” he added. “If I can play a small part on the younger generations and current players’ lives to inspire them and not do what I did, then it is one of my life ambitions complete.”

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