'The founding mission is not to exist': Stonewall FC, a pioneering LGBT+ soccer team has changed the sport for gay men, now it's pushing to eradicate homophobia in football
- Founded in 1991, Stonewall FC was the UK's first ever gay men's soccer club and is now the most successful in the world.
- Club chairman Alexander Baker and first-team vice captain Adam Turner spoke to Insider about the club's past and how it continues to be champion for inclusivity.
- Baker and Turner also revealed how they believe social media platforms, the Football Association, and society as a whole all have big roles to play in the fight.
- "People may look at society and think how far the LGBT+ cause has come, but within football it's still got a long way to go," said Turner.
- This story is part of a series from Insider profiling some of the world's most unique and interesting football teams.
A lot has changed for the LGBT+ community in the United Kingdom since the formation of Stonewall FC, the country's first gay men's soccer club, in February of 1991.
Gay marriage has been made legal, transgender people can legally change their gender, and LGBT+ individuals can serve in the armed forces.
Last year, 2.2% of the population, around 1.1 million people, identified themselves as either lesbian, gay, or bisexual.
A lot has changed for Stonewall too. Having started out as a safe space for gay men to have a kick-about in Regent's Park without fear of being abused or even physically attacked, the club is now the most successful of its kind in the world.
It has won 17 major honors, including nine IGLFA (International Gay and Lesbian Football Association) World Cups.
Domestically, the club's first team now plays in the Middlesex County League Premier Division, which lies within the 11th tier of the English soccer pyramid. It also has a second team and a "Unity Team" - which offers an inclusive environment for LGBT+ players of any ability to come and enjoy.
One thing that hasn't changed for Stonewall, however, is its mission: to rid the game of football of homophobia, and more broadly, discrimination in general.
That mission, Stonewall's chairman Alexander Baker says, means that in an ideal world the club wouldn't have to exist. While the club may be "proud" of its role in championing inclusivity, ultimately, it does not want to have to do it.
"It's quite hard running a club where the founding mission is not to exist really," Baker told Insider in an interview. "In an ideal world you wouldn't need a space where people feel safe, they should feel that in any club structure. But while there is still a need, I think there's a key role we can play."
That being said, Baker notes that the club's experiences on the pitch these days are a far cry from those it had when it first started out.
"If you go to the early 1990s and hear the stories of what Stonewall's founders had to endure, it's the most stark contrast from where we are today," Baker told Insider.
"When the team registered for the Sunday league, there was five or six players that went because they were worried that they would get beaten up when they arrived - so they went in a pack to basically have the confidence to do it.
"You hear stories about when they were playing, the derogatory language, spitting, some really meaty tackles. But now things that might have been an issue for older generations are just not an issue for people today."
Adam Turner, vice captain and the self-professed "Wes Brown" of the club's first team, added: "I think in my experience of 10 years, I've only experienced - not personally, but when I've been on the pitch - a handful, or less than a handful, of homophobic comments or experiences.
"It's a real testament to the work the club have done in terms of the footballing ability to really earn the respect from our peers as to who we are from a football perceptive. Our identity as a club is kind of second nature."
While many things on and off the pitch may have changed for the better however, Stonewall's fight for true inclusivity in soccer is still very much alive.
Social media is a "battleground for hate"
Those were the words of Sanjay Bhandari, the chair of English football's equality and inclusion organization Kick It Out, after it published a shocking report last year showing a 95% rise in the reports of abuse based on sexual orientation in the professional game during the 2019/20 season.
At the grassroots level, the organization reported that 41% of fans had witnessed homophobic abuse on social media.
"This year the pandemic and the killing of George Floyd turned the world on its head," said Bhandari.
"Football responded positively with clubs increasing their work in the community and with the players symbolizing the demand for greater equality of opportunity, by taking a knee. But beneath the surface, hate and division in society remains a lurking pernicious threat."
Bhandari added: "Football and social media can be a positive force but in order to tackle online hate, everyone needs to do more."
On a Twitter photo posted by Liverpool FC captain Jordan Henderson in December which depicted him wearing a rainbow armband to show support for the LGBT+ community, hundreds commented with vile homophobic, transphobic, and biphobic remarks.
Below is a screenshot showing a selection of the abuse posted on Henderson's picture.
WARNING: The image contains homophobic sentiments.
Baker says Stonewall's own social accounts have are often subjected to similar abuse.
"On a lot of our social media activity when we do stuff, particularly with our partners, you do see comments below the line that imply there are still some views out there which are not pleasant," he said. "That's probably the most visible arena in which we see the hostility."
Baker added that while platforms such as Instagram and Twitter do have a responsibility to combat such abuse, they ultimately can't be held responsible for people's opinions.
"I think the way that the public debate [around social media platforms] implies that they do have a degree of responsibility for the content that is put on the platforms.
"The platform can ban the content, but they can't ban what people think or feel."
Tackling discrimination in English soccer must come from the top down
The Football Association, English soccer's governing body, has, over past decade, put into place a number of initiatives to help combat homophobia and transphobia, including the production of a "Kick Homophobia Out of Football" film, the funding of PhD research projects into equality, and partnering with police and Crown Prosecution Service to help bring offenders to justice.
The organization has also been an avid supporter of the "Rainbow Laces" campaign, which was launched by LGBT+ charity Stonewall - which has close links to Stonewall FC - in 2013, and has been supported by clubs and players across the country.
However, despite such strategies, the most recent resources available on the FA's website on its plans to tackle homophobia and address inclusivity date from between 2012 and 2014, suggesting it is both behind the curve and that such matters are of secondary importance.
Most worryingly, it was only in December that the organization's former chairman, Greg Clarke, was forced to resign over inappropriate comments that included describing being gay was a "life choice."
"I think it revealed that, for all of the change that has happened within the FA, it obviously hadn't sufficiently taken root at a senior level," Baker said when asked about Clarke's comments.
"You do need people who don't just think it's important to do this because otherwise their job will be on the line, they've got to believe it. You need people who understand and believe it at a senior level."
He added: "It's a really hard thing to change, because football is federated, you know. It's not a single organization that controls football. You've got league structures, you've got county football associations, you've got clubs, and you've got the FA.
"That is a hard nut to crack, but we definitely need some leadership from those in influential positions."
Turner added: "People may look at society and think how far the LGBT+ cause has come, but within football it still has a long way to go, definitely in the professional set up."
The FA did not reply to Insider's request for comment regarding Stonewall's remarks.
Commercial brands could have a huge role to play in the fight too
"Possibly, what we might see is brands who have a commercial interest in football influencing things because they are reflecting their consumers and their consumers care about this stuff," said Baker.
"If that's the way we can achieve some good things, then that would be great."
Stonewall has long been making strides in this arena, having bagged a shirt deal with Adidas in 2016, just shortly after it won a fourth consecutive Gay Games title.
The club's most recent strips, produced by Adidas and launched only last month, are sponsored by EA Sports. The third kit, in which its "Unity Team" plays, is built around the colours of the Trans Pride flag - a design which has attracted interest from all corners of the globe.
"We asked for expressions of interests to see the shirt because we weren't sure we could meet the minimum order size," said Baker. "But we've blown through that multiple times over, and there will be people all over the world, as it turns out, wearing one of our shirts and showing their support.
"We have trans and non-binary people in the club, and they have said its really nice to show that very visible commitment to their identity."
"I think it's been incredible to see and so heartwarming," Turner said. "As someone who has been part of the club for so many years, to see emails from people saying, 'We love your kit, can you ship it to Mexico? Can you ship it to the United States? Can you ship it to Australia?' It's like wow. It makes me so proud."
While support for the club is still growing every day, Baker and the rest of the team at Stonewall knows that their mission is far from over.
"You can change the law, you can change rules, you can change governance structures, but to change people's hearts and minds takes a bit longer," he said.
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