L.A. Galaxy soccer player Robbie Rogers, one of the few openly gay athletes in professional sport, talked to GQ.com about FIFA and gay rights, the reaction to his recent op-ed in USA Today about the subject, other gay athletes and the homophobia he experienced before coming out.
As FIFA gears up to host the next two World Cups in Qatar and Russia—countries with terrible track records on gay rights, Rogers, upset at FIFA’s willingness to hop in bed with regressive regimes, wrote a scathing op-ed for USA Today on the subject. “[T]he message FIFA sends to gay athletes is painfully clear. Not only don’t they have our backs, our lives don’t matter… [and] being open about their sexuality could have real consequences when they set foot in countries with laws that could land them in jail,” Rogers wrote.
Rogers told GQ that his goal was, “… to create a dialogue with FIFA and convince them to create guidelines for how they choose countries to host the World Cup going forward, so that they only pick countries that ensure the safety of all the athletes and all the fans.”
“I would hope that FIFA would be sensitive not only to gay rights but also women’s rights and basic human rights,” continued Rogers, “and they should pick host countries for the World Cup based on what’s best for the competition—that’s what the athletes and fans want.”
For the full story check out the April edition of GQ here.
If a dialogue with FIFA does not work then perhaps blocking money contributions to FIFA will.