Not seen this posted already, this weekend the Proud Valiants are celebrating one year in existence by hosting a three team tournament.
http://www.cafc.co.uk/news/article/charlton-athletic-vs-homophobia-proud-valiants-3120954.aspx#IyLzIZPjilUu8IXz.99The fact that this group is recognized is one of the things that makes me incredibly proud to be Charlton. It is a great way to both show that the club does not accept homophobia, and, I imagine, to give LGTBQ+ people a solidified, formal place to go and be around people who both love football and are like themselves.
Comments
Do they lift each others shirts when they score a goal?
Etc. etc.
Good to hear about things like this still going on at the club, despite the general shambolic state it is in. Hopefully some of these things can go on at other clubs and start to debunk the myth that it's the fans that are stopping any gay footballers from coming out publically.
Is the correct form : -
Not that they should be a target anymore than the Community Trust, who are playing, or the many other groups who've had charity matches this month.
Nonetheless, it's something to be proud of. If I had gay friends who were starting to get interested in football I would say "look at Charlton, we have a group for supporters who are like you. We're loving and accepting."
Regarding the whole thing that this group is here to vindicate the supporters from the notion that they are what keeps footballers from coming out, I don't think that's what they're here for at all. There is still a lot of homophobia in football, and going on the bits I've read that's what they're here to tackle first. Frankly, the don't owe you, or me, anything. This is a group for them where they can be around people and have a support network of other humans who have the same experience as them.
@LargeAddick (Sorry Henry, accidentally tagged you by mistake) regarding nomenclature, part of me wants to tell you to "get over it and learn to say letters." But on a serious note, this is a community where large numbers of their "members" (for lack of a better term) are still struggling to be included at all. I was chuffed that the club uses the "Q+," as that is a relatively new development.
In the States, we're currently having a national discussion about bathrooms, which is a distraction from the larger conversation that individual states are revoking the rights of the LGTBQ+ community as protected from being discriminated against (i.e. North Carolina's new bill makes it legal for anyone to discriminate against people based on their sexual or gender orientation).
I have a friend who is in academia, "Queer Studies" as she refers to it, and she uses the term "Queer" as an overarching one. Given that it was once a slur, it's still not broadly accepted (and I warn you against using it), but I do see more and more using it as a blanket term.
...just to save time later.
I always thought it was LGBT.
Now I've also heard LGBTQIA - with I = intersex(?) and A = (asexual).
Hard to keep up with the latest thinking on this subject!
+=groups left out, intersexual, asexual, pansexual, etc.
Again, these are not unsubstantial groups of people who are only starting to be recognized, so you will see a fluctuation in accronyms and such given that there isn't (and may never be) an overarching term.
Thanks for asking, it's always nice when someone takes the time to say "I don't know can you please explain."
Bit early
The federal Government, at the order of President Obama, has just made it illegal for anyone doing business with the federal Government to discriminate against people for their sexuality or gender identity. The end goal in this is to hopefully make it so that it is illegal in all of the US to discriminate on these ground.
That's a very simplified version of what's going on. There is a lot of back and forth between state and federal governments, and this is also a big part of the "culture war" in the US. I don't want to get into it here, because it's quite complex just from the legal perspective and I want to keep this about the Valiants and the general accepting culture around CAFC. Happy to start another thread if there's interest to go into what's going on in the US surrounding these issues at present.
When I was about seven, in the early sixties (when homosexuality didn't officially exist), one of my aunts (Ollie) left her husband and started living with another woman - Joyce.
Some of the many family members were appalled and shunned her but my parents remained close and she quickly came back into the wider family circle and was accepted. To me it was simply Auntie Ollie and Uncle Joyce (not taking the piss, honest, that's what we knew her partner as) - and still is. They are still together, now in their late 80s and living in Eltham. And I always like "Uncle Joyce" a hell of a lot more than my aunt's husband.
Should we also add an 'M' for monosexual? And a 'C' for celibate?
LGBTQMC+