to think it's ridiculous for football player in Qatar to want to protest about LGBT rights?

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when they are playing in stadiums built by migrant workers in appalling conditions? Plus, to me it seems the height of cultural imperialism to go to other countries and expect them to adopt out moral stances.

It's been a proper shit show,hopefully this will be the last time they award a tournament to a medieval hellhole.

I won't hold my breath though.

Bots and trolls pushing homophobic and misogynistic agendas are out in full force all over the internet in relation to the World Cup in Qatar. They have swamped the comments sections of British newspaper’s websites and Facebook. I am pretty certain mumsnet also has it’s fair share. Some of these comments are absolutely not in the spirit of mumsnet….

this thread is so beyond depressing
it’s not a competition of minorities/oppressed groups

there are also many many people who belong to multiple groups (e.g Female, lgbtq people, living in countries where these traits are penalised). You don’t have to pick one to support! Or one to think is worthy and one not. Lots of people are affected by multiple layers of discrimination. It’s called intersectionality.

discrimination of ‘the other’, ‘less ideal’ group is the basically the same across the board. we are not against each other.

And ffs being pro the lgbt community and it’s progression Is basic human rights. It’s not a political or cultural stance or agenda. It’s peoples right to live as who they are.

The one love armband is intended to be a unification symbol and condemnation of all,discrimination. Although I appreciate the LGBT rainbow symbolism has been the focus of most commentary.

Sport. Religion. Politics. Culture. It's inevitably going to be messy. Kudos to individuals trying to have a voice above the FIFA/Qatar leadership lines. I thought the Iranians were so brave.

I was surprised at some of the anti gay comments on here. Not what I thought I'd read on MN.

"Quatar has a culture that should be respected."

Why should we respect a culture that despises women, has no problem with slavery and imprisons and kills people because of their sexuality? A culture that only benefits straight men?

Anyone who respects that needs to take a good hard look at themselves.

If you were waiting to hold it someone with a perfect human rights record it wouldn't happen. I can't see a problem with people speaking about the issues.

In any event, every last person using a phrase as stupid, narrow and mean-spirited as 'virtue signalling' would have used it if they'd said they wouldn't play, or indeed had taken any other action whatsoever other than silent acquiescence. These types always think anyone challenging the status quo in any way is doing it wrong, and never engage with the actual issue itself.

Exactly.

As a gay person, sadly some of the comments I have seen on MN recently are very similar to ones I would usually see on MN, just not quite as often.

I thought you were going to say it was hypocritical as they are taking part.

But your argument is a little like all lives matter. They shouldn't be talking about LGTB+ rights because the workers? Would it be better to you if they said nothing about anyone?

It shoudl all be taked about - LGTB+, the workers, women, the entire lack of human rights. The world cup should never have been there.

Agree 100%
Personally I would not watch it as I have less than zero interest in a game where people dive cheat and cry all the time anyway
What does p me off is the idiot Rashford who constantly goes on about poverty and how the govt let him down ( not his own father who left his family with no money of course - it is the taxpayers who should have paid for him, )about discrimination, but he is happy to take money to play in a state where there is enormous slave labour and discrimination.
So to him only poor black people seem to matter - not LGBT rights - not gay rights - not workers right
Total hypocrite

‘I was surprised at some of the anti gay comments on here. Not what I thought I'd read on MN.’

unfortunately I’m not, but i do think it’s a reflection of the U.K. as a whole. Homophobia is still rampant and something that may gay people experience on a daily basis.
ANY thread on MN with gay people mentioned often tends to descend into wahtaboutery, homophobic comments or down an anti trans rabbit hole.

Why should anyone respect laws that are abhorrent?

YABU. I am loving the protests. Anything that shines the light on persecution and discrimination is fine by me.

I think it's ridiculous because men's football (in England at least) has an environment where players can't/won't come out.

What’s your point? The only gay people in the world are white men? That being gay reduces human beings to a sex act?

Yes, it is pretty hypocritical.

I've a very faint hope that at least some of the mass of fans will be affronted by their teams being threatened with punishment for supporting gay rights (that's what's primarily at issue directly relevant to the men's game) and this may paradoxically make homophobia in their ranks a bit less acceptable at home.

Fwiw I absolutely support Gay Rights. But I would never go to another country and demand that they changed their laws to suit my moral compass. Because I'M RIGHT and you're backward and wrong. And no, that doesn't make me homophobic.

I agree with PP that it is all hypocritical of UK players and officials considering the number of out gay professional players here.

I'm sure the Qatar government are crying into their piles of cash at the thought of some rainbow armbands.

No one is demanding they change their laws, sadly that is not going to happen any time soon. People are supporting the LBGTQ community. You shouldn’t need a ‘moral compass’ to support such basic human rights.

It would have been much better if the teams hadn't gone. Do you think the teams and individuals who boycotted South Africa during apartheid were wrong?

No sorry. These players aren't like most Olympians, for example, most of whom, at best, eke out a living based on their sporting talent while many others work a different job and have hundreds of people snapping at their heels who they could be replaced by without most people noticing. These are professional footballers. Some of the most highly paid, influential and known about people in Europe, if not the planet. If they had collectively said no, and refused to go to Qatar, it wouldn't have happened. But of course they wouldn't, because European football is flooded with middle Eastern money and their enormous salaries, depend on playing nice with regimes that have appalling human rights records.

So they will virtue signal a bit now, so they can look good to our general public. But they won't do anything real to protest it, because they would be compromising a portion of their potential for vast wealth if they do.

Like other posters, I believe that it should not have been held in Qatar.
But I am uncomfortable with the assumption that we are Right. It's as though the British Empire never went away.

It's not about a moral stance, or a cultural difference though, is it, it's about basic human rights.

"but the gays are ok as long as they don't act gay" isn't really a great argument is it - would you be happy as a heterosexual person to live in a country where you weren't able to have a relationship, talk about your relationships, have any kind of family/friend/colleague discussion about your relationship? Where you had to keep it hidden or have a sham relationship with someone you weren't remotely interested in just so you didn't go to prison or get thrown off a building? Where how you felt every single day was universally thought of as perverse and something that the rest of the community needed to be protected from? Just because of who you love, who is another consenting adult?

Like the previous poster said, have you ever tried to go on holiday with your partner and not appear as a couple, or experienced people scrutinising you because they want to know what the nature of your relationship is?

Everyone on this thread is fully able to go out and protest women's rights and slave labour - those that are saying these should be the issue at the forefront, what have you physically actively done to protest these things? If you don't like the fact that LGBT lobby has a loud voice then get out there and add yours to the cause you want to champion - it's not a pie, if one protest has a big slice, the other issues don't get smaller slices.

And for the poster saying it's all about white men wanting anal sex or whatever you said - seriously, grow up.

Do you think the teams and individuals who boycotted South Africa during apartheid were wrong?
No, because they didn't go. To go and still object is pathetic, especially as they tacitly pass over the construction issues .