For three consecutive seasons now, the French Professional League has tried to coerce all players who play in the league into participating in pro-gay campaigns which the league administrators organise annually to commemorate the International Day against Homophobia.
During the 3rd weekend game in May every year, the French League directs all clubs playing in its league to print and wear jerseys with rainbow-coloured numbers and to snap pictures with rainbow-coloured banners to support what the league calls an “anti-homophobia campaign”.
Being a league populated by players from different cultures, religions, and beliefs, the imposition of the anti-homophobia campaign on all clubs and players by the French League has been a subject of heated controversy. Some players, particularly African and Muslim players have been reluctant to comply with the directive due to their cultural and religious beliefs.
In 2022, Senegal’s midfielder, Idris Gueye Gana (Muslim), boycotted the anti-homophobia campaign by refusing to play for his then club, Paris Saint-German (PSG), with any jersey carrying the rainbow insignia. Irked by his stout refusal to participate in their pro-gay campaign, the French football authorities severely persecuted and victimised Idris Gana until the latter left PSG and France and signed for Everton in England.
But despite all the hostilities targeted at Idris Gana by the French League which were meant to muffle any dissenting voice against the league’s pro-gay campaign or to deter other players from daring to opt out of the pro-gay campaign, the one-man revolt staged by Idris Gana in 2022 emboldened other players, who had earlier been cowed into submission by the high-handedness of the French League, to undertake similar protests against the oppressive directives of the French League.
Last year, several players, including Moroccan defender, Zakaria Aboukhlal and Egyptian striker, Mostafa Mohamed, elected against playing for their clubs with rainbow-coloured jerseys during the League’s commemoration of the 2023 International Day against Homophobia.
Not prepared to grant any player the discretion to opt out of its pro-gay campaign, the French league has been dishing out all manner of sanctions against some of the players who declined their invitation to participate in the anti-homophobia campaign.
Recently, the French league imposed a 4-match ban on Mali’s midfielder, Mohamed Camara, because the player covered up an anti-homophobia message inscribed on his jersey by his club to commemorate the 2024 International Day against Homophobia.
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The way and manner the French League has been coercing players to participate in its pro-gay campaigns sums up the hypocritical attitude of the West on the embattled issue of gay and LGBT rights. In a bid to impose their beliefs on the rest of the world, the West has forgotten that, just like them, every other individual is entitled not just to the right to hold a belief but also to the right to his beliefs being respected by others.
It reeks of sheer insincerity and double standards that it is the same French League which claims to be advocating for the freedom of expression or the right to hold a belief by a group of individuals i.e. the LGBT community that still turns around to punish other individuals for similarly holding or expressing their religious or cultural beliefs.
The French League cannot pretend not to know that most of the players who refused to participate in its pro-gay campaigns come from communities or belong to religions which forbid homosexuality. For example, Egyptian striker, Mostafa Mohamed, who is one of the players being persecuted by the French league for mustering the courage to boycott the pro-gay campaigns took to Twitter (now X) to defend his cultural and religious beliefs thus:
“Given my roots, my culture, [and] the importance of my convictions and beliefs, it was not possible for me to participate in this campaign. I hope that my decision will be respected as well as my wish not to argue about this and that everyone is treated with respect.”
Just as demanded by Mostafa in the above-quoted tweet, the least the French League could do is to allow players who feel uncomfortable identifying with the LGBT community in any way to opt out of the anti-homophobia campaign.
I say this because I know that, regardless of the propaganda of the West, the acceptance or rejection of homosexuality as a sexual orientation very much depends on the personal beliefs of the individual.
While those who believe in homosexuality do so based on their beliefs that there is nothing wrong with their sexual orientation, those who oppose it similarly do so based on their conviction that it is taboo or against the order of nature.
Thus, until France and the rest of the West learn to respect the beliefs of those who are opposed to homosexuality with the same measure with which they defend those who practice or believe in it, I will continue to roll my eyes around their posturing as vanguards of human rights and freedoms.
