Through the sea of rainbow colours that illuminate the streets outside The Curve theatre in Leicester on Pride day, one colour stands out.
The Foxes Pride, a group of LGBT supporters, are flying the rainbow flag on Leicester Pride day, united by the common cause of tackling homophobia in football and making stadiums a safer place for the LGBT community. But they are also united by a love of Leicester City blue.
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They stand patiently, while music blares around them at the annual gathering of the LGBT community and their supporters, who range in age from young children to the elderly, from multiple ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientation.
Even the Leicestershire police and other emergency services are getting in the mood as the parade waits to depart, donning multi-coloured garlands of flowers while the Foxes Pride members are passing out button badges complete with the City crest and the rainbow. This is about as inclusive a gathering from all sections of the community as you can get.
Football has become more inclusive in recent years, with more families and ethnic minorities feeling comfortable and confident to support their teams – as has the LGBT community. But there is still a lot of work to be done to rid society and the game of the prejudice that makes so many feel they have to be protected.
Racism has reared its ugly head again recently, especially on social media, as Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford and Tammy Abraham have experienced, and players are becoming increasingly empowered to tackle the issue collectively when racism manifests itself inside stadiums.
Those who shout racist abuse during matches are often vilified by those around them. It is unacceptable and incredibly hurtful to those sitting near. However, homophobic abuse is rife too, and often goes ignored, as Graeme Smith, the founder of Foxes Pride, explains.
“I feel safe, but I feel uncomfortable and upset when I hear people using homophobic and anti-LGBT language at the football,” says the 41-year-old headteacher and season-ticket holder, who is marching with his husband Paul.
“I feel uncomfortable when there are incidents of homophobic chanting, particularly against Brighton.
“It simply isn’t OK, but it seems to be tolerated by other fans in a way that the use of racist or other defamatory language isn’t. It is very easy for someone to shout, if a player has fallen on the floor, ‘Get up you poofter’ or ‘Get up you fairy’. But that is not OK.
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“What is missing is fan education. I don’t think anyone would disagree that when you are at football there is lots of stuff about using racist language all over the stadium, and defamatory language, and rightly so, but you don’t see anything about homophobic language. That is something that still needs to happen.”
As the parade of more than 2,000 people set off to march through the city centre, the Foxes Pride group take their place in the masses, proudly displaying their flag as the crowds wind their way up to Victoria Park, the scene of the title-winning celebrations in 2016 when 240,000 gathered to celebrate City’s incredible victory.
That day was another which every member of the Leicester community embraced.
(l-r) Graeme Smith, Ste Calvert, Matt Chessell, Mags Keatman, Sharon Jacques, Jake Harrison, Michelle Keatman, Daniel O’Hare
Foxes Pride were formed when Smith, whose second date with Paul was the 1-1 home draw against Peterborough in December 2011, challenged the club over their lack of participation in the Rainbow Laces campaign in 2014 and quickly found there were like-minded members of the fanbase and LGBT community.
“When I first started going down, it was fine,” he recalls, as we walk past the city centre bars where other supporters are enjoying their regular pre-match refreshments, many looking on in bewilderment as the parade passes by to pumping music delivered from mobile speakers dragged along within the crowds by volunteers.
“I sat in the Double Decker of the Kop (at Filbert Street) and I just really enjoyed the atmosphere and the football. I enjoyed the family sense of being at the football, and I started going more regularly because of that atmosphere.
“I enjoyed being part of something bigger.
“I hadn’t come out when I first started going. I only came out when I was 30, 11 years ago now. It never was an issue and wasn’t something I was conscious of, but as I have grown more confident in my sexuality and grown more confident as a Leicester City fan, I have become more confident and more open about my sexuality at the football. It is how I found out about fan groups.
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“That is how Foxes Pride was formed, when they didn’t do the Rainbow Laces in 2014. It was formed as a result of that. I realised how important it was to be visible, not just for myself but for other LGBT fans to feel safe at the football as well.”
The club admitted it was an oversight on their part and pledged to help him get in touch with other LGBT fans and they began to meet regularly to discuss their shared concerns about some of the comments they hear at games and to work with the club to try to change attitudes.
“The thing about language is it is the person who hears it which is the important bit,” adds Smith, who had the Fox Horn Gallop played at his wedding. “If it offends someone, it is not OK. You don’t know who you are sitting next to.
“I am a teacher and in a class of 30 children you don’t know if someone is gay or not. They might be. If they are and they hear someone using that sort of language it is not going to make them feel comfortable or safe. It is the same at football. If someone is using homophobic or anti-LGBT language there could be someone next to you who is LGBT and how is that going to make them feel? That is not OK. “
There are no comments directed towards the marchers by the other City supporters watching on from outside the bars of the city centre. Many walk over to say hello when the congested march comes to a momentary halt and they spot the City crest on the Foxes Pride flag.
But sadly, it’s not the same online. Posts by the club and Foxes Pride on social media are monitored during the day and there are abusive replies, which have to be removed.
Those posters may hide behind anonymity as they spout their bile, but Smith has experienced it inside stadiums as well, most notably during City’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Atletico Madrid in Spain.
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It should have been one of the most memorable nights of Smith’s City-loving life, but it was tainted.
“When we were in Madrid in the Champions League, there was a person in front of us who for the entire match used language like ‘you gay C’ and ‘you are an effing gay so-and-so’,” Smith politely recalls as the march resumes.
“That was 90 minutes of constant homophobic abuse. I was sat with some other friends who were LGBT and it just wasn’t a nice experience. It made me feel very uncomfortable.
“We are still trying to identify who that person was three years later.”
The members of Foxes Pride are heading down to King Power Stadium after the march to join the rest of the fans ahead of the game against Bournemouth. While they are parading, the City players are having a team photo taken with the group’s flag.
Smith and his fellow members are delighted by this show of support, and with a number of players, such as Jamie Vardy, backing the Rainbow Laces campaign. The players have also donated a shirt, signed by all the players, which has been raffled off and raised £426.
But this is, hopefully, just the start. Foxes Pride hope the squad will go on to do even more to tackle homophobia, just as they have with racism.
“That is something that has to happen,” adds Smith.
Never before had a match official stopped a game to draw attention to discrimination from the stands.
A small step and a giant leap: the 20-second pause in a Brazilian league game, and what it means for the fight against homophobia | @jacklang https://t.co/igiu3TF6dt
— The Athletic UK (@TheAthleticUK) August 30, 2019
“It has started in France now, where if there is homophobic chanting the referees are actually stopping the games. That has happened two or three times in the French leagues and fans have been revolting against that, which is concerning. But that is what needs to happen and when players hear it they need to call it out.
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“People have to realise that calling out homophobic behaviour doesn’t make you LGBT yourself. It makes you an ally. It is just the same as calling out racist behaviour.
“I think in particular players need to have that appreciation and get more involved in pushing that message out. They did that thing where they all turned their social media off for a day, which was great. Really good. Why not do that for the LGBT cause?”
Smith also understands why any gay professional footballers currently playing may feel unsafe to come out, although he believes it would be huge for the LGBT cause.
“It would be a really positive message sent out,” he adds.
“Not just the message but the response would be positive from other people around the game, I believe. You only have to look at Keegan Hirst in Rugby League and Steven Davies in cricket and Robbie Rogers at LA Galaxy. There have been positive responses from their team-mates and fans.
“I really hope that when it happens (in UK football) the reaction will be so positive it will be a game-changer.
Standing at 6ft 2in, with his rainbow garland strung over his white Leicester City away shirt, former TA soldier Rishi Madlani, a 37- year-old Londoner who has embraced City as his club, is concerned the uglier sides of football are reappearing.
“I am very aware that it is a double for me and I am so upset that we have started to see racism back in the game again,” he said.
“We are a very febrile society now and football sometimes reflects that. I don’t think we would hear racist chants at Leicester and I have seen people called out for comments that they misheard and thought were racist chants. That’s the kind of place Leicester is. That is why I am so at home here. It is very inclusive.
“The players are proactive about stamping out racism now, but 10 years ago the backing that (Raheem) Sterling and others have got would not have happened, not so vociferously and not from every player.
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“I have never had a bad experience at Leicester. It is an example of how an integrated society should work.”
Joining the Foxes Pride members on the march are City’s supporter liaison officer Jim Donnelly, who first took the call from Smith in 2014 and has been working with them ever since.
Smith says the club, in general, have been “amazing” and have acted as a conduit to improve the atmosphere.
But there is still work to be done.
Michelle Keatman, who attends games with her wife and is holding the group’s flag proudly as they march, admits the ideal situation would be if the LGBT community didn’t feel they needed a safety-in-numbers approach.
“I guess it is a shame (groups are needed) but it has always been that way and while it is improving with LGBT networks, I don’t think it will be 100 percent perfect,” she said.
“In the women’s game there are a lot of out players. They are not ashamed to be out, but in the men’s game it is a lot tougher.
“It has been a long time since Justin Fashanu came out and that was not a good story (Fashanu committed suicide in 1998). I think gay footballers may still be attached to that. With all the chants that go on in the stands, they may feel it would not be a safe place for them.
“That’s why we have to keep inspiring through the Foxes Pride.”
(Photo: Plumb Images/Leicester City via Getty Images)