I can’t stop smiling, says LGBTQ+ fan after Blackpool player comes out

An LGBTQ+ football fan said they “can’t stop smiling” after a Blackpool player became the first professional in the men’s game to come out as gay in 30 years.

Jake Daniels, 17, released a statement on Monday saying he has always known he is gay and that he was ready to “come out and be myself”.

For Joe White, co-chair of Pride In Football, a network of UK LGBTQ+ fan groups, it was a big moment.

Describing their feelings to PA, they said: “It’s just a lot of amazement, awe at Jake, and it’s just wonderful.

“I can’t stop smiling whenever we’re talking about it so I think that says it all.”

Mx White said that when they were younger football was “not a welcoming place” for LGBTQ+ people.

“I’d go to games and you’d hear homophobic chanting, homophobic slurs,” they said.

“And when you realise that, actually, those words are about someone like you, it makes it feel like football is an alienating place and not somewhere that you are welcome as your authentic self.”

Since then football has made “a lot of progress quickly”, they said, but there has been no openly gay player in the professional men’s game in England since Justin Fashanu.

Having an openly gay footballer in the men’s game and “just seeing someone like you on the pitch” could therefore have a “powerful” effect for LGBTQ+ fans, they said.

Daniels received messages of support online from a host of Premier League clubs, governing bodies and players, including England captain Harry Kane and Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea.

The leaders of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties also expressed their support, along with figures from the wider worlds of sport and entertainment.

Mx White, who is also co-chair of Arsenal and England LGBTQ+ fan groups,