Last week the Proud Valiants held a very successful programme of events to celebrate the launch of this year’s National’s Football vs Homophobia Month of Action. The activity included the excellent Football v Homophobia launch show hosted by Charlton Athletic at The Valley on Saturday evening.
Sadly, following the show, the Proud Valiants’ Saturday comedy event - “The Worst Football Songs Ever” was infiltrated by a small number of people whose only intention was to spoil it for others - by using abusive and offensive hate crime language which included homophobic, racist and sexist language.
Regardless of the attempts of these individuals, the organisers were able to shut them down and restart the event - and had a very enjoyable evening.
The Proud Valiants have now taken legal advice about the incident and are corresponding with the Police Hate Crime Unit
The Proud Valiants, Charlton Athletic Football Club, Charlton Athletic Community Trust and the Charlton Athletic Supporters’ Trust have a long history of working together to tackle all discrimination, and we stand together to unequivocally restate and pledge our commitment to tackling all forms of hatred and division in sport and wider society. We welcome all fans regardless of their sexuality, race/ethnicity, or gender, and any hate crimes committed against these groups will not be tolerated.
Chair of the Proud Valiants, Rob Harris, said “The way the abuse was directed would suggest the perpetrators of the crime were not from our club, in fact we are very lucky to have real support from the club’s wider fanbase and are blessed with a great new owner, a club, a community trust, and a supporters’ trust who back us without question. This incident and recent events at other clubs show that homophobia is still a big issue in the sport - however the message remains that we will not be deterred from following the sport we love because of the prejudice and hatred of minority.
“As a united force we will continue our work against Homophobia and Transphobia in the game, alongside all other forms of discrimination.”
Missus has been watching It's a Sin this week and I've been half watching it in between ranting on here and watching Bill repeats on my laptop. I said to her how horrific it must have been back then (set in 81 I think) for gay people and that I recalled Queer as Folk in the 90s...I said thankfully we've moved on since those days and it must seem alien for any young people watching what people endured.
Then the day after I said that I saw them talking about this at halftime during the Portsmouth game and clearly my faith in humanity was overly optimistic.
How inadequate and insecure must your life be to log onto to gate-crash and racially and homophobically abuse a group of people like this.
Cowards, weirdos and wrong uns doing that and hope the poor people who suffered the abuse pay no mind to it and know they are as welcome at the valley as anyone in the minds of the vast majority of right thinking people and I reckon if that sort of abuse happened on match day they would get pulled up asap...but therein lies the cowardice of cyber abuse.
Good to see it was alluded that it was not assumedly not Charlton fans who did it but that begs the question of how much even weirder they are to seek out the event in the first place.
Hopefully it is just ignorant kids as it is deeply tragic if it is anyone with supposed adult faculties involved.
Sad that this happened and these idiots still walk among us but at the same time how gratifying that so many have spoken out to condemn what happened.
Positive change is happening, not as fast as most sensible people would like, but happening all seem.
Homophobes and racists have had too much air time but now it feels that they are rightly being shouted down.
PS It's a Sin is brilliant TV.
Brought back a lot of memories of living in places like the Pink Palace (architecturally not so much sexually) in the 80s and for my wife nursing people with HIV/AIDS.
i know this isent really the thread for this but as others have mentioned 'It's a Sin' is powerful TV. Some of the scenes on the early episodes in the hospital actually could relate a bit to today with Covid and how patients are locked away from their close ones in order to prevent spread of the disease.
It seems strange how people wish to judge other people on how they live their lives when it has no impact on them whatsoever. There are good people and bad people and their sexuality is irrelevant. But of course these idiots make it relevant which tells us there is much to be done.
I'd like to think that we are at a point where when a League player does come out, there will be no chants or comments around that and they are seen as any other player. I think this would be the case in most dressing rooms but that is where we as fans need to get to.
It seems strange how people wish to judge other people on how they live their lives when it has no impact on them whatsoever. There are good people and bad people and their sexuality is irrelevant. But of course these idiots make it relevant which tells us there is much to be done.
I'd like to think that we are at a point where when a League player does come out, there will be no chants or comments around that and they are seen as any other player. I think this would be the case in most dressing rooms but that is where we as fans need to get to.
I am actually surprised that a number of league players haven't "come out", together, during lockdown. It's a sad fact that it would probably be much easier with no fans in the ground.
I suspect that at some stage, hopefully very soon, a significant number "come out" together?
i know this isent really the thread for this but as others have mentioned 'It's a Sin' is powerful TV. Some of the scenes on the early episodes in the hospital actually could relate a bit to today with Covid and how patients are locked away from their close ones in order to prevent spread of the disease.
must of been terrifying.
anyway...
A friend of mine got Aids and I remember him dying in Lewisham hospital. The staff at the time were really good but the hardest thing was for his family coming to terms with the situation - Its a Sin really captured this.
Missus has been watching It's a Sin this week and I've been half watching it in between ranting on here and watching Bill repeats on my laptop. I said to her how horrific it must have been back then (set in 81 I think) for gay people and that I recalled Queer as Folk in the 90s...I said thankfully we've moved on since those days and it must seem alien for any young people watching what people endured.
Then the day after I said that I saw them talking about this at halftime during the Portsmouth game and clearly my faith in humanity was overly optimistic.
How inadequate and insecure must your life be to log onto to gate-crash and racially and homophobically abuse a group of people like this.
Cowards, weirdos and wrong uns doing that and hope the poor people who suffered the abuse pay no mind to it and know they are as welcome at the valley as anyone in the minds of the vast majority of right thinking people and I reckon if that sort of abuse happened on match day they would get pulled up asap...but therein lies the cowardice of cyber abuse.
Good to see it was alluded that it was not assumedly not Charlton fans who did it but that begs the question of how much even weirder they are to seek out the event in the first place.
Hopefully it is just ignorant kids as it is deeply tragic if it is anyone with supposed adult faculties involved.
A zoom bomb? So people can just join a zoom meeting randomly with no come back and say racist and homophobic crap. Surely this should be traceable.
Some Zoom meetings can be locked where you’ll need a password to enter, but a lot of the larger meetings are open and access by a normal weblink. I presume that’s why the police have been called in as they may have ways to collect the information of visitors to the link and hopefully trace the idiots who did this.
The events were quite widely promoted, including by Proud Valiants, CAST, the club and Football v Homophobia. It's appalling that the one on Sat night got hijacked and very much hope the culprits are traced. The event restarted and carried on afterwards.
I was also shocked to see some bizarre reactions on both official and unofficial CAFC Facebook threads to posts on this subject. A lot, but not all, came from people following one of our U23 players.
As a club and a supporter base I'm proud that we take an open and honest stance against any discrimination. As an individual I'm very sad it is still necessary in this day and age.
The events were quite widely promoted, including by Proud Valiants, CAST, the club and Football v Homophobia. It's appalling that the one on Sat night got hijacked and very much hope the culprits are traced. The event restarted and carried on afterwards.
I was also shocked to see some bizarre reactions on both official and unofficial CAFC Facebook threads to posts on this subject. A lot, but not all, came from people following one of our U23 players.
As a club and a supporter base I'm proud that we take an open and honest stance against any discrimination. As an individual I'm very sad it is still necessary in this day and age.
I'm not on Facebook or twitter but I'd like to know what player they were following?
The events were quite widely promoted, including by Proud Valiants, CAST, the club and Football v Homophobia. It's appalling that the one on Sat night got hijacked and very much hope the culprits are traced. The event restarted and carried on afterwards.
I was also shocked to see some bizarre reactions on both official and unofficial CAFC Facebook threads to posts on this subject. A lot, but not all, came from people following one of our U23 players.
As a club and a supporter base I'm proud that we take an open and honest stance against any discrimination. As an individual I'm very sad it is still necessary in this day and age.
I'm not on Facebook or twitter but I'd like to know what player they were following?
If they are the same oddjobs who pop up on other Facebook stuff I know which player it is but I'm not sure if naming him is fair as I could be wrong and in either case I have found no proof he encourages this crap.
Comments
there's some strange people about.
Last week the Proud Valiants held a very successful programme of events to celebrate the launch of this year’s National’s Football vs Homophobia Month of Action. The activity included the excellent Football v Homophobia launch show hosted by Charlton Athletic at The Valley on Saturday evening.
Sadly, following the show, the Proud Valiants’ Saturday comedy event - “The Worst Football Songs Ever” was infiltrated by a small number of people whose only intention was to spoil it for others - by using abusive and offensive hate crime language which included homophobic, racist and sexist language.
Regardless of the attempts of these individuals, the organisers were able to shut them down and restart the event - and had a very enjoyable evening.
The Proud Valiants have now taken legal advice about the incident and are corresponding with the Police Hate Crime Unit
The Proud Valiants, Charlton Athletic Football Club, Charlton Athletic Community Trust and the Charlton Athletic Supporters’ Trust have a long history of working together to tackle all discrimination, and we stand together to unequivocally restate and pledge our commitment to tackling all forms of hatred and division in sport and wider society. We welcome all fans regardless of their sexuality, race/ethnicity, or gender, and any hate crimes committed against these groups will not be tolerated.
Chair of the Proud Valiants, Rob Harris, said “The way the abuse was directed would suggest the perpetrators of the crime were not from our club, in fact we are very lucky to have real support from the club’s wider fanbase and are blessed with a great new owner, a club, a community trust, and a supporters’ trust who back us without question. This incident and recent events at other clubs show that homophobia is still a big issue in the sport - however the message remains that we will not be deterred from following the sport we love because of the prejudice and hatred of minority.
“As a united force we will continue our work against Homophobia and Transphobia in the game, alongside all other forms of discrimination.”
Then the day after I said that I saw them talking about this at halftime during the Portsmouth game and clearly my faith in humanity was overly optimistic.
How inadequate and insecure must your life be to log onto to gate-crash and racially and homophobically abuse a group of people like this.
Cowards, weirdos and wrong uns doing that and hope the poor people who suffered the abuse pay no mind to it and know they are as welcome at the valley as anyone in the minds of the vast majority of right thinking people and I reckon if that sort of abuse happened on match day they would get pulled up asap...but therein lies the cowardice of cyber abuse.
Good to see it was alluded that it was not assumedly not Charlton fans who did it but that begs the question of how much even weirder they are to seek out the event in the first place.
Hopefully it is just ignorant kids as it is deeply tragic if it is anyone with supposed adult faculties involved.
Positive change is happening, not as fast as most sensible people would like, but happening all seem.
Homophobes and racists have had too much air time but now it feels that they are rightly being shouted down.
PS It's a Sin is brilliant TV.
Brought back a lot of memories of living in places like the Pink Palace (architecturally not so much sexually) in the 80s and for my wife nursing people with HIV/AIDS.
i know this isent really the thread for this but as others have mentioned 'It's a Sin' is powerful TV.
Some of the scenes on the early episodes in the hospital actually could relate a bit to today with Covid and how patients are locked away from their close ones in order to prevent spread of the disease.
must of been terrifying.
anyway...
I'd like to think that we are at a point where when a League player does come out, there will be no chants or comments around that and they are seen as any other player. I think this would be the case in most dressing rooms but that is where we as fans need to get to.
I suspect that at some stage, hopefully very soon, a significant number "come out" together?
I was also shocked to see some bizarre reactions on both official and unofficial CAFC Facebook threads to posts on this subject. A lot, but not all, came from people following one of our U23 players.
As a club and a supporter base I'm proud that we take an open and honest stance against any discrimination. As an individual I'm very sad it is still necessary in this day and age.