Abstract

Culturally, there is a growing acceptance of homosexuality in football. However, Magrath suggests that there is a discursive gap between football fans’ inclusive attitudes toward gay people and their practice of using homosexually themed language. Thus, while society imagines that gay people should be able to access football stadia without the fear of discrimination, they remain oblivious to the impact that malevolent homophobic slurs can have and remain somewhat reticent in contesting it. Conversely, the legal authorities within the United Kingdom are robustly pursuing a subjective policy that identifies perceived homophobic behavior as a “hate crime.” In this article, I build on the discourse of two competing themes within this field: emerging positive attitudes toward gay people contrasted with negative linguistic behavior—with a focus on how the use of “banter” language in football is partly responsible for the chronic disconnect between these two trends. To interpret football “banter” (regarded as good-humored, playful, or teasing parlance within the United Kingdom), I present attitudinal research of 232 Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (WWFC) supporters, together with semi-structured interviews with representatives from the Brighton & Hove Albion LGBT+ football community (“Seagull Pride”) and the Sussex Police force. This research calls for the English Premier League and Football Association to review the policy of mandatory, inoperative banning orders, and extend “restorative justice” programs to educate out homophobic language from its members’ venues.