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French Soccer Club Fires Player Over Being Gay

It’s really amazing how French soccer continues to shoot itself in the foot.

No this isn’t about the national team’s embarrassing display at this summer’s World Cup. Instead, it’s about the small French soccer club Chooz firing a player over being gay. The club didn’t even attempt to hide the fact that they got rid of him because of his sexuality.

Apparently in May of last year, Yoann Lemaire took a sabbatical from the team that he played on for 14 years after teammates were seen on camera making homophobic remarks. Lemaire had asked to return recently, but the team refused, even having club president Frédéric Pretty sign a rejection form. Harsh.

Here’s a rough translation of the reasons Pretty gave:

The invoked reasons are to protect the two parties. It is important to us, considering the passion since the events of May 2009 and the media coverage that resulted, to avoid again incidents.

Lemaire later said that only two of the 60 players had problems with his sexuality, and so instead of getting rid of the two intolerant players, the French club decided to return to the stone ages and get rid of the gay player.

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  • BASavage

    It has always been interesting to me that when this sort of thing happens its always the heterosexuals that get the blame. No where in the article does it say anything about why the other two players complained. It has been my personal experience that when an athelete or a soldier complains about some one being homosexual there has been some sort of inappropriate action by the person in question. In this world of political correctness we have ignored the fact that some things are just wrong. And all because somebody is homosexual or black, white, green or purple disagreeing or calling out wrong behavior does not make one racist, bigoted or homophobic.

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