147_JA_FR France Article Title: Homophobia and football – The ...

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147_JA_FR

France

Article Title: Homophobia and football – The lesson of Chooz

Chooz (population 784), once famous for its nuclear power station, now also has its

gay footballer … The ‘outing’ of Yoann Lemaire – a unique event for a club

affiliated to the French Football Federation (FFF) – has turned life upside down in

this Ardennes village. In spite of resistance, Chooz’s inhabitants today have been

won over to the anti-discrimination cause.

A good three hours by car from Paris, then on through Charleville-Mézières and, when

you reach the ‘pointe’ (tip) of the Ardennes – that French outcrop jutting into Belgium –

eventually you come to the village of Chooz (population 784). There you will find Yoann

Lemaire. An exceptional young man, because he not only holds a player’s registration

from the FFF (he plays for FC Chooz), but also, at the same time, is open about his

homosexuality. The only one in France, reckons the association

Paris Foot Gay

, which

for five years now has been battling steadfastly to drive homophobia out of football. The

280-kilometre drive to get here is itself a powerful symbol in terms of how the taboo

lingers on.

Yoann Lemaire, a young amateur player, 26 years of age, does not seem the campaigning

type. Rather, he is more of an accidental pioneer. Jovial and no-nonsense, with the face of

a child that has aged too soon, tousled red hair, blue eyes and freckles on the body of an

athlete (he is 1.90 m tall and weighs 90kg), the FC Chooz defender would give anything

for the quiet life. He was born in this outcrop of the Ardennes, has lived here all his life,

and works as a technician in a local factory producing firebricks. This is his world: the

wooded hills extending as far as the eye can see, the fishing lake, a bit of hunting – more

for the walk and a drink than to bag any game – and the football club, where he and his

mates have played since he was thirteen. For a while in the lower reaches of the regional

league, then in the department’s senior promotion division, where Chooz finished as

champions this year.

Volatile temper

A happy rural idyll that could have become the stuff of nightmares. For when he was 22

Yoann realised he was gay. “From the age of 18 I’d had a secret relationship with another

player. We didn’t describe ourselves as homos. We weren’t poofs, you know! We

preferred to regard ourselves as maintaining a special friendship … it has to be said that

we hadn’t ever clapped eyes on anyone who was gay. Here, in the hills at the tip of the

Ardennes, the realm of country folk, people are still very rudimentary in relation to all

that …”

Rumours started to circulate, causing his boyfriend to leave him overnight. It dawned on

Yoann that he was feeling pain. “I was in love …

which therefore meant I really was gay

… The shame of it! Around here homosexuality is a flaw, a vice even, still bracketed

alongside paedophilia…” Worse still, in his eyes: “The gay bloke, he’s the effeminate

one who can’t kick a ball!”

The early death of his father left him in a trough of despair. Yoann was bordering on

depression and kept getting red-carded. He felt obliged to come clean with his coach. “I

told him I’d ‘had a gay thing with such and such a player’, as though I wasn’t gay all the