England football captain: I won’t go to the Qatar World Cup, where gays are not accepted
While the world watches Sochi for the Winter Olympics, the head of the England football team quietly said they would not attend Qatar where gay people are not welcome.
In an interview during which Casey Stoney said she had been inspired by British Olympic diver Tom Daley to come out, Stoney also said she would boycott the upcoming Russia and Qatar World Cups because she “wouldn’t be accepted there.”
Voicing surprise at the decision to award the world cups to the countries, she said: “I won’t be going to Russia or Qatar to watch a World Cup because I wouldn’t be accepted there,
“I think it’s incredible that these countries get World Cups and Olympics when they don’t accept everybody to go there and be part of it.”
Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar and can be punished with lashes and jail, while the Russian capital of Moscow has banned gay Pride marches for years, and more recently Russia introduced federal laws banning the promotion of “non-traditional” relationships to minors, causing an international outcry.
NB. This article does not read ‘England women’s football captain’ because we would not normally write ‘England male captain’ to refer to Steven Gerrard, and we consider both teams to be equal.
