Out LA Galaxy defender Robbie Rogers
has said that a player repeatedly called him “queer” during
Saturday's game.
Rogers returned to work Saturday after
being benched for two months over an ankle injury that required
arthroscopic surgery.
In a Facebook post, Rogers, the first
openly gay player in Major League Soccer (MLS) history, described the
incident.
“In the heat of the last fifteen
minutes of the game a player from the opposing team called me a
'queer' repeatedly,” Rogers explained. “To be honest my initial
reaction was one of shock. This is my fourth season back in the MLS
and I've yet to hear another player use that or any other gay slur
during a game.”
“I went to bed upset last night.
Angry at this player and his ignorance. Angry at myself for not doing
more in the moment. Sad [that] we still live in a time where this
kind of intolerance still exists in my sport and elsewhere. And if
I'm being honest, I was even a bit ashamed that a single word could
make me feel, even just for a moment, all the awful feelings I felt
for so many years: small, less than, wrong, and unworthy of love and
respect by my family or god forbid by my teammates.”
“I am, more than ever, thankful to
have teammates and a family that love and support me for the son,
brother, partner, father and queer player that I am,” he added.
MLS said in a statement that it and the
United Soccer League (USL) have started an investigation.
“Although the investigation is
ongoing, both MLS and the USL have zero tolerance for homophobia or
any type of discrimination in our game,” the league said.