Openly gay former NBA star John Amaechi
said Wednesday that homophobia remains entrenched in UK sports.
Amaechi came out gay three years after
ending his professional basketball career in 2004.
The 40-year-old Amaechi on Wednesday
received the Order of British Empire for services to sport and the
voluntary sector. Prince Charles presented the award to the retired
British player during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
Speaking after the event, Amaechi
described homophobia in sport as a “massive problem” that was
often ignored or “relegated.”
“I think people approach bigotry like
there's a hierarchy. Homophobia has always been to the bottom of
that ladder. In sport there are institutions that haven't changed in
100 years and need to.”
Amaechi singled out the Football
Association (FA): “If you compare their emphasis on racism to what
they've done on homophobia it's an embarrassment.”
A FA spokesman defended the league's
record in remarks to the BBC: “The FA hosts a regular working group
around tackling homophobia and works alongside key stakeholders such
as Stonewall and Kick It Out in making football (European soccer)
accessible to all.”
“We have signed up for the Stonewall
Diversity Champions program and will be delivering an action plan on
inclusion of LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] people,
which will be launched next year.”
Amaechi made similar remarks during an
interview with BBC's Radio 5. (The audio is embedded in the right
panel of this page.)