Brighton upset their new homophobic “followers” again

For the second time in four months, Brighton and Hove Albion’s Facebook page has suffered a barrage of homophobic abuse from some of the club’s newest “followers”, this time in response to the Albion’s support of the Rainbow Laces campaign.

Back in August, the Albion changed their profile picture to one of the club badge complete with a rainbow background to show support for the city’s Pride weekend.

This angered some of the supporters that we picked up that summer with virtually all the “dislikes” on the post and negative comments coming from those based in Iran, South Africa or Romania.

Surprise, surprise, the same thing has happened again on this occasion. The Rainbow Laces campaign is run by Stonewall and is a way for players to show their support for lesbian, gay, bi and trans people in sport.

Sportsmen at any level simply switch their normal boot laces for rainbow coloured ones. Anyone can do it, ranging from the England Rugby Team who sported rainbow laces for last week’s win over Australia to those playing parks football across Brighton and Hove this weekend.

The new rainbow-coloured Albion badge has so far received 102 angry faces with plenty of comments so backwards that it’s difficult to know where to start. Here are some of the best, including one who rather brilliantly believes that homosexuality coming into the Premier League is proof of the end of the world:

While Alireza Jahanbakhsh continues to do little to justify his club-record £16m transfer fee and Percy Tau isn’t even Union Saint Gilloise’s top goalscorer in a Belgian second tier which looks about as strong as the Scottish Pub League, their fellow countryman who only “support” Brighton because we signed them think they can come and tell us we’re a disgusting, disgraceful football team.

The bad news for our new supporters is that your heroes now play for a team that represents the Gay Capital of England and is one of the most diverse cities in the world.

The Albion play a huge part in the community – yes, even the LGBT one – and we’re all extremely proud of it. It’s actually one of the best things about the club.

In Britain, we don’t think that the world will end because of homosexuality (Mohammed Kassem), that being LGBT is a crime because it invites people to be gay and spreads HIV (Динар Ерохин) or that it is a sign of the devil (Yosef Hailemariam Ambaye).

We don’t imprison homosexuals or stone them to death. If we did, then half of Brighton’s best pubs up St James’ Street wouldn’t exist. You certainly wouldn’t hear “All I want for Christmas” blaring out at a foam part in Posion Ivy in the middle of June.

If supporters of Jahanbakhsh, Tau and Andone find our football club disgusting and hope that we go back to the Championship because of it (Anifowoshay Olalekan), then we’d politely suggest they don’t follow Brighton and Hove Albion. We don’t want you having anything to do with our team and we certainly won’t miss you.

You can show your support for the Albion’s backing of the Rainbow Laces campaign by liking the clubs Facebook profile picture.