On the 2nd May 1998 a hanging body was discovered in a Shoreditch garage, the body was that of Britain’s first openly gay footballer, Justin Fashanu. If you are from my generation and younger, you are unlikely to have heard of Justin Fashanu, this was the case for me before I conducted research for my project.
Son of a Nigerian barrister and a Guyanese nurse, Justin and his brother John ended up in Barnardos home after their parents split. The brothers we adopted by a couple from Norfolk when they were aged six and was raised as the couples own. Justin began his career at Norwich City, debuting for them in 1979, he excelled at Norwich scoring 40 goals in 103 appearances, even representing England under 21s at this time. His time at the club came to an end in 1981 when he became the first Britain’s first black player to move for £1 Million as he joined Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest.
Playing under Brian Clough would be something that many players must have wanted at the time, due to him being such an influential figure in the British game. However it was the start of the end for Justin Fashanu and his standing in football. Clough had heard ramblings of Fashanu’s off the pitch lifestyle and his visits to gay nightclubs, when Clough had discovered Fashanu was indeed homosexual he banned him from training with the other players. This awful relationship with Clough caused the strikers ability on the pitch to suffer and after scoring just 3 goals for Forest, he was sent out on loan to Southampton.
His time at Southampton was relatively successful however the club did not have the funds to be able to sign him on a permanent basis and he was sold to Forests Local rivals Notts County. He continued to prove his worth at Notts and later with Brighton & Hove Albion, however he suffered an injury that looked to end his career and he left for the states for treatment. Over the next few years he would play between the US and UK for various teams on quite a journeyman career, with no team opting to sign Fashanu permanently, with rumours of his personal life always haunting him.
On 22nd October 1990 Fashanu took the brave step and came out as homosexual in an exclusive tabloid interview with British Newspaper “The Sun”, an interview that would change the course of his life forever. In the interview Fashanu claimed to have had an affair with a married Conservative MP who he met at a gay bar along with a string of other encounters, however he refused to name the people. He put a target on his back with the interview and as a result suffered abuse from crowds and opposition players of a racist and homophobic nature for the rest of his playing career, as well as public interviews from his brother John criticising him, claiming he had done it for the money.
It was now 1998 and Justin Fashanu was living in the US state of Maryland, a place where acts of a homosexual nature were deemed illegal. In March of that year a 17 year old boy accused Fashanu of sexually assaulting him after the two had met at a bar they was drinking at. Fashanu had always denied the claims and insisted that everything was consensual, however the boy claimed the acts had happened as he awoke. In April, the police went to arrest Fashanu on charges of second degree sexual assault, first degree assault and second degree assault, however Fashanu had fled the country to return to the UK. Later in May Fashanu was found dead, his suicide note affirming his denial of the charges and stating his fear over not being given a fair trial due to him being homosexual, in addition to not wanting to cause anymore shame or embarrassment to his family.
Fashanu’s remains were cremated in the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium, it is still unknown to this day the truth about what transpired in Maryland. Publication “Pink Paper” listed Fashanu 99 in the top 500 Lesbian and Gay Heroes. Today no more british footballers have come out, and only a small handful worldwide.
report_ant 