FOOOTBALL: Arsenal welcome bisexual footballer to homophobic slurs just days after coming out

With the Pre­mier League sup­port­ing its Rain­bow Race cam­paign, Arse­nal wel­comed Jer­mal Howlett Man­dl as a spe­cial guest to the Emi­rates Sta­di­um for Sun­day’s game against Not­ting­ham Forest.

Howlett-Mun­dle, who plays for Rams­gate in the Isth­mi­an League, came out as bisex­u­al last sea­son while at Shep­pey United.

The 25-year-old defend­er had the sup­port of his team­mates, but unfor­tu­nate­ly, less than two weeks after com­ing out, he was bom­bard­ed with homo­pho­bic abuse by a Tow­er Ham­lets player.

The play­er who yelled at Howlett-Mun­dle has since been charged. But the non-league star has spo­ken out about the impor­tance of Stonewal­l’s Rain­bow Race cam­paign in sup­port of LGBTQ+ inclu­sion, now in its ninth year.

“Being part of the Rain­bow Race cam­paign shows how far I’ve come,” Howlett Man­dle said on Arse­nal’s programme.

“A year and a half ago, I would have nev­er imag­ined that I would have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to sup­port such a great cam­paign in a sta­di­um as beau­ti­ful as the Emirates.”

Cam­paigns like ‘Rain­bow Race’ are very impor­tant through­out the foot­ball pyra­mid. This year’s theme is “There’s no off-sea­son for inclu­sion,” and yes. Sup­port­ing the LGBT+ com­mu­ni­ty should be year-round and Stonewall is doing a great job of mak­ing that happen. ”

“Take the time to under­stand what it means to be authen­tic to your­self,” she says, as a mes­sage of encour­age­ment to any­one going through a sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion to one she faced when she was younger.

By talk­ing open­ly with peo­ple close to me, I’ve become able to express myself freely in oth­er fields, but con­fi­dence does­n’t come overnight, so let’s wait patiently. ”

Is your club tak­ing steps to improve LGBTQ+ inclu­sion? Share your sto­ry in the com­ments sec­tion below.

Arse­nal showed their best attack­ing form of the sea­son against For­est, despite los­ing Bukayo Saka to injury in the first half. The Eng­lish­man replaced Ryze Nel­son and scored his first and sec­ond goal of the sea­son in the first four min­utes of the sec­ond half.

Gabriel Mar­tinel­li has already giv­en Mikel Arte­ta’s side the lead, while Thomas Partei and Mar­tin Ode­gaard have also scored after Nel­son’s brace. And although Gabriel Jesus was dis­ap­point­ed that he did­n’t score, the team had more chances to score.

The win saw the Gun­ners regain top spot after falling to sec­ond after rivals Man­ches­ter City beat Leices­ter 1–0 on Saturday.

The remain­ing two league games before the World Cup include away games against Chelsea and Wolves and a cup game against FC Zurich and Brighton at the Emi­rates Stadium.