Mark McAdam, a Sky Sports reporter who came out as gay in 2014, has opened up on their experience of being the broadcaster’s only openly gay male journalist.
Speaking on the All Out with Jon Dean podcast, Mark admitted that he feels he has to repeatedly come out, but this has not stopped him having awkward exchanges with players on the subject.
‘The weird thing about coming out is you never come out once,’ Mark said.
‘You’re always coming out for the rest of your life, especially in my industry, because I meet people and I meet players and I meet managers, and even now they don’t know you’re gay because they didn’t read Gay Times or they didn’t look at social media or they had never had that conversation.
‘But they’ll say “Oh, did you have a good summer? What did you get up to? You away with the kids, wife?”
‘And you always have that moment. You’re like “Oh, here we go again. What do I say here?” Do I come out or do I just say “Oh, no, no, I’m single”, or whatever?’
In 2017 – three years after coming out as gay – Mark called for football to continue taking steps forward when it comes to making the LGBTQ+ community feel welcome in the sport.
‘I think sport’s acceptance, understanding and willingness to be LGBTQ+ friendly has changed, particularly over the last couple of years,’ he said.
‘I think the football dressing room would be open to a gay footballer because that’s the way they operate, teammates are teammates, whatever their colour, sexuality, race or religion when you put on the shirt you’re in it together.
‘Footballers look after footballers. I think the industry as a whole needs to take huge steps forward, both in the media and on the terraces, but it is definitely headed in the right direction.’