Georgian national football team vice-captain deletes Facebook page after homophobic comments
The Facebook page of Georgia’s national football team vice-captain Guram Kashia has been deleted.
Kashia deleted it himself after his page was inundated with homophobic comments.
Georgian footballer’s LGBT armband causes scandal
On 22 August, the UEFA awarded Kashia the ‘EqualGame’ award for his support of LGBT rights, which gave rise to a wave of homophobic aggression.
Some discontented fans wrote that Kashia is a ‘shame to the nation’ for his support of LGBT rights and advised him to ‘no longer appear at matches of Georgia’s national team’.
After deleting his Facebook page and Instagram account, Guram Kashia wrote that he did not regret his support for LGBT rights, and that he will continue to play on the national team even if he has just one fan.
“While I still have a single fan in our country, I will continue to appear on the team for the sake of this one person.”
Kashia has amassed a number of supporters who have expressed solidarity with him, uploading his image as Facebook avatars, sharing his photograph on Instagram Stories with the inscription ‘Guram, we’re with you!’, and writing posts on Facebook in support of him.
The Georgian national team will play next in Tbilisi on 9 September. Even people who are not interested in football have been writing on Facebook that they will ‘definitely go to the game to show support for [such a] worthy vice-captain of the Georgian national team’.
Mikheil Benidze:
“Just what have these underdeveloped Georgian brutes brought him to… and still – he’s cool!”
“If I were on the Georgian national team I would not leave Kashia alone in this fight. I’d have the entire team put on these armbands in support of the LGBT community in order to show other fans what’s right and what’s not. But I don’t have any particularly hopes that this will happen. However, the fact that Guram Kashia is standing his ground gives me hope!”
Joe Carrey:
“I haven’t been to a match in a while. Now I must go to the stadium. It won’t just be a game. We must overcome the darkness.”
Toresa Mossy:
“Guram Kashia is one of the most admirable athletes in modern Georgia. <3 <3 <3 <#გურამშენთანვართ (Guram, we’re with you).”
• Towards the end of 2017, JAMnews did a round-up of the year’s most important events, and we included Guram Kashia’s decision to put on an LGBT armband during a game. In Georgia, where homophobic attitudes still prevail, Kashia was the first athlete to openly support one of the country’s most vulnerable groups. Other athletes expressed solidarity with him on TV shows and talk shows.
