Gay rugby pro Keegan Hirst visits the Coronation Street set to chat through football homophobia storyline with actor Nathan Graham
Coronation Street star Nathan Graham welcomed LGBT+ rugby hero Keegan Hirst onto the cobbles last week, to chat to him about his current homophobia storyline.
Keegan, who in 2015 became the first openly gay rugby league player in Britain, detailed his journey of coming out in the public eye and shared his experiences of working with the FA to combat discrimination of the LGBT+ community.
His advice will help Nathan, 29, portray the character of James Bailey, a 20-year-old footballer who is hiding his sexuality from everyone apart from his family.
Coronation Street star Nathan Graham welcomed LGBT+ rugby hero Keegan Hirst onto the cobbles last week, to chat to him about his current homophobia storyline
In the soap, Nathan fears that his career will be over if he comes out publicly and is scared of the resulting press coverage and repercussions from fans due to homophobia in the sport.
Keegan visited the set where he discussed the storyline with Nathan and talked through his own experiences with the actor.
Though James has been known to viewers as a gay man for some time, a dramatic series of events is coming up on Corrie.
The storyline will force him to to decide whether to go public or to continue to live a lie.
Keegan, who in 2015 became the first openly gay rugby league player in Britain, detailed his journey of coming out in the public eye and shared his experiences of working with the FA to combat discrimination of the LGBT+ community
His family are panic-stricken and torn over what is best for James, his career, his safety and his life.
Currently in men’s UK football there are no out, gay professional players in the top tiers of the sport.
Nathan said: ‘This storyline is important because it is clearly an issue as there is no one currently playing professional football who is openly gay.
‘After talking to Keegan Hirst, I can see that in football, homophobia is not seen as being on the same level as racism so it is good to spark that conversation and then hopefully it will educate people that discrimination is discrimination no matter what it is; race, religion, sexuality.
‘If a sportperson is gay, it doesn’t take away from their ability and with any type of discrimination, until people are educated then nothing will change.
His advice will help Nathan, 29, portray the character of James Bailey, a 20-year-old footballer who is hiding his sexuality from everyone apart from his family
‘If someone is going through this struggle, I hope they see themselves represented and they know that it is okay to own who you are.’
Keegan said: ‘Being able to say that I am gay out loud was difficult for me to do for a really long time, I couldn’t say it.
‘To have someone on TV who is representing what you might be or want to be is really important; there was no one like me to look up to when I was growing up and maybe if there was, I would have thought a bit differently about what it is to be a gay man.
‘It’s about educating people and suddenly this starts to dispel all the stereotypes.
‘It’s also about making that environment safe, if people know homophobia won’t be tolerated in this environment and everyone is welcome then that message is hammered home and people can see that and then that empowers people to be their authentic self.’
James Bailey’s story continues on Monday’s Coronation Street at 7.30PM on ITV.