Football vs Homophobia: A Coming Out Story ‘We should do the LGBT+ history of the West Midlands’. That was the starting point for this piece. Proud Baggies founder Piero’s rather bold suggestion as a contribution to LGBT History Month and the launch of our website, ProudBaggies.com . A tiny amount of research made it quite clear that we ought to leave that topic for others to pursue. Instead, I bravely suggested that I would write about growing up gay in the Black Country and my early experiences as a West Bromwich Albion fan. In the end it’s turned out to be more of a coming out story and the football has got a bit lost in it all. However, it’s the best I can do! Brave or stupid. You decide… I was born in 1967, the year that homosexuality was partially decriminalised, so I have lived all of my life in an era where, at least in the eyes of the law, being gay was not a crime. I didn’t come out, however, until I was 20 and had left the Black Country for...