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50 I Central Europe bne March 2023
Czech footballer's coming out praised as courageous statement in region still marred by anti-LGBTQ+ violence
Albin Sybera
Czech international Jakub Jankto has become the highest-profile active footballer to come out as homosexual. Jankto’s powerful video clip shared on social media aroused praise and encouragement across Europe, and local human rights advocates pointed it out as an act of great personal bravery.
“Like everybody else, I want to live my life in freedom without fears, without prejudice, without violence but with love,” Jankto stated in a video before closing it off with a simple line, “I’m homosexual, and I no longer want to hide myself.”
Lawyer and activist Krystof Stupka shared Jankto’s video adding, “CZE is the 7th worst in the EU in LGBTQ+ rights according to Rainbow map. This is what bravery looks like!”
Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Lipavsky (Pirate Party) thanked Jankto for coming out, saying that “it is something which represents us abroad and can give courage to others”.
Lipavsky was joined in thanking Jankto by the government's envoy for Human Rights, Klara Simackova Laurencikova, who posted that Jankto has the “courage to be a model for those who are looking for strength” to make a similar statement.
Jankto’s message comes only some four months after a tragic shooting in Bratislava in neighbouring Slovakia carried out by a radicalised teen shooter targeting LGBTQ+ people and Jews. A hatred crime later classified as an
act of terrorism left two men dead, Juraj Vankulic and Matus Horvath,
and injured one woman standing in front of an LGBTQ+ friendly bar.
The shooting sparked rallies in support of the LGBTQ+ community in Slovakia as well as in Czechia, where there were calls for passing legislation giving equal rights to marriage to everyone.
Czechia allows same sex partnerships, as do Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, and Croatia among the EU countries in CEE, while Slovenia allows same sex marriages.
Sports Editor Tomas Macak from CNN Prima News pointed out that Jankto’s coming out is all the more courageous as it took place in the Czech football environment.
Both of the country’s best-known football clubs, Sparta and Slavia, have been embroiled in racist controversies and regularly penalised by UEFA for the racist behaviour of their fans. In 2021 Slavia Prague’s defender Ondrej Kudela was handed a 10-game ban for racially abusing Glasgow Rangers midfielder Glen Kamara during a knock-out stage at the Europa Liga match-up.
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Pavel, 61, had narrowly won the first round on January 13-14 ahead of
Babis, with 35.4%, with the other six candidates trailing far behind. Four
of these candidates backed Pavel over Babis in the second round, with none backing the controversial tycoon, and the second round became a referendum on Babis, with many voters swinging behind the general to stop him winning.
In the second round, Babis fought an aggressive polarising campaign that tried to put off liberal voters for the other candidates by emphasising Pavel’s past as an ambitious officer who joined the Communist party and attended
a “spy school”.
Babis’s attack is ironic, given that he also joined the party and is listed in the Czechslovak secret police files as an informer, an allegation he denies. He was also backed by the hardline Communist party in this election.
Pavel – who will be the first Czech president to have held a Communist party card when the regime collapsed in 1989 – has apologised for his membership of the party, while denying that he had planned to become a spy.
“It was a mistake I can’t change,” Pavel told Czech daily echo24 in an interview. “But I am convinced that in 33 years
of service to democracy at home and abroad, even at the risk of my own life, I have made up for this mistake."
At the same time, Babis also reached out to disaffected and extremist voters by accusing his independent rival of being closely tied to the government, which he said was not doing enough to help people cope with the cost-of- living crisis.
He also claimed Pavel was a “warmonger” for supporting Ukraine. His billboards proclaimed: "The general does not believe in peace. Vote for peace. Vote Babiš."
He suggested in TV debates that,
if elected, he would organise an international conference to reach a peace between Russia and Ukraine.