Sir Ian McKellen tackles homophobia at Bolton Wanderers
Sir Ian McKellen recently hosted an anti-homophobia event at Bolton Wanderers.
The legendary actor attended the event at the Macron Stadium, home of Championship side Bolton Wanderers, as part of the 2015 Football v Homophobia campaign which launched earlier this year.
The veteran gay rights campaigner helped host a workshop for local children on the topics of sexuality, homophobia and its consequences.
After the workshop, McKellen awarded medals to the winners and participants of a Football V Homophobia interschool football tournament.
The event was set up by Bolton Wanderers’ Community Trust and the Football v Homophobia campaign.
Sir Ian later said of the event “What a wonderful initiative, if sport is about anything it’s about getting on with people isn’t it?
“You cannot be a good team, you cannot be good actors, unless everyone is doing it together and there is no place for name calling or saying that we’re all different and therefore we shouldn’t get on,
“We are all different thank goodness and we do get on and for the lads and the little girls to be learning it at their age is absolutely fantastic.”
Initially, Wimbledon AFC were the first professional football team to sign up with the Football V Homophobia campaign in 2013 (then called Football Fans Against Homophobia).
Since then many more teams joined the campaign, including premier league sides Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester city and Manchester United.
Watch highlights from the event below.
